Can you claim jobseekers if you take voluntary redundancy?

A question about : Can you claim jobseekers if you take voluntary redundancy?

Asking on behalf of several colleagues - if you opt for voluntary redundancy, can you claim jobseekers?

Thanks in advance

Best answers:

• yes, but it will be suspended and go to a decision maker. they will look into the circumstances and you may recieve JSA after they have looked at your case on an individual basis
  hth
• ok cheers. Will pass the message on
• It may depend on the terms of their redundancy agreement. Most companies now use a "compromise agreement" for when people volunteer. These are no fault "mutual" agreements, but it is redundancy and does not usually state anything regarding volunteering.
  Just because you volunteer it does not mean the same as resigning for which you would get sanctions as above. Best thing is to claim as redundant and let the DWP take a copy of the redundancy agreement. They will make the decision based on that. SB is right it will be held for the DM's decision which may delay any payments.
  ali x
• I thought it was dependent on whether there was a financial bonus paid and that you had to wait for 3 months? I'm thinking that this was just something I was told that was maybe specific to that individual?!
• i think the 3 month thing is another urban myth - you can claim jsa from day 1 of unemployment
• Someone within my office had recently contacting the JSA offices and they adviced of a Ј6000 capital.
  If you had more than Ј6000 then you would not be able to claim JSA, but I assume you can just spend some of your Redundancy on paying off other debts and then claim regardless. They also had said it did not matter if you where Voluntary or not, you would still be entitled to JSA.
• a collegue is again just off the phone with the JSA Offices.
  They have advised.
  Once your made redundant regardless of the amount of settlement your given, you will automatically receive JSA and also be eligable to apply (but may not be successful) in claiming housing benefits.
  Regarding the 6000 Capital, they said, this does not take effect right away, they re-access your situation after 6 months and if you have a capital at that time of more than 6000, then they reduce your JSA by Ј1 for every Ј500 capital you have over Ј6000.
  hopefully this has helped someone or if this is incorrect and someone can advise different please do correct me. Many thanks.
• You can claim JSA straight away but Ј65 a week is not very tempting is it.
• Neil, think the thing is, Ј65 or whatever the amount maybe is better than nothing.
  How many people including myself would see it is, I am better to take the Ј65 rather than not, as there is plenty of people about the place who do claim such benefits when there is no reason at all for them not having a job (but i guess that arguement is for another time )
  Those who have worked for many years are definitely entitled to it regardless of the amount, as they've put money in the kitty for the lazy for years
• as completlyspent has posted, another major factor to consider is claiming to ensure your state pension credits etc are kept up (stamp duty)
  i recently went through this after redundancy and signed on for a couple of months whilst looking for my current job (after being made redundant from a company i had been with for nearly 9 years)
  there is 2 types of job seekers allowance (contributory and means tested)
  if you have paid in enough National Insurance over the previous two years, then you are entitled to contributory JSA, this lasts for aprox 6 months, think its 26 weeks)
  after the 6 months then they will then check your financial status and see if you are entitled to means tested JSA. at the time i was speaking to them, savings under Ј6,000 were not taken into account, savings between 6-16k were taken into account and the level of jsa you would be entitled to would be on a sliding scale (ie more savings = less JSA) over 16K savings then no means tested jsa is payable.
  I beleive that if you have not paid in enough National Insurance over the previous 2 years, then they look to see if you are able to go onto means tested jsa straight away.
• There's quite of lot of duff info and nearly correct stuff on this thread.
  1. Genuine Redundancy in itself (voluntary or compulsory) does not affect entitlement to JSA in any way. Compromise agreements may be subject to investigation.
  2. If you have paid sufficient NI contributions (paying a contribution in the previous 2 tax years - not an exact answer, but..), you would normally receive Contributory JSA which is not means tested against Savings. This can be paid for up to 6 months.
  3. If you have not paid enough contributions you would be assesed for JSA Income based (means tested) which takes account of any partner's income, capital (over Ј6k) and many other factors.
  4. When you sign on you get your NI stamp covered; not Stamp Duty (I think this is the only flaw in your post anna42hmr, and it's only terminology ;-0)
• in addition, you can only claim JSA if YOU ARE SEEKING WORK.
  so I am not claiming, after taking voluntary redudancy, as I am not job hunting at all. once i decide i want to, and start applying, then you can claim.
  You also lose any JSA if you earn any money from other sources (over Ј5) so any casual type job you take on means you wouldn;t be able to claim that week. As i do focus groups that pay Ј50 to Ј100 every few weeks, it would be very impractical to keep claiming and getting zero some weeks and Ј65 others.