You may be entitled to a redundancy payment. However, if your employer becomes insolvent, you may need to make a claim for money owed to you. No matter how you lose your job, your employer must treat you fairly and follow certain steps.

Use the government’s online benefits adviser service, or contact your local Jobcentre or Jobcentre Plus office, to find out any benefits you may be eligible for. These may help with housing costs, bringing up children, paying your council tax, and looking for a new job.

When you are out of work your money may become stretched. Budgeting helps you see how much money you have coming in and how much is going out. It’s important you prioritise your bills so you can pay for things like housing costs. Our cut-back calculator will help you see where you can make savings simply by cutting back on unnecessary spending. You can find out what else you can consider in our Managing your money guide.

If you’re going to dip into your savings, check whether you have to pay any penalties for taking your money out at short notice.

Have a look at the interest rates you get on your savings accounts. Then shop around and compare savings accounts to see if you can get a better deal.

If you get some redundancy money, it can be tempting to use it to treat yourself. But consider how long you can go without working before you’ll need to use it to pay bills. Your payout may not stretch very far but if you have given long service or your employer decides to pay more than the legal minimum, you may get more money than you’ve ever had in one go. Sort out your financial priorities first. Our Financial healthcheck can help you.

If you need to find a new savings account, shop around to find one that suits your needs – see Compare savings accounts.

If you’re tempted to invest some of your money, remember to check out all the features of an investment to make sure it is suitable. See Investments made clear for help to understand different types of investment as well as what things to think about before investing.

But watch out for fraudsters offering high returns for little or no risk. They are known to target employees of companies going through redundancy to get them to part with their money. If you need help to decide what products suit your needs you should consider getting professional advice.

If you have a mortgage or other loans, you should talk to the people you owe money to as soon as possible. You may be able to come to an agreement with them, such as a payment plan, and avoid more serious problems.

You will still need to continue repaying your rent or mortgage and any other loans while you are out of work. Have a look and see if you took out insurance when you got these products, as it may help with your repayments. It’s usually called Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), credit insurance, or Accident, Sickness and Unemployment insurance (ASU).

You can find out how to claim by reading your policy documents. If you can’t find them, contact your insurer.

Make sure you know how much of your monthly repayments it will cover, and when the payments will start and end. This is so you can plan your budget accurately for the future.

Losing your job may affect how much tax you need to pay. Tell your Tax Office about this to make sure you pay the right amount of tax.

Check if you are owed a refund, as you might have paid too much tax while you were working.

You can’t usually pay any more money into your pension scheme once you have left. You can leave your pension benefits in the scheme or transfer them to another pension arrangement. The decision to transfer, especially from a salary-related scheme, is complex, so before doing anything you should seek professional advice to find out the risks involved.

If an occupational salary-related pension scheme cannot provide the pension benefits in full, you may be able to get some compensation from the government’s Pension Protection Fund.

If your employer winds up an occupational pension scheme, the scheme trustees will write to you with information about what you can do.

If you belong to a group personal pension or group stakeholder pension scheme, your pension is usually converted into a personal pension when you leave your job. You can continue to pay into it independently or simply stop paying and leave the pension fund to carry on growing, but check if there are charges before making a decision.

Search the Jobcentre Plus database for jobs, career information, and training courses. It is one of Britain’s largest databases for job vacancies. Of course, family and friends may also know of any job opportunities. Also read our tips on looking for a job to help increase your chances of finding work.

Beware of job offers, working at home opportunities or training courses that look too good to be true. They are usually scams that will con you out of your money. Fund transfer scams may also cause you to break the law by laundering criminals’ money.

Always check that a training course and provider exist.