DH has been fired and I need talking down

[Zorrita]

DH was pulled into a meeting this afternoon to say they were letting him go. He had a few issues with his direct boss (this is a separate issue and we will be going to ACAS), been in the job less than a year and it was decided he didn't gel with the team. Nothing bad that affects his employability or that will prevent him getting another job pretty quickly.

What I do need are practical tips on what we can do now while he looks for employment. What can I do in the immediate aftermath of this to soften the blow? A few things for context:

• We have about 4-5k coming to us but that will take a month or so I believe, and have minimal savings (about 2k)
• DS (1 year old) is literally starting nursery next week. We've paid the first month but not sure how we could afford to keep him in until DH is employed again
• We have put a Universal Credit application in as our income has now more than halved
• Applied for council tax reduction but not sure we will qualify
• DH is not shy about what he does - he is happy to go back to stacking shelves while he looks for something else
• I am in secure employment with a big company

Is there anything else I need to do practically that will help our situation? If it comes to it I believe my Dad will be able to support us for a couple of months but as I am sure many will understand it's embarrassing having to ask and I would much rather do everything else I can first before I borrow from him.

Please be gentle. I am feeling rather fragile right now and I don't need anyone adding to this already awful feeling.

There is absolutely no point these days in printing out a CV and pounding the streets. Everything is going to be automated online.

Is the 4-5k redundancy pay? If so, I think Universal Credit treats it as capital rather than income so if added to your 2k savings it might just about put you over the savings threshold which I think is 6k. Might be worth double checking. Obviously if you're going to be living off savings you probably won't stay over the threshold for long.

(Sorry for lack of pound sign, I'm on a US keyboard and can't work out how to type one.)

He has been there less than a year so unless he was dismissed for reasons pertaining to discrimination for a protected characteristic ACAS will be of no use.

Just do what most of us do, get onto job websites, agencies and spend the time he'd be at work, looking for work. And sign on. Naturally.

That's not true. Factory's, workshops, driving jobs will all accept CV's as it's much cheaper and less time consuming than advertising jobs online.

If he's not working you won't be eligible for the government top up on tax free childcare if you use this scheme to pay for nursery. But you only have to confirm your circumstances every 3 months so check when you need to do that. If it's soon, top up your account if you can, to make sure you get the top up

If ur husband has paid full national insurance contributions from employment for at least 2 full tax years in the last 3 , he may be eligible

to make a claim for new style job seekers allowance . This would be deducted £1 for £1 from any entitlement to universal credit. However, UC is a household benefit and will be affected by any earnings received into the household.
www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance#eligibility

Not in 2023. They don’t typically, but I’m sure you found the one place that does 🙄

Sign on to Indeed, there always seems to be work there and Indeed Flex if he just wants zero hours contracts for now.

4-5k coming to us but that will take a month or so I believe, and have minimal savings (about 2k)

You may not get Universal Credit if you have over 6K in savings

Who would you suggest UC is only reserved for?

Porcinimushroom

that may well be your opinion, but its not factual.

And you find them on the local high street, do you?

You may not get Universal Credit if you have over 6K in savings

£16k in savings

the issue is the £4-£5k coming in will be counted as income by UC and so OP will have to start again with an application

Job seekers allowance isn't means tested so savings wouldn't count

Sorry you're right - no entitlement over 16k, but anything over 6k can reduce how much you get as it's treated as if it produces monthly income. Anything below 6k is ignored.

LINK HERE

Call the nursery, might be able to reduce or delay. But guess if he’s able to do any work he might be working again soon so might be worth continuing with that. Good luck

The £4-5k is going to be a one off payment

the system will most probably not know that and show up on the system as being paid to ops dh. The system can't distinguish between one of payments and regular ongoing payments

If he’s not at fault for gross misconduct or similar they should be paying him his notice. How long is his notice period? Will they expect him to work during that time? What UC application have you put in? Is the 5k redundancy or payment for his notice period? I would have thought contribution based job seekers would be the thing he should claim if his contract has been terminated.

But surely benefits aren't there to keep the middle classes in the standard to which they have become accustomed?

Well what is your DH doing? He should be registering with agencies, checking job sites and no reason he couldn't have already started applying for jobs if you've already done a tonne of stuff. It'll probably take longer to process a claim for UC than for him to get another job in reality, if he is indeed flexible and happy to do whatever then absolutely no reason he couldn't secure at least a temp job really quickly.

@Angeldelight81 I can assure you that where I work, we welcome people calling in to see if we have any jobs. It's great to see people's initiative.

We direct them to the website/indeed etc to make their formal application but also take time to chat with them and make a note of their name so we know to look out for their application. Good people who are engaging and demonstrate the values we look for in our staff are noticed and quickly offered an interview.

Equally, if he’s been paying his national insurance contributions, he’s entitled to a certain level of support to keep the wolf from the door whilst he gets back on his feet, that’s not an unreasonable social contract.

The principle of Universal Credit is that anyone could apply and the system would work out what they were entitled to, with said system being flexible so that if you did only need it for a couple months, or consistently improved your circumstances, it would taper off, and if you became more needy, it would increase accordingly.

Literally who are you to say the OP or ANYONE is or isn't entitled to UC? If the OP is entitled, she will get the money. Bigger and better systems than your judgement are in place to make sure people who need it get some support.

Well done!

I used to train Career, Outplacement & Employability, so after a breather to recover and adjust, I'd recommend:

Polish up the CV

Upload it to all the online recruitment boards, ensuring all the relevant keywords recruits will be searching for are present and searchable (= how I got my current contract when a recruiter rang me out of the blue because they'd seached the keywords in their client's job description, and found my CV on one of the boards)

Polish up LinkedIn profile, upload that CV and do a LinkedIn blitz - settings to 'open to work', contact all your network in relevant fields and locations asking for a heads up about any vacancies in their fields, posting regularly about your field and achievements and availability

Start your own business / look at consultancy - offer online 1-1 coaching in your field (= how I survived lockdown)

Most opportunities are not advertised in job centres; those are tip of the iceberg. It's about who you know and who knows/finds you.

Yes it all takes time, committment and hard work - looking for your next role's a full time and very badly paid job.

Wish him all the best!

Well, first of all as it’s only just happened you need to take a breath and take stock. When you’ve put baby to bed you both need to sit down and get your sums together.
Look at phone/tv contracts. Meal plan and shop elsewhere. Cut out the drinking for now if you drink. See if you can sell any items in the house. If you are shopping, look out for yellow sticker items. Whittle down your freezer. Unplug some appliances.

You could ask the nursery about your dc place, but it seems you may already be in a contract?

Sorry you’re having to deal with this so close after Christmas.

I’ve walked into two jobs in the last month, one in a pub, one in an estate agency, through walking in with a CV in my hand - and yes, I currently work three jobs, none of which I’ve applied for online. In fact, I’ve NEVER applied for a job online. Maybe not the most lucrative jobs, but bog standard jobs are absolutely available by walking through the door and asking the question.