Redundancy advice

[trem1]

It's looking like on Monday i may be made redundant so i'm looking for advice on what sort of payment i can expect as i have no idea about this, so all advice is welcomed.

ive worked on contract for the company for 16 years and 2 months on a salary of 14k,

ive been on the .gov website to find out the minimum but is that all i'm likely to get ??

also if i say yes will i get paid in lieu of notice etc.

sorry if some of these questions seem dumb but ive never been in this situation before,
also what happens about dole money and is there any help given towards mortgage etc

[scotty73]

Different case and a long time ago but when i was finished on ill health around the time you started your job actually i had to sign straight on the sick... You'll get 6 months contributions based JSA i think.

If you're paying mortgage protection you should get something it depends if it's a joint mortgage i got half my mortgage paid but for only 12 months then the wife had to cover it.

On another note I'm not sure how all insurers work but i was never told 12 months only so recently we've complained and the bank are investigating it.

Sorry to hear about this what a shite time of year to find out.

[lozz]

Sorry to hear about that Trem.

You can get help with the Morgadge, they pay the interest, (there is clauses tho, they only pay after a certain amount of weeks, or atleast
thats how it was when iapplied for it,

[Doggy]

First of all, I'm really sorry to hear about this. Secondly, this is my understanding of the rules. DON'T DEPEND ON IT - CHECK! but I hope it may help to be aware of the following:

If you have checked the minimum entitlement, you probably know the situation fairly accurately. Once upon a time it was simply a week's money for each year of service between the ages of 21 & 45, rising to 1.5 wks for each year over the age of 45. There was also a sliding scale of reductions for those very close to retirement, (I think only in the final 12 months). There was a 'ceiling' of something like £200 a week, which in the late 70's was very much above the national average. The trouble is they never really increased this amount as earnings rose.....

There is generally an entitlement to payment in lieu of notice, (which can be significant) and is length-of-sevice dependant. Accepting should make no difference to your rights. The normal 'form' nowadays is to enter a period of 'consultation', where you are entitled to ask the organisation to examine any alternative to redundancy and it is for them to validate their case. In reality this can be used as 'notice' to keep you working and reduce the eventual payout.

You really need some proper advice. It will all be on the ,gov websites, but they don't help you interpret it. Try CAB if you have no other avenues.

Chances are, they will make an announcement initially, possibly give you a letter or statement and advise you of the next stage and timing.

Hope that's some help - I may be able to get some more definite info if it's any help?

Good luck!

[lozz]

If you’re on certain benefits such as Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, or income-related Employment and Support Allowance and are struggling to pay your mortgage, you may be able to get help towards mortgage interest payments called Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI).

If you qualify, you can get help towards interest payments on a mortgage of up to £200,000 after a 13-week waiting period. If you are on Pension Credit you may be able to get help immediately, but only for a mortgage up to £100,000.

The money is only to cover interest. There is no help available for capital payments.

its now a 13week wait, it was a 26week wait when iasked for it,

[steve_earwig]

sh*t due, that's rough, Christmas is a month away too I'm really sorry to hear that, although you say you may be made redundant I reckon you need to start thinking about moving on in any case.

[highlander]

This is sh*t news, but I would advise you to start looking for a new job immediately, don't wait until the announcement comes. Simple reason being that it is easier to get a job while you are still employed - a lot of companies will check your CV to see if you are currently working and will turf it if you are not. Sounds daft, but I think it's because these companies see someone who isn't working and automatically assume it's because you've been sacked or because you're lazy - harsh as hell and completely unfair, but there's no way to prove that they would be discriminating against you because of your employment situation.

Get that CV dusted off and speak to some people to see if you can get it spruced up so it is as attractive to potential employers as it can possibly be. Then get it out there on all the job search engines - http://www.reed.co.uk, http://www.monster.co.uk, http://www.jobsite.co.uk, etc. Get in touch with all of your local recruitment agencies and ensure all of them have your CV also, and phone them up every so often to see what they have for you.

Ultimately this isn't a great time of year to be out of work; most companies stop recruiting over this period - but if you're willing to work in retail as a stop-gap, plenty of high street shops will take on temporary workers over the festive period to cope with demand. The Post Office also always takes on extra staff over Christmas. If you can't get anything in your chosen profession, then this is a good way to get some income at a time when you need it most.

Hope some of this is of help, and I really hope things work out for you - best of luck!

[rwb]

Hi Trem,

Very sorry to hear this.

...on contract...

this jumped out at me.
If you are a 'normal' employee, i.e., you pay PAYE and your employer pays (class 1) NI then things should be relatively straightforward.
If however you are a contractor (in particular if you fill in a tax return and pay class 2 and class 4 NI contributions), then it's time to start reading your contract very very carefully... Do this NOW and make sure you know what you want and what to ask for before they offer anything.

[trem1]

Hi Trem,

Very sorry to hear this.

...on contract...

this jumped out at me.
If you are a 'normal' employee, i.e., you pay PAYE and your employer pays (class 1) NI then things should be relatively straightforward.
If however you are a contractor (in particular if you fill in a tax return and pay class 2 and class 4 NI contributions), then it's time to start reading your contract very very carefully... Do this NOW and make sure you know what you want and what to ask for before they offer anything.

thanks for all the kind words and advice so far but please keep them coming.

yea i'm just a normal employee, just added that to try and save someone asking if i had a contract or not.

As for future employment i think i'm gonna try and become a bus-driver
at the moment i'm a multi-drop van driver which is a VERY manual job, carrying boxes upstairs etc, which i dont think i could sustain until retirement age, so Mrs T and i have discussed my changing career in the past and a bus driver seems a good option.(i'm a people person)

as already said keep the idea's advice coming

[Busman]

Not much wrong with being a bus driver, spoken as a bus driver trainer, so I might be biased! The thing of it being that the driverless bus won't be around for a while. Lots of the bigger companies offer free training if you stay there for 2 years.
Perhaps it's one of those times when you can turn adversity to your advantage?

[plod]

Hope you get sorted ok mate

Can't offer any advice, as I was told I was being made redundant once, and then got offered a job at a different location for the same company, so have no real experience to fall back on to be able to offer you meaningful advice.

[lozz]

What idid was, sighned on the books with 5 or 6 agencys,
Agency works sometimes can be crap but you do get some good jobs if you get posted with a good company,

[Welly]

I too am sorry to hear this but I wouldn't let it grind you down, if it's going to happen then it will and there's little you can do.

You don't get the decent payouts some people used to in the late 80's but you might be fairly happy with a lump sum which, if you secure something else quickly, might all work to your benefit.

Obviously you can't become a bus driver overnight but with your multi-drop experience I'm sure you could land a delivery job on the run up to christmas, even if you work through an agency. You're lucky in a way that you have the experience of the job that you do.

I hope you find something mate and you never know this might happen to be the best thing to happen in the long run (might not seem that way now) but "as each door closes" and all that.......

Good luck mate, and keep us informed

[trem1]

well ive been to today's meeting and they were looking for 1 voluntary redundancy, I in my infinite wisdom said i would take mine
my payout is the bare minimum plus 3 moths severance pay, so nowt specila but should keep us going for 5-6 mionths if need be.
I suppose the good thing about this is i can now go to the doc's and get this umbilical hernia sorted that ive had for the last couple of years.

thanks for all the advice guys

[mjb]

well ive been to today's meeting and they were looking for 1 voluntary redundancy, I in my infinite wisdom said i would take mine
my payout is the bare minimum plus 3 moths severance pay, so nowt specila but should keep us going for 5-6 mionths if need be.
I suppose the good thing about this is i can now go to the doc's and get this umbilical hernia sorted that ive had for the last couple of years.

thanks for all the advice guys

That might have been a smart move if you think there's a good chance you'd end up on the cutting block anyway - you'll probably have got yourself a considerably better payoff than you would otherwise. Having been on the end of 'bare minimum' before (1yr service, no savings, no notice of redundancy ) I can tell you than the bare minimum won't even cover the cost of hiring a van to move back to your parents' since I couldn't make rent OR bills... Took over a year to get an unfair dismissal payment out of them, then another 4 years before I got myself out of the financial hole...

The Job Centre were a joke too... from years of paying the sort of tax+NI you have to pay when you're on 30k, they messed me around for months, causing me to miss similarly-paid job interviews in order to attend the Job Centre interviews. After a few months they eventually told me I couldn't have JSA because I'd missed a couple of payments when I was a student. Ended up taking agency night shift work in factories just to pay for the phone+internet bills to enable me to get a 'proper' job as well as keeping the debt collectors at bay! Heck, it was a couple of months before I could even get my first meeting at the job centre because they were backlogged due to a lack of interpreters Would have been much better off if I'd not bothered with JSA at all and gone straight to agency work; the system's just not geared to cope with people who are able and actually want to work and support themselves