Claiming dole and National Insurance credits?

[LeadFarmer]

Thankfully I have never had any experience of this, but the wife is now out of work having accepted voluntary redundancy, receiving a payment of about 18 months salary.

Any idea if she will qualify for claiming any state benefits for being out of work, or does her redundancy pay exclude her from this.
How about National Insurance contributions/credits? How does that work? Im keen for her to not have any missing periods of NI due to being out of work.

[dingg]

https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/eligibilit...


Not worth the effort I'd have thought, that's just one of the reasons why the unemployment rate is lower than actual numbers.

In short if you have more than 16k in savings between you, you're not allowed to claim.

[Groat]

LeadFarmer said:

Thankfully I have never had any experience of this, but the wife is now out of work having accepted voluntary redundancy, receiving a payment of about 18 months salary.

Any idea if she will qualify for claiming any state benefits for being out of work, or does her redundancy pay exclude her from this.
How about National Insurance contributions/credits? How does that work? Im keen for her to not have any missing periods of NI due to being out of work.

It's been quite a while since I dealt with these things, but AFAIRemember your income (as part of household income) will be taken into account for any income benefit assessment for your wife, which is a means tested benefit.

And then there's the matter of savings limit as previously mentioned.

NI's different. AFAIRemember they'll be paid as credits.

(Better advice may be available)

[LeadFarmer]

I guess the most important thing for now is getting credits for NI, not sure if that happens automatically or if she has to be claiming some sort of benefits to trigger that?

As for being means tested, so far there will be....
Her earnings from April 2020 to now.
Her lump sum redundancy pay of approx £46k (first £30k take free), however she has a £30k debt that we might pay off.
My salary, if that is factored in.

From the link above, it says the new Job Seekers Allowance doesn't take my pay into consideration

[timbo999]

Savings only affect income JSA, not new style JSA or contribution based JSA which are both based on the claimant's NI history.

I believe you do have to be claiming JSA to get NI credits.

The bit I'm unsure about is the 'voluntary' element of the redundancy...

[Groat]

Gosh! Shows how long Ive been out of the loop..... Certainly looks a lot easier to get a bit of support than it used to be.

[Aiminghigh123]

I was made redundant so not voluntary.

JSA for 6 months (£145 every 2 weeks) which I have had.

Can’t claim any other payments as we have savings over £16k but I can get NI credits paid. Have to fill out a form for that.

Everything was done over the phone and pretty helpful.

[Ozone]

Recently went through this,

I have more than £16k saving and was made redundant, so called the JSA line and said I only want NI credits. I was told it doesn't matter about saving or income from rental properties etc, The only reason you can't claim New JSA is if you are receiving income from a pension.
So I did the online application and got my £72 a week. You don't even have to go for an interview at the job centre and they don't ask for proof that you are applying for jobs at the moment because all the job centre offices are closed. The New JSA payments last for 6 months and you then have to reapply.
It was all very straight forward and the guy on the phone was very perturbed that I wasn't applying for JSA as well as the NI credits and when I mentioned saving he said is doesn't matter, you still qualify.

[EVLATECOMER]

Do you have kids and claim child benefit OP?

I think if you claim that in her name, she will still get the NI credits against her state pension anyway. Worth checking.

[Sir Bagalot]

dingg said:

In short if you have more than 16k in savings between you, you're not allowed to claim.

Incorrect.

If you have >£16K in savings, or have another property then you can only claim contribution based JSA for six months.

[dingg]

Sir Bagalot said:

dingg said:

In short if you have more than 16k in savings between you, you're not allowed to claim.

Incorrect.

If you have >£16K in savings, or have another property then you can only claim contribution based JSA for six months.

I was wrong, just skip read the information, my bad....

[LeadFarmer]

EVLATECOMER said:

Do you have kids and claim child benefit OP?

I think if you claim that in her name, she will still get the NI credits against her state pension anyway. Worth checking.

We have a 14yr old son. She claims the Child Allowance. Would her redundancy payment of £40k+ affect this claim?

She does have a £30k debt which she is paying off monthly with 2.5 years of payments left. We can now settle this debt but I don't really want to as theres no interest being added to the debt, so we may as well invest the lump sum somewhere safe and keep the paying the monthly payments from her lump sum.

We will also be drawing from the lump sum to help cover bills until she gets a new job.

[EVLATECOMER]

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/what-youll-get

Looks like NI credit only for children under 12.