voluntary redundancy and jobseekers allowance

[Applesgalore]

If you take voluntary redundancy (because job is hellishly awful) would you be able to claim contributions based jobseekers allowance (assuming NI contributions all up to date etc? I can't seem to find any advice on gov websites.

Yes. I asked this exact question. I was told that as SOMEONE was going to be made redundant anyway, it didn't make any difference if you volunteer.

However if you have any redundancy insurance, it will most likely invalidate that.

MaryBS, how did you know you were definitely going to be made compulsorily redundant? What if Apples volunteers before the actual selection is made?

I didn't know I was going to be made compulsorily redundant. In fact there was every indication that I wouldn't be. However the speaker from the job centre said that if I wasn't going to be made redundant, someone else would be - hence no problem with volunteering.

Of course, if you volunteer, there's no guarantee you'd be selected anyhow.

I think different companies treat voluntary and compulsory redundancies differently, some as you describe but others may accept all volunteers or volunteers in addition to compulsory redundancies, rather than instead of.

Whatever the jobcentre may have told you, I would not advise the OP to happily offer the info that it was a voluntary redundancy.

Apples, if possible, it is better for your company to structure the paperwork (eg compromise agreement) such that it does distinguish between voluntary or compulsory redundancy so as not to affect your right to claim JSA.

Not sure about the situation with insurance. That would depend on the terms but I can imagine that insurers would not allow claims based on volunteers.

There are a lot of people being made redundant, for my particular job, two of us do it but they now only need one, I want to go the other person does not so seems silly to not offer. Thank you all for your opinions.

IME - yes, you can - I did 5 yrs ago and I was very clear on my application form for contribution based JSA that it was due to voluntary redundancy on my part. Many of my ex colleagues did the same (twas how I found out about contribution based JSA in the first place - didn't realise until then that there were different types of JSA!)