Search Q&A
Redundancy & Unemployment Benefits
Hi All, I have recently moved to a Belgium contract (just over 6 months) but I have been with the company a long time.
I believe that I will be made redundant very soon and I am taking the advice of a lawyer in terms of communications and what I could expect as a severance payment.
I would like to get another job as quickly as possible but I am in a fairly specialised area so the likelihood is that I will have to move countries. While I am here though does anyone know if I am entitled to claim unemployment benefit of some kind ? (My partner has just gone self employed and as yet is not earning much).
How much could I expect (a partner and 1 child) and will severance affect this ?
Also if I start working in the UK but travelling back to Belgium at weekends (I do have an address in the UK) then I assume that I just pay UK tax ? (I will take some prof advice on this one but just wanted to know if anyone had direct experience of it).
Thanks paul.
I won't explain the terminology - I expect you to be able to google for any terms you need to find out more about.
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Under TUPE, when you moved to a Belgian contract, you kept your seniority from your previous contract (same company, different country - I'm assuming you came from another EU country), so you have rights to a rather large redundancy payment under the Claeys formula. Cacculators can be found online.
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You will also be able to get unemployment benefit in Belgium.
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Your dependants will not affect your gross income - just your net income.
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If you move to work the UK, then you'll almost certainly start paying UK tax from the day you start work. That will also be the day you move out of the Belgian tax systems. The Inland Revenue in the UK do have a rather helpful phone line that can advise on the UK side, and may be able to advise on what you need to tell the Belgian tax authorities.
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I have my doubts about how useful a lawyer will be at this stage - you don't know the detail yet (it may never happen), and my own experience is that you're better off working out how the various advice, which at times will ce clear and at times will be confusing, will apply to whatever you are going through at the time.
