Hi Jackie ...
Sorry you are having to go through this again .
see CAB guide on Redundancy

Bear in mind that any Benefits issues are down to individual circumstances ...including joint income , whether you rent or have a mortgage etc

However if you are made redundant , voluntarily or otherwise , you are in effect regarded as NOT having left work voluntarily , so this alone would have no effect on your entitlement to Benefits.
If your employment is tied into any mortgage protection policies you may have then voluntary redundancy could well be an exclusion in such a policy. You will also need to look at any company or private pensions to how these are effected.

If you regard yourself as too ill to do any work for more than two days a week , and you have a GP who will fill in "Fit-Notes" to say as such , then you can claim Employment and Support Allowance . It sounds like you will qualify for Contribution based ESA due to your NI contributions , and therefore any ESA paid will not take into consideration your savings , partners income or second properties etc.The Government have plans to make this contribution element last only 1 year in the future.

If you are fit to do over 2 days work a week (take into account your worst weeks as well!)/ or your GP will not help you , then you can claim Job Seekers Allowance (contribution based) for 6 months. You will be expected to make efforts to find work which you can restrict to a degree by telling the adviser of your health issues. After 6 months you will have to change Job Seekers Allowance to Income based JSA , which is means tested (ie your partners income , savings etc are taken into account).

Bear in mind this reply is just to give you a broad idea , and i think the main issue is the fact that the DWP will treat you as having been made redundant , even if you volunteer.

NRAS -What is ESA?

NRAS -Benefits and RA

Any further questions do not hesitate to ask and let us all know how you get on :)

Rich :)

Hello Jackie

Gosh how unlucky for you and what a worry .

As ever Rich has written a great post which I am sure you will find very useful

Good luck and keep us up to date and I do hope the outcome is what you want



Rose

Hi Jackie,
I took voluntary redundancy 8 years ago, not because of RA but lots of other reasons, and even though it was what I wanted in theory, it was still a big emotional thing. I'd been doing the same sort of job for 15 years and the leap into the dark was a bit scary as well as leaving all those lovely people behind, its the people which make a job I think. Never the missed the pains in the **** though! Your employer will want to lose people who want to go rather than forcing people out which is never good for morale so you may stand a good chance with going voluntarily, unless you're completely indispensible! Looking back though it was the best thing to do for me so hope this all works out for you as well.
Sara