To take Voluntary Redundancy

It’s a great package! Statutory would be a week for every year, so total £7,650. And I’m not sure they have to pay the 1st 2 years so it could be less….

Ok, your character is slipping out a bit. Our club is £5/hr and siblings get discounts. A £40k salary would be over £19/hour, but must be much higher as you are so part-time. You're claiming breakfast and after school clubs cost more than that? More than £10/hr/child? Amazing.

7.30-6pm * 5 days is 52.5 hours. Nobody suggested you should work 52.5 hours. 35 hours + half hour commute each way is only 40 hours per week. Remember you also have another parent on-hand who can look after their own kids too. Typically parents do a couple of longer days each, plus some shorter days. The kids then get a couple of sessions in clubs around that, where they have fun.

I’d start by doing some research. What kind of work are you willing to do? Everyone always says there’s lots of care work going. Is that something you would do? If so ring the local providers and have a chat about availability and hours.

Are there temp agencies in your area? Ring them too for a chat.

Look at the job market for your skill area generally.

If you are confident you can get work fairly quickly, even if it’s just temp work or an in-between to tide you over job then I’d seriously consider it.

I actually had a really similar situation recently except I don't hate my job and I work full-time - £25K redundancy offer on a £40K salary. I spent a week looking up all the other jobs available around me that I'd be up for doing - even going down a bit in salary. And came up with... not much at all. So I'm still at my job. Likely will be restructured soon but I know my workplace backwards and forwards so don't might being redeployed.

For us, it would be really problematic to drop £10K or more in salary and the £25K wouldn't last long in that situation. We both need our jobs to keep the house and the kids - plenty to look at if we really have no other options but it would have to be compulsory redundancy, one of us getting ill, that sort of thing. I don't want to put that kind of pressure on us if I have any other option.

Couple of things to consider - what would your redundancy package look like if it was enforced? How much difference would it make in £s terms? Is it safer to sit tight in this economic environment given we won't really see the full impact of the NI increased for a few months?

How would the dynamic change between you and your husband? Don't be overly confident about minimum wage jobs - they're the ones being hit by the NI changes and many will deem you to be too senior. It could take you months and months to find work. (It might not but you have to consider that risk). Whilst you're job hunting, is your husband happy and mentally strong enough to shoulder the full weight of the financial burden of running a home and feeding a family? Would your husband still respect you if you're sitting at home whilst your kids are at school and he's at work? Will the relationship survive a shift to a position where you no longer have a career drive or just simple conversation that involves topics beyond hoovering and picking kids up?

Having savings in the bank is not the be all and end all if it adds the significant burden of risk to your household and creates a different dynamic between you and your husband.

Yes it's from a university! They were pretty desperate for people to take it so the package was too good to turn down.

The longest servers will get around £150k.

£20K isn’t much of a rainy day fund when you have a family to support and a mortgaged house to maintain. I would wait to see what happens about a compulsory redundancy, meanwhile applying for suitable jobs. Also look at your current expenditure to see what you can cut back on so you can save because having no savings is a precarious situation. I get the anxiety you have of having no fall back in the form of savings. But you need to look at the bigger picture (a really tough economy).

I took redundancy at 50. Different situation, DH had had a massive coronary, and had minimal sickness pay. My job was moving, and I couldn’t face the commute, I also felt I needed to be available at home easily. I got a job immediately, in local government, at a fairly basic clerical level, quite a drop in salary.

Having a lump sum in savings made me feel more secure. I paid off our credit cards, which had built up a bit, knocked a bit off the mortgage, and set a budget. The new job was pretty stress free, and within a couple of years I was promoted. I ended up earning a similar salary to my previous job. I’m so glad I made the move.

OP look at the public sector vacancies in your area, you might be surprised what is available.

To those saying redundancy offered isn’t enough, I think 6 months pay, tax free is the norm offered and more than they probably have to. A friend has recently taken redundancy on a similar package, 3 months ago, thinking she would get another job straight away, but she’s applied for several jobs and no offers, not even an interview yet. OP if you really don’t like your job, then maybe I would take the redundancy, spend the summer with your DC whilst applying for jobs, as long as your DH salary can pay all the bills and mortgage.

Lucky you! VR in universities will be around 6 months salary - including for 30 years service.

If they’re making cuts, then things won’t stay as you know them forever.
You should get notice pay and holiday pay on top. At 10yrs service I’d be surprised if you’re on a months notice. I’d take the money, I’d find a job full time - make it work for 6 months then put in a flexible working request.

I’m in a similar situation and have opted for voluntary redundancy and I ‘m just waiting to hear back. I really like where I work and the team is fantastic. I have all the same worries about finding.another role to fit around childcare but my children are older and my husband has quite a bit of flexibility. The thing that has pushed me into it was looking at the overall picture for the organisation, they are looking at around 20% reduction in headcount in a pretty small team so it will have a massive impact going forward and I don’t think that will be the end of it. I’m in finance so the requirements placed on me would increase hugely even without a reduction in the team. I’m scared about the future but it does open up opportunities.

Have a good think about where the organisation and the sector is going. Good luck

I've just taken VL and got £32k. I've been there less than 2 years. You need to negotiate more!

I also hated my job and am starting a new job when I leave so I've been very lucky.

Compulsory redundancies almost always follow voluntary redundancies. Is the current offer enhanced? If you didn’t take it would your job likely go anyway further down the road?

Your benchmark is low if you took £10k on circa £50k salary for 9 years wevice!!

It’s not an awful package. I was on £47k and after 9 years got offered a £10k redundancy package and I took it.

It pushed me to jump to a different and more lucrative sector, absolutely thriving and loving my new job now. The redundancy, whilst stressful, was one of the best things that’s happened to me

I landed the new job whilst they were going through the redundancy paperwork. I was very lucky, and the redundancy pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me realise how much I’m worth in another workplace. Good luck!!

Your DH has had his personal earning ability prioritised since having DC. Almost all the risk of this change would fall on you.

£20k won’t last long. This change would diminish your personal earning ability, short and possibly medium term. Minimum wage jobs may well not be any better or more flexible. It is much easier to get another well paid job when you already have one.

I don't think it's enough money for you to go OP sorry to say .
40k pro rata is a pretty good salary especially with the hours you need .

Normally I’d say yes, but:

1. that’s quite a mediocre package they’re offering for voluntary
2. I’m self-employed. In October I thought I’d like to go in-house again, as I do periodically. I’ve applied for 70+ things, at or below my last employed level. I’m an Oxbridge grad with 20 years experience and I interview well - I’ve never been unemployed for more than 2-3 months before. I’m, er, still self-employed. Job market is dire.

Just to say, if company does not get enough voluntary redundancies, of course the next step is compulsory redundancy. Compulsory redundancy is a company not needing your role, not specifically you. You could apply for another role. Have you worked out if your job/role is vulnerable or not? Would another role be better if you stayed? Voluntary redundancy can result in the wrong (skilled) people leaving and companies don’t want this. How many employees have been offered voluntary redundancy? Your whole department? Selected roles? How are they reorganizing?

I would read the ACAS guide to redundancy and you can calculate minimum redundancy pay from this. Is the voluntary severance pay better and does the company have a redundancy policy? If it does, read it.

There is a risk of not getting another job. Is the risk worth taking? Are your skills in demand? Are you well placed to move into another job? I’d try and weigh up everything.

Realistically, I’d be applying for low level/minim wage jobs.
You say your current salary is £40k, and presumably that's from maximum 30 part-time hours given you won't use childcare (or even less because of school holidays), yet now you plan to look for minimum wage jobs. Why would you do that when you must have some skills to have landed your current role? If you aren't capable of being sensible and keeping the money while applying for better paid work, then you should stay put. After school clubs and holiday clubs cost about £5/hour per child, so should not be preventing you from working.

Your personal earning ability is important in lots of scenarios for you/your family. Appreciate the childcare challenges, but that’s not insurmountable.

The job market is really hard at the moment and only going to get worse. Redundancies are happening all over the place.
Is it likely to be an enforced redundancy if you don't go now?