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Ni And Redundancy?
21 Answers
My DH has been made redundant at 48. He is looking for a job but not claiming the dole as he had a redundancy cheque which will last us some time. Is it true that he can however claim to have NI payments made to keep his pension up? Thanks
Answers
In my view there are only a couple of contributors on Answerbank with enough knowledge to answer these type of questions adequately. The first point is that if DH has been paid wages in lieu of notice as part of his overall redundancy payment, he will not be able to be paid Contribution
15:40 Wed 02nd Dec 2015
You can't just claim the NI credits you claim contribution based JSA which lasts for 12 months. It is not means tested so it will not be affected by the redundancy payout. If you do not claim it, you lose it, you paid for it out of NI so why not take it? Put it in a savings account if you do not need it now and save it for later. But do not throw away cash you have paid for.
In my view there are only a couple of contributors on Answerbank with enough knowledge to answer these type of questions adequately.
The first point is that if DH has been paid wages in lieu of notice as part of his overall redundancy payment, he will not be able to be paid Contribution-based JSA until the expiry of that notice period. At the end of the notice period, he will be able to claim it whilst seeking work, for 6 months or until he finds another job.
The second point is that he should register at the JC in any event (and should have done so already) because, even if he is barred from getting CB-JSA as para 1 above, he will get credits for NI from the date he registers, and not from the point he is entitled to any JSA money. It is sometimes unclear if one needs the credits to achieve a 'qualifying year', but my advice is to register at JC anyway, firstly to be sure based on current rules, secondly because successive Government persist in changing the rules over the last 20 years so who knows what additional hurdles may be put in place between now and when he retires.
Thirdly, to get a qualifying year, one has to contribute NI on at least 52x the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) in a tax year. In 2015/16 this LEL is £112 per week, so the threshold is earnings of £5824 in the tax year. Now if he's the main bread-winner he will have gone well over this figure already this tax year (and so will have already 'qualified' to have this year count as one of the 30 he needs), HOWEVER if he was in the company pension scheme and 'contracted-out', this crazy business whereby one's new State Basic Pension gets reduced because of being contracted out may come into play.
Hence to be of getting maximum State benefit from this unfortunate situation, get him to register at the JC.
The first point is that if DH has been paid wages in lieu of notice as part of his overall redundancy payment, he will not be able to be paid Contribution-based JSA until the expiry of that notice period. At the end of the notice period, he will be able to claim it whilst seeking work, for 6 months or until he finds another job.
The second point is that he should register at the JC in any event (and should have done so already) because, even if he is barred from getting CB-JSA as para 1 above, he will get credits for NI from the date he registers, and not from the point he is entitled to any JSA money. It is sometimes unclear if one needs the credits to achieve a 'qualifying year', but my advice is to register at JC anyway, firstly to be sure based on current rules, secondly because successive Government persist in changing the rules over the last 20 years so who knows what additional hurdles may be put in place between now and when he retires.
Thirdly, to get a qualifying year, one has to contribute NI on at least 52x the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) in a tax year. In 2015/16 this LEL is £112 per week, so the threshold is earnings of £5824 in the tax year. Now if he's the main bread-winner he will have gone well over this figure already this tax year (and so will have already 'qualified' to have this year count as one of the 30 he needs), HOWEVER if he was in the company pension scheme and 'contracted-out', this crazy business whereby one's new State Basic Pension gets reduced because of being contracted out may come into play.
Hence to be of getting maximum State benefit from this unfortunate situation, get him to register at the JC.
So with CB-JSA do you effectively have to sign on and then go back every 2 weeks and get interviewed by a 12 yr old who will give you advise on your career prospects? Neither of us have ever taken a penny in benefits in our lives so this all a bit of a mystery! He cannot believe he is entitled to anything, so again appreciate your help.
It is my belief that if he has a plan in place, with target companies, speculative application letters, evidence of where he has looked for work, applications, they will leave him alone. He would have to attend a first interview, I think. There is a need to sign on, the periodicity of this used to be fortnightly but may have changed.
Depends if he wants the benefit, I guess.
Depends if he wants the benefit, I guess.
If his redundancy payment included pay in lieu of notice for say 8 weeks, he can not get JSA for those 8 weeks as he has already been paid for them.
But the pay for the notice period will not have had NI deducted as you can not pay NI in advance, therefore he should still 'sign on' , on the first day he is no longer working. This means he will get an NI credit until he starts to get his 6 months contribution based JSA.
Yes, he will have to attend the job centre once every 2 weeks and talk to an employment adviser. They are a lot more helpful these days and have good advice to offer. Plus many vacancies are notified to job centres before they are advertised so there may well be a suitable job awaiting him. He can get help with things like writing a CV that he will never have had to do in all the time he was working.
JSA is around £160 a week now , so if you want it you have to follow the system and 'sign on' .
£160 a week for 26 weeks is £4160 so if you want it (remember you paid for it with your NI contributions) go and get it. If you can't be bothered to sign on to claim it that's up to you.
Remember it is National INSURANCE !, would you pay home insurance and then not bother to claim if your home burned down on the basis that ''I have never claimed before so I'll just manage on my own'' ?
But the pay for the notice period will not have had NI deducted as you can not pay NI in advance, therefore he should still 'sign on' , on the first day he is no longer working. This means he will get an NI credit until he starts to get his 6 months contribution based JSA.
Yes, he will have to attend the job centre once every 2 weeks and talk to an employment adviser. They are a lot more helpful these days and have good advice to offer. Plus many vacancies are notified to job centres before they are advertised so there may well be a suitable job awaiting him. He can get help with things like writing a CV that he will never have had to do in all the time he was working.
JSA is around £160 a week now , so if you want it you have to follow the system and 'sign on' .
£160 a week for 26 weeks is £4160 so if you want it (remember you paid for it with your NI contributions) go and get it. If you can't be bothered to sign on to claim it that's up to you.
Remember it is National INSURANCE !, would you pay home insurance and then not bother to claim if your home burned down on the basis that ''I have never claimed before so I'll just manage on my own'' ?
It's definitely worth signing on. And I disagree slightly with Dogsbody- I think quite a few of us have been through this process and know the NI and JSA aspects rather well.
I strongly recommend he registers at the Job Centre. I was in the same boat and suddenly found that at a similar age I had gone from somebody in employment who could easily move around to someone that employers didn't look twice at. It took nearly 5 months of getting no response to well made job applications before I decided to take some low paid work with an agency, got my foot in the door and got back into work. What starts off as possibly a few weeks looking for work can easily turn into many months at that age
I strongly recommend he registers at the Job Centre. I was in the same boat and suddenly found that at a similar age I had gone from somebody in employment who could easily move around to someone that employers didn't look twice at. It took nearly 5 months of getting no response to well made job applications before I decided to take some low paid work with an agency, got my foot in the door and got back into work. What starts off as possibly a few weeks looking for work can easily turn into many months at that age
http://
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here for basic state pension requitements.
the pension situation currently is a minefield as new pension rates and ages are being phased in it is advisable to obtain a pension forecast
https:/
very very confusing presently...take a forecast to your local benefit/job centre for help in interpretation if at all confused...you most likely will be !!
https:/
here for basic state pension requitements.
the pension situation currently is a minefield as new pension rates and ages are being phased in it is advisable to obtain a pension forecast
https:/
very very confusing presently...take a forecast to your local benefit/job centre for help in interpretation if at all confused...you most likely will be !!
eddie- I'm not sure where your figure for JSA of around £160 a week comes from. Maybe you are thinking of the amounts paid fortnightly. It's actually £73.10 a week for over 25s which is paid as £146.20 per fortnight
https:/
https:/
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