Bill
The first thing to do is contact your trustee and advise them of the position. In most cases, the trustee will agree a moratorium of payments meaning that you cease agreed monthly contributions for a short period - this will be reviewed regularly. If you gain employment then it would be expected that you recommence agreed contributions.
The trustee will ask for a copy your redundancy letter as you may have received redundancy pay. Depedent on how your redundancy is made up of, will depend whether or not your trust deed estate is entitled to it.
The notes for guidance from the Accountant in Bankruptcy is as follows
Redundancy
Where a debtor is made redundant and receives a severance payment from his employer, the question arises as to whether this payment, or part of it, vests in the trustee under Section 32(6) of the Act.
This question was considered in an application by Patrick McGrail under section 31(6) of the Act (Sheriff Murphy, Glasgow Sheriff Court, 10 August 1990). The sheriff did not issue a written judgement but the Accountant understands the facts of the case to be as follows.
The trustee conceded the payment in lieu of notice was income but claimed the remaining amount as acquirenda. This approach was later approved by the sheriff. The debtor disputed this approach and applied to the sheriff that this amount be excluded from vesting in the trustee, under Section 31(6) of the Act.
After hearing the solicitor for the debtor and for the trustee, the sheriff held that:
ÔÇ×X the statutory redundancy payment fell to be regarded as alimentary in nature and therefore as income which did not vest in the trustee;
ÔÇ×X the other payments made by the company which were voluntary did vest in the trustee.
When dealing with payments made on redundancy, it will be necessary for trustees to identify that part which represents the debtor?í?ªs statutory entitlement and care will be required in those cases, such as McGrail, where it is company policy to pay an enhanced sum. In some cases such an enhanced sum might be loosely termed the ?í?Ñredundancy payment?í?ª.
Once a debtor has received his statutory redundancy payment, the trustee should consider whether a contribution or increased contribution should be sought. In this regard, the trustee should bear in mind that receipt of a redundancy payment does not immediately debar the debtor from receiving unemployment benefit under Section 20(3A) of the Social Security Act 1975.

Hello bill.

I'm sorry to hear about your redundancy.

In practical terms the following will usually be the position:

1 - The statutory element of the payment (the amount you must be paid by law) will normally be yours to live from while you seek new work.

2 - Any additional amount (perhaps because of clauses in your contract or negotiation) will usually need to be paid into the trust deed.

Talking this through with your trustee as soon as possible will probably be helpful so that you know exactly where you stand.

Thank you very much for your prompt response that's made things a lot clearer now.
I will let you know how i get on.

regards

sorry to hear about your redundancy, it is always hard. I hope you find something else soon. In the meantime speak to your trustee and show him your redundancy notice, so they calculate how much you can keep, in accordance with the guidlines already mentioned.

How can they calculate how much you can keep without knowing how long it will take to find new employment?

Paul

I'm not sure it's looked at in those terms Paul.

Within a redundancy package there may be different elements such as the statutory amount, contractual amounts, negotiated amounts etc.

The statutory element is usually retained with other elements being paid over.