DH about to get the sack, I’m so worried. Can anyone reassure me that we’ll be ok please?

[Ocre729]

I can’t go into details but it’s looking very likely that he’ll get the sack next week. I feel sick to my stomach. I don’t think we’ll be entitled to anything! I earn £1300 a month for 23hrs work, our mortgage payments are £500 a month and we have one DC who’s 12.

We have £4k in savings which I think we could make last for 4 months if we watched every penny. I’ve been going through our outgoings and we’re already very frugal. The only saving I think we can make is our phones.

I just feel horrible. We’re a really hard working family, never claimed benefit before (apart from our £80 a month child benefit).

Has anyone been through this and it worked out ok?

This happens. My DH lost his job in November- no fault they centralised operations and he couldn’t commute to the new location so had to take redundancy. He then found another job with a start date in March. But that was then cancelled before he even started due to Covid. He now has a new job with start date this coming August. Hoping this happens as it will be 9 months of just my income plus savings keeping us going.

And this is not first time. It’s fourth time for us.

Anyone who doesn’t think this can happen or thinks it only happens if you make a mistake is naive. It’s why you must always always save and live beneath your means. So it’s good you’ve been saving. You will get through it.

UC would be £56.67 plus new style JSA monthly works out to be 322.18 so total £378.85.
I’d advise claiming new style JSA instead of just relying on UC as any bonus or overtime could easily take you over UC award.

Definitely look at your outgoings...... Ours are pared right back. I have a £6 a month giffgaff sim. WiFi is £21 a month and I got £80 cashback from topcashback.

We don't have tons of savings, we have about 12k so would be fine for around a year and we've always made a point of saving when times are better. Even a fiver a week adds up through the year.

It might not be as bad as you think op - I’m a hearing manager at my work and a single mistake due to the stress of Covid I’d look favourably on. Might be a written warning if no previous issues?

Is he in a union? If not get him to sign up - fast!

@Ocre729

ajandjjmum this is so fresh that we really don’t know what his options are. We’ll see what Monday brings and take advice from there.

He hasn’t committed fraud or theft. (As previously suggested). Sorry for not giving more details, I know that no one can advise properly without knowing the full story.

So has he just made a mistake as opposed to gross misconduct? Coudl well just get a written warning eg first and final warning - I'd check his employment grievance policy.

Also has he been there less than 2 years? If so, is there scope for him to negotiate his exit as redundancy - so he can claim benefit immediately? Won't cost the company any more.

Maybe he wont get the sack? Look into a mortgage holiday although you might not need to gor a short time? There's not exactly a lot to spend money on right now. I think that sounds fairly doable (not easy but ok) especially as you only have one DC.
Appreciate it feels scary right now. Fingers crossed he keeps his job.

Many calculations here - you can use a benefit calculator or contact citizens advice for help.

As PP have there may be an issue of misconduct. DP can use any internal challenge to show that he disputes that dismissal was warranted. Get employment law advice - check your insurance as will sometimes cover any legal advice. Can challenge internally. Deadline for employment tribunal challenge that starts with early conciliation at ACAS is 3months less one day.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/leaving-a-job/dismissal/challenge-your-dismissal/

Do not resign as voluntarily giving up work can also cause a sanction. . When claiming JSA or universal credit will need to explain the circumstances

DH can challenge decision to impose benefit sanctions. benefit decisions can usually be challenged within a month - mandatory reconsideration. As DH would be under new style JSA the sanction rules are the ones that apply to universal credit

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/jobseekers-allowance-jsa/jsa-appeals/check-if-you-can-challenge-a-jsa-sanction/

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/sanctions/challenging-a-sanction/

fingers crossed you are eligible for help why you head into a rough patch, op

Just sending a message of support to you and your family. Claim anything you are entitled to and you will get by. I have been looking for a job for a very long time, but I'm managing. I've cut back on my spending habits, and found that I was spending money just because I could in many cases. Good luck to your DH in finding work.

I really can’t thank everyone enough for all the messages of support and practical advice. Thank you to those who took the time to research what benefits we’d be entitled to as well and the people who have PM’d me. I really appreciate it and it’s been been the virtual hug I’ve needed.

I usually turn straight to my mum to bolster my confidence in difficult times but my Dad’s got cancer and I don’t want to worry her unnecessarily. I’ll tell her when we know more.

Many many thanks.

I'm surprised you can't live on that money with such a small mortgage. I've lived on an awful lot less before now. Do you have a lot of debt, expensive cars etc?

No significant debt (a couple of hundred on a 0% credit card) , no car finance, we only have 1 car. We pay £50 per month for our sofas which have a year left on them. The rest are normal household bills-council tax, energy, phones, food. We do have 2 cats and 2 dogs so insurance and food for them is quite a chunk.

We used to survive on £2k a month when we very first bought a house and I remember it was always tight and we had to watch every penny but we managed and our mortgage was higher back then too.

I’m going to go through all our spending again and see where we’re at.

I think you need to look at "frivolous" expenses, sky package, mobile bills,food shop. Cut right back, use Aldi and the likes to bring costs right down. If you can get the mortgage holiday then you should have no issues if the info you have given re finances us correct. As I say my monthly take home is less than yours and whilst I save nothing I have no debt and provide happily for myself and dd on just over £1200 take home.

Get rid of unnecessary expenses ie Netflix, amazon prime etc. Loom at you bank statements and make sure you set. Budget and stick to it

Is he in a union? If not get him to sign up - fast!

Won't help OP's DH as this issue would pre-date joining, but good advice for everyone.

Sounds really hard, Op. Get your DH to contact ACAS on Monday, I have received brilliant advice from them before.

Good luck.

cloudygladys, I was hoping, if the issue will not be dealt with at work until next week, that he could join online now and thus be covered.
I could well be wrong.
Another possibility is that some home insurance policies include legal advice, though whether this would be covered I have no idea.

It won't help in the short term as claims take about a year to process, but if your health problems are significant enough that working full time broke you, thus you need extra rest or whatever, it is likely you should qualify for PIP, even if just low rate care. The questions about what you can do aren't simply 'can you do X ever' but the test is in fact 'can you do X safely, repeatedly, reliably, and in a reasonable time'. So if say you worked and got home and then had to go to bed for the whole evening three times a week, that means you can't regularly cook a meal for dinner. Even if once a week you manage it.

May not be.something you want to explore now, but keeping a.record.of what you spend extra because of your disability, and anecdotes of problems you have, will be invaluable if you apply in future (once you ask for the big form you have 6 weeks to complete, so helps to write stuff down beforehand).

Hope your husband just gets a warning, in the circs.

Thinking of you and husband today. I really hope he just gets a written warning especially given his length of service.

@Ocre729 hope it was just a warning.

Hoping all went well your husband today.

How are you getting on OP? How did yesterday go? P.s.sorry to also hear about your Dad!

Hope you’re getting advice from ACAS or a solicitor specialising in employment law. Just because he made a big mistake, it’s not necessarily grounds to sack him.

Please don’t pay too much attention to the armchair lawyers on here. Most of them are pretty clueless and confuse law with moral indignation.

Thankyou so much for asking after us.

Things are looking much better. He had a meeting with the regional manager and his union rep yesterday. Totally different take on the situation compared to the meeting with his line manager on Friday. There will be some disciplinary action and retraining but the RM understood the pressures he’s been working under and has also taken into account his excellent work history with them. He’s had 5 days off sick in 20 years!

I can’t tell you how relieved we are. DH didn’t sleep or eat all weekend. It’s been a wake up call though. We do have savings (£4K) but we really need a larger buffer than that so that’s going to be the focus for the rest of this year. I don’t ever want to feel that vulnerable again (if we can help it!).

Thanks again for all the kind messages and practical advice. They meant so much to me on Friday.

Good to know it's worked out OK, now you need to get cracking on budgeting and making sure all your costs are as low as they can be to build up your savings