Husband made redundant and facing £1200 monthly shortfall, any advice?

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I'm probably going to get flamed in this thread judging by how others have gone.

DH has been made redundant, he was the main earner.

We're lucky that he'll get a decent payout, equivalent to 6 months take home salary.

I work 30 hours per week. I got a promotion in February and have a decent take home, above national average.

DH will be entitled to contributions based JSA and we'll get child benefit back, but even with those and cutting back our bills we'll be £1200 short per month. And that doesn't account for any personal spends, kids clothes/ uniform, adult clothes, birthdays etc.

Due to my recent promotion, me getting a better paying job is extremely unlikely, even if I went full time. I'm close to the ceiling of my profession. There's no option to go full time where I am either.

DH is (was) a well paid professional in a competitive field and was quite senior in that field. He's already looking for jobs, has sorted his CV, spoken with several recruiters and has an interview lined up for next week.

Any suggestions on what we can do? Advice/ support?

If you tighten your belt a bit, can you make the 6 months payout last a bit longer? Hopefully your DH will get a job in the next 6-8 months if not before.

He's going to get 6 months pay - are you expecting that he won't be able to find a job that pays £1200 a month in the next 6 months?

Depending on his industry the market is brutal at the moment. I would stash the 6 months redundancy money, he takes a short term interim job that pays £1200 per month, whever that be, while he waits for the next career appointment to land.

Apply for other jobs? Cut back your spending?

He's got a 6 month payout, so he's got 6 months of salary in savings. That should cover more than 6 months if your short of 1200 a month. Plus cutting back where you can

He's got an interview next week. It can take time to find a new job but if he's getting interviews it suggests his CV is decent

If he's getting the equivalent of 6 months salary then you're covered for that length of time surely? That gives you breathing space to cut down your bills while he searches for another job.

Things to consider:

• going interest only on the mortgage to make his payout last longer
• Cut out everything you don't need - pay TV, gym membership, childcare while he's off, second car etc
• the economy is not good at the mo, he should look for any job, not just those in his industry, including weekend/bar work
• cook from scratch
• cut out alcohol
• cut out any expensive hobbies/leisure stuff.

It's only temporary but any thing you can do to stay out of debt is worth it.

It can be really variable. I was made redundant during Covid and it took me seven months to find a comparable role, then again in 2024, when it took me three weeks. I hope he's sorted soon.

Job market is tough atm and I think even a low paid job will be hard, particularly for someone who is clearly going to leave when/if something better turns up.

I would slash expenditure and try to make the redundancy payment last longer than 6 months (try not to dip into it). Downgrade phone plans, cancel streaming, gym and other luxury subscriptions, reduce childcare as he should be able to cover at least some of it. Then he could top up household income with gig economy work - deliveroo, uber etc. Sell anything you can. MSE is a great resource for cutting back and topping up.

You have my sympathy. I have been made redundant a couple of months ago. I do have a job lined up but they are really taking their time arranging a start date, i am almost losing hope. Have signed on for JSA and dreading that. have two kids at Uni to support, fortunately no mortgage but our household income has halved.

Thanks, this is the kind of advice I'm looking for.

"Cut down your bills' is too generic. I've already cut the non-essential big stuff like the cleaner and kids hobbies (we adults don't have hobbies that have ongoing costs).

And DH would need a job that paid at least £1600 a month, to cover the shortfall and loss of JSA as we wouldn't get that. Plus extra if it required a commute.

Anyone know of easy to get jobs with that sort of take home? What kind of sector? Things like supermarkets and cafes near us aren't taking on without relevant experience, which DH doesn't have. He has worked in tech but it's niche field and a low job market at the moment.

We don't have a TV Ariel or TV licence and rely solely on subscriptions. Would people recommend cutting those completely? Can you use channel 4&5 streaming services if you don't have a TV licence?

He’s got 6 months to find another job, what makes you think it will take longer? Plus in the 6 months he’s got his take home pay he will get JSA and child benefit so you can save that towards the shortfall if it takes longer than 6 months, cut back spending now and it doesn’t sound too bad. It’s normal to worry but you have half a year of wiggle room here

This is Mumsnet. Unless the advice you want is to leave the bastard as he was made redundant because he is having an affair, you’re not going to get much.

He’a just going to have to get any job to help make up the shortfall isn’t he.

If you post your outgoings here (or on MSE) people will give you specific suggestions - it’s not for everyone though.

Full time minimum wage (no student loans) is take home of £1880.

Try Royal Mail

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No you can’t watch live tv without a tv licence. Reduce subscriptions but keep the one you use the most

My partner got made redundant afew years back and took delivery driving and takeaway delivery driving in the evening and he did some agency work too as he knew we had bills to pay!

I’d be getting him to take absolutely anything - agency work is ideal as it’s flexible with the school holidays coming up and if he needs time off for interviews etc but I never understand people sitting at home basically waiting for the phone to ring! He could be earning while waiting for that call!!!

And I should have said, we have 2 primary age kids. I've already stopped their wrap around care. Any job DH got would either need to cover that in costs or be outside my working hours.

Has anyone taken a mortgage holiday? That's by far our biggest and most unchangeable expense.

I’m sorry to hear that, it’s never nice when it happens.

In the comment around your earnings, would you not increase your pay by about 30% if you went full-time, which would cover the shortfall at least temporarily?

What you need to do now is to go through your spending, work out everything that it goes on each month and then draw up a new, reduced budget to see what the new shortfall is.

Divide your savings, investments and the redundancy payment by this and that will tell you how many months you can get by for.

Can your husband look into temporary work such as delivery driving? It won’t take many hours work per week to make that £1,200
back, so he’ll still have time to look for work.

If you have a mortgage, speak to your mortgage company asap and explain what has happened. You may well be able to agree either a payment holiday or a short-term switch to interest-only. They are much more likely to be open to this if you approach them proactively rather than risk missing a payment.

In the short term, how clean is his driving licence? Possibly supermarket delivery driver. It's shift work which makes working between interviews easier.

Longer term, look at civil service, local council, NHS.

Got far longer than that if the shortfall is £1,200 per month, unless he was only taking home that amount, which seems unlikely. It’s a rare minimum wage job that pays six months redundancy.

You tighten your belts - I used the Martin Lewis financial review, whuch made some difference, and if you want to have a clear out and sell some stuff on ebay. I did it as a way of feeling like I had some control of the situation, and it was amazing what people would pay for. I sold a lot of shoes and half used perfumes!

Then DH treats the job hunt as a full time job.

If he has six month's pay in reserve, then you don't really have a shortfall at all?

Yes, my dsis took a mortgage holiday during her maternity leave. The debt increases but it is for a fixed period, after which you have to commit to returning to normal payments.

Or Interest only which can be for an open ended period of time - you pay the interest so your mortgage debt doesn't grow, it just sits there until your income goes back up again.

Can he do temping?

£1,600 is part-time on minimum wage. Delivering food for Tesco pays more than that.

Are you able to go full-time?