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OT What to di when made redundant
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I know there must be people here who can help so here goes, my
sister in law has just been made redundant (happily) and got a
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Stonking good advice that.
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decent wedge of cash for her troubles, she is looking for a job
but is not desperate, but she would like to get her NI stamp
paid while unemployed, how can she go about this?
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Why bother? I got a letter from the IR a while ago asking me if I wanted to
pay £7 or so of voluntary contributions on a job I did for a while as a
student. I couldn't see any reason to as you seem to get looked at by the
NHS irrespective and I can't expect any sort of state pension.
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It would seem from a general chat with the local yoof in the
DWP office she would have to tell them all about her pay off
and savings in general, she does not want unemployment
benefit at all, in fact no actual cash other than making sure her
NI stamp is up to date?
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Get her to ring the DWP on 0800 055 66 88, they will arrange to phone
her back and spend 45 mins asking the same questions twice. They'll
make an appointment for her at the local job centre and also send her
partially completed forms to take in with her.
She'll have to go to the local job centre on the alloted date, spend an
hour or so correcting the mistakes on the form, promise to try her very
bestest to find work, and then sign on.
They will then pay her a contributions based job seekers allowance for
up to 6 months (no matter how much cash she has), and her national
insurance stamps, as long as she keeps turning up every two weeks.
I don't know how long she's considering being unemployed, or how 'bad'
a gap in NI contributions is, but for me, the time and effort spent
doing all of this for the 3 weeks I was unemployed was hugely out of
proportion to the end result.
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This is true - most working folk will have enough "assets"
to stop them being entitled to the usual dole money, but
as long as you keep signing on this will count towards
your NI contributions.
One thing they don't tell you is that the job centre will
pay for travel to and from interviews (irrespective of
your financial status) as well as help you with writing
letters and CVs and will even provide you with paper to
print them on, envelopes to put them in and stamps to
send them with.
Get her to go in and chat with them about what she wants
from them. Some of them are decent people [1] and it
will make a change from the usual shouty crowd who "want
their f'ing giro and they want it now" that they usually
get in there.
[1] my old dear was one of them
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Just sign on for Job Seekers Allowance. She won't get any money
because of her payout, but it will ensure her stamp is paid.
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AIUI, provided her contributions record is up-to-date she is /entitled/
to six months' Jobseekers Allowance (UB when I last claimed) which is
/not/ means-tested. Savings etc. only come into the equation after six
months when you have to go onto whatever the successor of 'supplementary
benefit' is. She may not want or need the cash but she's paid enough in
so might as well get a bit back IYSWIM.
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Any good places where I can start to look because so far
its doing my head in.
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IIRC go to Jobcentre, sign on for Jobseeker's Allowance. She may not
get it but they'll pay her stamp.
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