Thomas Cook: Getting the right financial support

If you are an employee of Thomas Cook, you will probably be wondering what your next steps are and one of them needs to be understanding what financial support is available.

A large number of people don’t have savings to fall back on and we know that this is an incredibly worrying time for people impacted by the sad news.

So, here’s a brief overview of what you need to know about benefits:

‘New style’ Job Seekers Allowance (JSA)

‘New style’ Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) is a benefit payable for 182 days (approximately 6 months) to people who are 18 or over and below State Pension age and are:

• working less than 16 hours a week

• available to work full time

• actively looking for full-time work

• not in full-time education

• not claiming Income Support

• don’t have an illness or disability which means you can’t work

• have worked and paid Class 1 National Insurance in the last 2 to 3 years

Your partner’s income and savings will not affect your claim and it doesn’t matter what country you’re from to claim new style JSA.

Universal Credit

If you can’t claim JSA, or you need help with your rent or other costs then you might be able to get Universal Credit (UC). You should apply for UC as soon as you can, even if you’re waiting for redundancy pay, because redundancy pay doesn’t count as income. It won’t affect how much you’ll get in your first Universal Credit payment unless it brings your total amount of savings to over £6,000. 

To claim you need to:

• be 18 years old or over - or in some cases 16 or 17 years old

• be under State Pension age (usually) - check your State Pension age on GOV.UK

• live in the UK - there are extra rules you’ll need to meet if you’re not a British citizen

• have less than £16,000 in savings

You can find out more and whether you’re eligible by contacting our help to claim advice team via our freephone number: 0800 1448 444 or by completing the online form here.

If you own your own home the housing element in UC won’t pay for a mortgage or home loan but you might be able to get support for mortgage interest (SMI) instead. SMI is a loan that can help pay for the interest on a mortgage or home loan.

To get SMI you will need to wait for 9 consecutive Universal Credit payments without earning any money from work. This is called the ‘waiting period’. Any month where you earn money starts the waiting period again.

Homeowners might still be able to get the housing element in UC for help with service charges. If you can, these payments follow the same waiting period rules as SMI.

You can find out more about getting help to pay your mortgage by contacting our advice team through our website.

If you’re on a low income, you should speak to your local authority about claiming Council Tax Reduction. Each local authority has its own local scheme and will work out discounts on your Council Tax in different ways. It is likely that you would have to pay something towards your Council Tax however, it is important that you speak to your local authority straightaway about your situation.

You must tell HMRC about any changes to your income within 1 month if you are getting Tax Credits. Ideally, you should tell them straight away as you might be entitled to more money. If you phone them, make sure you make a note of the date, time and the person you spoke to in case there are any problems later with your award.

You can find out more about tax credits by contacting our advice team through our website.

Remember; if you claim any benefits already, you should let them know within any time limits about your change of circumstances. If you’re in any doubt, contact us.

If you have financial commitments that you are concerned about, it is important that you seek advice. This might be helping you draft a financial statement, drawing up a budget, or contacting your creditors to ask for reduced payments or to freeze interest etc. We have a large number of highly skilled debt caseworkers across GM who work to legal services and advice quality standards and understand what you are going through. 

Citizens Advice services are free, confidential, independent and impartial. We don’t judge. We’re here to help.