Benefits entitlement while husband starts self-employed work after redundancy

[Noideahere]

Sorry, it's a long one.

My husband was made redundant from work last month. He had only been with the company a year and was given a month's notice. I won't go into his job in to much detail, but he's worked in the same industry since he was 17 (now 47).
He's decided to start up on his own and is in the process of business planning and it will take a while to get things of the ground and it could be months before getting an income.

I work part time, but I am able to pick up extra hours. We have financial support from family and have switched the mortgage to interest only. We have stopped all silly spending, meals out take aways, unnecessary subscriptions and streaming services.

I can early around £1600-1800 monthly after tax and around another 600-1000 working extra hours.
I'm a nurse, so it's not a sit down job, it's hard work physically and mentally.
I know I'm lucky that I'm in a position to work extra hours and I appreciate to some this is a good income.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar position. With my income and some financial support from family, is my husband entitled to claim any benefits while trying to set up on his own.

I'm hoping if he can get benefits, it will help us claim for free school meals and travel for our children.

That the moment we give my two college teens £30 a week to pay for travel to college and lunch.
Then they get some extra money for clothes and social life (my son is SEN and can't get a part time job, my daughter is looking for a part time job)

My 11yo is in year 7. Her bus is £60 a month and her school dinners are around the same.

Does my husband need to be on official benefits to open the door to free meals and travel for the kids I feel like this will help ease the financial burden immensely.
I feel like in haemorrhaging money.

Just after advice really.

He needs to go to a job centre and get advice and make a claim Being made redundant: finding work, claiming benefits and managing debts - GOV.UK share.google/Mq5I4CXK5qHmJUQXL

Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service
You can get help from the Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service:

• if you suspect you’re going to be made redundant
• during your notice period
• up to 13 weeks after you’ve been made redundant

The service can help you to:

• write CVs and find jobs
• find information on benefits
• find the right training and learn new skills
• organise work trials (if you’re eligible)
• get any extra help at work if you’re disabled, for example Access to Work
• claim money if you’re eligible to help meet costs for travel, childcare, tools or equipment

Contact the Rapid Response Service by emailing [email protected]. Please include your postcode in your email. You can also get help from:

• PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) if you live in Scotland
• ReAct (Redundancy Action Scheme) if you live in Wales

Hi op, he may be entitled to contribution based JSA if he paid sufficient NI, but I don’t think you’ll be entitled to means tested benefits (like UC) if you earn around £2,500 per year and don’t have rental costs.
Use a benefit calculator to find out. Turn2us is straightforward:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/benefits-introduction/what-benefits-can-i-get/

We are in a very similar situation, although we could really use benefits we are not claiming as we have savings over £6k which prevents us from claiming universal credit. We looked at jsa but as I understand it, he would still need to look for work and can only work 16 hrs? On the new business, my husband is working way more than that in the hope the business takes off

If you can bring home that sort of money, surely you’ll be over the cut off for UC. It would be cheaper to give them lunch from home than buying it at college.

He might qualify for 6m of jobseekers but he would have to be proving he’s applying for jobs, not working self employed.

Use an online calculator to see if you will be eligible for UC. It is a bit of a faff for self employed people as he'll need to show business plans/ show the business is viable etc and then report self employment earnings each month. There's no real help with a mortgage just a higher work allowance. If you have over 16k in savings you won't be able to claim anything. Whether you are eligible for any help will depend on number of children, whether any of them get DLA etc. I think the rules are changing soon so that you can claim for more than 2 kids and also if you get UC they will get free school meals regardless of your income. I think this may be from september? With 3 kids on the claim I'd say it's quite likely you'd get some UC especially if you limit the overtime !

The cut off for Universal credit is 16k.

Entitled to website is very helpful in working out how much help is available for your personal set of circumstances. It is pretty accurate overall. I tend to use it for working forward, such as when a child is due to leave education so I can plan ahead.

It’s unlikely you will get Universal Credit, and your income is too high for FSM. The reality is, he needs to get a job. You cannot afford for him to be starting up a business in the current economic climate and it’s not fair that you’re the only one working longer hours to bring in income.

Go onto a benefits calculator to see if you’ll be eligible. As your children are older you will get the higher child elements plus the amount for a couple.
The free school meals currently is only if you earn less than £7400 a year but from September it’s as long as you get UC.

Thanks everyone. Will have a look at some benefit calculators. I have reclaimed for child benefit this morning. My husband is looking at JSA.