Benefits

[ScaredAboutTheFuture]

I am hoping for some advise.

DH is being made redundant shortly. He will get a package of £43,000.

Will he be able to claim JSA with that amount of payout.

Many thanks

This would also mean that we could cancel some of the insurance policies as we wouldn't have as much to cover.

Dh spoke to sky and they have an offer on currently that reduced our bill by approx £10/mth for 6 mths but we will cancel and go to basic package if need be and only have it downstairs not multiroom as we currently do

I work 17.5hrs/wk. According to one site that is too few hours as under 24 but on another site its fine as over 16hrs

Also we have a disabled child who gets DLA....and again on one site that can affect a claim and on other's it is not mentioned

If you have dla then it means you are exempt from the benefit cap. It also means you can get a disability tax credits top up if you are entitled to tax credits. Tax credits are worked out on last years income so you may be over the threshold for them - look at the website entitledto.com - you can enter your details anonymously and see what the benefit calculator says. We are an extremely low income family with one severely disabled child on the highest rate of dla and we receive an extra £100 a week in tax credits as a severe disability premium. Your dh may also be able to claim carers allowance if your child is on mid or high rate dla as long as he is earning under £110 a week (which he currently is).

Many thanks. My son gets low mobility and middle carers.....hence my earlier issue with childcare being a problem

How much are you spending on Sky? Couldn't you just cancel it?

Yes we will do.

Agree about the sky, biggest waste of money going. Get rid. Also look at your phone/broadband etc and think about switching. If you use quidco or TopCashback you can get additional money back. You can also use these for online buys and insurance etc. Best to look after every penny till your dh gets something else. Imagine if it takes him months, you might regret wasting money on sky.

My DP was made redundant last year, took him 9 months to find a permanent job and that was on just over half of his previous salary. The job market is particularly poor in my area but it can take a while.

Dh spoke to BT about phone and broadband and they can offer those on JSA a discount

Time for a change - that was why we thought to pay off a substantial amount of the mortgage, in preparation for a significant salary drop. But it appears that that is not allowed as classed as deprivation of income.

I would only do that once he has another job lined up. JSA isn't going to make much impact on your outgoings, so you will need to sub it from the redundancy. Is there a cap on what you can pay off annually without penalty anyway?

LIZS - I know there is a penalty for early payment but we have not looked into it further due to the deprivation of capital thingy.

OP. I'd just like to wish your husband good luck in his employment search and that you and your family get through this difficult time safely.

Many thanks.

We have a financial advisor coming next week and I'm hoping we will be able to have a plan of action sorted!

Dh is applying for low wage jobs as well as job's in his normal range.

In an ideal world ha ha ha he will get a job in the next month which will enable us to pay a chunk off the mortgage. We can then re-mortgage on just my pitiful salary and reduce our outgoings by cancelling most of the policies we have.

Does anyone know the answer to this...

If we pay off a chunk of the mortgage (thus reducing monthly payment) using our savings and then live off the redundancy for 9 mths plus.... After that claim contribution JSA for 6mths. Would we then be allowed to claim income based JSA after that?

All saving and redundancy would be gone and it would be over a year down the line before we would be claiming for the income based benefits. Would that be ok? or would it still be considered deprivation of income?

Just trying to think of options in reducing our outgoings without claiming fraudulently.

DH obviously intends to have a job asap but I like to have a plan..

I'm not a benefits expert, but this is my understanding of the rules. You need to go to CAB or similar for proper advice.

BUT my understanding is those circumstances would still be deprivation. He'll need to prove how you had lived during the time you weren't claiming and they would ask about redundancy pay during the application as that's one of the questions they ask. There would also be a gap in NI payments so contribution based JSA wouldn't be payable in those circumstances. It's six months based on two whole years of NI payments prior to claiming which he wouldn't have, it would be income based only.

Going from no work to claiming is a real pain and takes a very long time.

Bother!!

Just so feel that everything is against us.

Wish we had just enjoyed ourselves and had the luxury holidays we forfeited in order to save.

Try a benefits advisor, they should be able to advise more precisely, though I suspect you'll get the same answer.

Similar thing happened to us 2 years ago. We cancelled sky, changed mobile phone providers to pay as you go, paid off the car loan and looked through all our outgoings and cut out anything that wasn't necessary.

I also have a child on DLA, if your husband is still unemployed after 6 months he could claim carers allowance which is just over £62 per week, not worth doing until his JSA has finished though.

My husband decided to go contracting and actually found a job within a couple of weeks. Hope your husband finds something soon.