Just lost my job hohum but need some advice on what benefits I can get

Background, I was earning 40 k a year and company has gone into administration so my 11 years service will get me a much lower govt capped redundancy payment

Missus working 16 hours per week but only started back off maternity this week but is using up her holidays she accrued first before actually working properly

Went to claim for job seekers and claimed as a couple and apparently it’s means tested so they will take into account my missus earnings apart from the first 10 quid, apparently if I had claimed for myself it is not means tested so would get the full amount of 60 ish quid a week

Also because of my previous tax year earnings as a couple 2010/2011 I probably won’t be entitled to any of that either !

So my question is do they expect us to live on my missus 400 month and give me nothing even though I have been a decent taxpayer who has paid 900 a month tax/NI for the past years

I have never been out of work and have never claimed anything, I also found the job centre plus the most patronising indifferent people ever
I have booked to see CAB but as they are busy it will be a month til my appointment

No wonder this country is ****, I better start taking drugs and register alcoholic then I would be entitled to more.

Rant over, any good advice?

Matt

Sad you have lost your job, but your taxes you have paid over the years are now going to be used to pay you your redundancy pay along wiuth many thousands who have claimed off the same fund.

Have a look at the direct gov website and unemployment tab, taking drugs and alchol are classed as an addiction and you get free treatment on the nhs for them.

Also cancel all direct debits for magazines,sky and anything you dont need,tell the mortgage company and ask them can you just pay the intrest on the loan, turn the heating down, apply for jobs etc.

I had to.

You should be entitled to a contributions based benefit that is not means tested i would have thought.

£400 a month – yes thats basic benefit levels

There are websites around that will help you work out entitlements

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/benefits_index_page_ew/national_insurance_contributions_and_benefits.htm#contribution-based_jobseeker%E2%80%99s_allowance_and_national_insurance_contributions

I don’t drink or anything that was my attempt at sarcasm and the NI fund pays for the redundancy, my point was with a 10 month old and no savings , my wife’s earnings will not cover the gas,elec,water,council tax and food without even considering all other stuff, have spoken to all my creditors e.g. Mortgage etc so will be ok for a few weeks/months but I cannot get my head around the decision making process of DWP and HMRC that’s why I asked if any experts out there, I can tighten my belt but I don’t want to bury my head in the sand and end up with CCJs bailiffs etc

Why did they say you were not entitled to contributions based benefits? Have yo not paid full NI over the last two years?

You will gteh interest on your mortgage paid after a period of time IIRC, you will get council tax benefit, also claim for the various in work benefits on top of your wifes wages – tax credits and so on

There are 2 elements, contribution based and income/savings based. You are entitled to the former for 6 months (but its only £50ish pw), and the latter is income/savings based.

Just ring up the DWP, I found them very good (a couple of years ago when I lost my job) and tbh the Job Centre was very accomodating, only had to pop in once a fortnight and always called ‘sir’.

You need to make the correct impression the first few times you go in 😉

If you’ve got any savings, they’ll also be taken into account with any benefits payment calculations.

Just ring up the DWP, I found them very good (a couple of years ago when I lost my job) and tbh the Job Centre was very accomodating, only had to pop in once a fortnight and always called ‘sir’.

Really? Pretty much every member of staff at ours looked down their nose at me fromn the second I arrived, ignored the sheaf of job applications I’d put in at every visit and my obvious enthusiasm for finding another job and told me if I didn’t take this ‘random unskilled job’ then I’d lose my benefits.

On the form you have to fill out it says ‘why can’t you find more work’, so I asked the 16 year old behind the counter what I should put in that.
“Say you can’t find anything you can do yet”

Going to the job centre was one of the most depressing periods of my life. You pay into the system, you make a clear and obvious effort with evidence that you’re deperately trying to find more work when you get made redundant (and I was near suicidal with desperation), and they threaten to cut your sixy quid a week because you won’t go and stack shelves.

I hope the OP has a better time than me but I found the whole experience awful. There were only two routes off that dole queue, in a job or in a box. It was a close run thing for me.

errrm… HTH.

you can the calculator below to assess what you might get
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx