Redundancy/Maternity query

A question about : Redundancy/Maternity query

Hi!

I am just after some advice.

I've recently taken voluntary redundancy from my job, my job was in Swansea and I have just had a baby and live in Cardiff, so it was going to prove too difficult with childcare etc to commute every day so vol redundancy suited me so I could start afresh and look for a job in Cardiff. My employer was undertaking a group review and redundancy was on the cards, so I opted for voluntary due to my circumstances. My last official date of employment was 30th November, and my baby was born on 20th October.

My redundancy entitlement was only around Ј600 as I had only worked there for 2 years, and this was cancelled out by overtaken annual leave so therefore my redundancy payment was non exsistant. However my employer paid out all of my Statutory maternity pay in one lump sum which i have worked out I can split across 6 months (dec-may) but after this I will have absoloutely no income.

I was wondering when I can start working again, do I need to wait for the 39 weeks of stat maternity pay to be up? (middle July) and when could I claim JSA when I start looking for work? I'm just not sure where I stand now that they have paid out the SMP in a lump sum?

sorry if I have posted this in the wrong section!

any advice would be great, thank you!

Best answers:

• you'll be better posting this on the benefits board.
• Your SMP will stop if after the baby is born, but before the end of the Maternity Pay Period, you work for an employer who did not employ you in the qualifying week. It is your responsibility to tell the employer paying you SMP about your new job. You must do this as soon as possible, and make sure you return any SMP payment you get that covers the week you started work and any part of the period after you resumed work.
  You cannot get SSP, ESA, Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) or MA while you are getting SMP.