Redundancy

[Le Chat]

My husband has been made redundant from work and will receive his final wage on 27th Dec. He has been offered a job with a new firm but they have told him that the position will commence at the end of January. This means we will be without a wage for 4 weeks. My question is this:- Will he be able to claim unemployment benefit or the like? He was not in his last job long enough to receive any redundancy pay....I am at home with a small child and we have a mortgage and small savings. How does he go about it? Neither of us have ever claimed anything before!

[Le Chat]

He didn't get any redundancy money...His wage on 27th Dec is because he worked 4 weeks in advance.(as is the norm)

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hi Le Chat. Tell him to claim, but not to mention he already knows he is starting work at the end of Jan (he'll still get his dole, but they might be funny if he isn't actively seeking work for those four weeks). It should take about two weeks to get his cash. Tell him to ring next week, and they'll arrange a telephone claim for him for when he is actually officially unemployed. I don't think they do it in advance as something may come up (i.e. he may not be made redundant, they'll say)

[gucciman]

im in exactly the same boat, i was made redundant 3 weeks ago, i finsih this friday.

i have been told that regardless of how much redundancy money or savings you have you are entitled to 22 weeks dole, i'm not sure if this is true or not. i do know however that when my dad was made redundant from british gas 10 yrs ago the staff at the benefits office told him off for waiting 3 weeks before he claimed rather than straight away.

[ursula62]

You need to claim on your first day of unemployment, even if you have been paid money in lieu of holiday or in lieu of notice. This is so your national insurance contributions are up to date.

However, you generally don't get benefits for any time you received payment in lieu for (usually holidays not taken or money in lieu of notice).