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?

Uber driver, scrap metal work, man with a van, supermarket work, tutoring children in subjects he has expertise in, offering industry talks at unis and FE colleges if he has high level experience, bar work, handy man type stuff locally, dog walking, pet sitting, cleaning, taking in washing-ironing - all things me and DH have had to do when times get tough. You can’t just sit there and moan that you don’t have money. Go out and earn some - my DH recently went to work
in a scrap metal yard, that pays £650 per week so would easily cover your shortfall.

Does you husband have a driving licence. Loads of companies looking for drivers. I had a job gap and did delivery food driving for Sainsburys. Ended up staying there for 2 years as it was quite a good job and paid well.

Im confused
Your DH is getting £28740 in redundancy pay which is just shy of 1200 for 2 years of payments

Why are you saying you will be short or do you mean you dont want to touch this tax free lump sum?
Pay off the 8K CC debt then that leaves you nearly 18 months of paymentd
Am I missing something?

Least helpful comment here but when you are back on your feet I would revisit life insurance.

£38 a month for both of you could at any point be your next financial crisis, I imagine at such a low cost you don’t have critical illness for either of you.

Just two things.

1. Sign on immediately for JSA because that cannot be back dated. Definitely. I am constantly seeing people who wait for 6 months until the money runs out then go to the Jobcentre. Go straight away you sound as though you have too much savings currently for UC but the job coaches are amazing. Do not believe the Daily Mail scaremongering about benefit caps and sanctions.
2. Cut back on electric usage. Have a big switch off on Sunday. Watch your smart meter. My house goes down to 5w when we switch everything off.
3. Repeat 1 and 2

Yes it's life and critical illness, fairly decent cover, but it doesn't cover the full mortgage, just 18 months of our bills, which would give us time to sell the house and move somewhere much cheaper. It was almost £300 a month for a policy that covered the full mortgage.

I see in your expenses you have a Claude subscription. Is your DH a software engineer? If so, I can really understand your concern and sense of panic, the impact of AI on the sector has been shocking and the career progression has changed seemingly overnight. He's earning well so clearly not entry level, but progression has changed and there is a lot of salary pressure at the mid and senior level now..

In this case, I think it's prudent to consider how well set up he is for the way the industry has changed. He might benefit from a decent career coach who could help him round out his experience and it is worth taking time to try and get the right fit if the jobs market isn't too tight.

I think you panicking right now which is unneccessary but uderstandable.

His lumpsum should carry the shotfall for almost 2 years.

It's day 1, you have approx 700 days before you are really in difficult!

He also seems to be very proactive which is really positive.

Has he a good LinkedIn profile with a wide network?

Has he shared that he is now in tge market for a new job?
Has he connected with all recruiter who specialise in his sector?

He should also consider his former employer's main competitors and protactively reach out to them directly.

It could be a lot worse. You are both doing everything right.

I wouldn't rush to the interest only mortgage request, especially given the lumpsum. It's something I would consider only if he's still unemployed in 3 months. It's costly and the repayments are increased once you start repaying again - the term doesn't increase.

All things considered, you are ok. You have a buffer and it's very early days.

So our essential bills, when we cut absolutely everything to the bone is £1200 more than our income will be (my salary plus child benefit plus JSA). We will of course use DHs redundancy pay to cover that shortfall, which in reality is much bigger, but I'm looking for advice on how to reduce that deficit, improve our income and what to do if the money runs out.

Realistically living on the very basic bills is unachievable, unless the children never go anywhere, don't get birthday or Christmas presents and we sit in freezing house doing nothing.

Yes to Job Centre. When my husband was made redundant I remember they funded rail fares for interviews (maybe not at first but it definitely kicked in).

Job hunting is hugely time consuming and I think it's hard to combine that plus childcare plus some form of regular low-paid work, which often comes with terms and conditions and a management style that he won't have experienced since he was a student. I do think you have to factor in his mental health and look for what is doable rather than eg seeing what might work on paper.

Would family be able to lend you anything in the short term?

I agree with all of these points. My husband has been out of work since September.
So we focussed on minimal expenses only, he collected JSA, didn't apply the whole time. We didn't book any holiday, cut back on all extras.
We also have a friends who worked in finance, marketing (banking) and HR who are seeking work, either contracting, covering maternity roles etc.
One has now pivoted and taken security screening work at an airport (they are mortgage free though).
Our shortfall was more than £1600 so we also used up all the redundancy buffer.
I will give you some hope that after 9 months of interviewing and final stages, my husband has an offer and also others still lining up (funny how that happens!)
Your partner should be very disciplined in the coming month or two to apply and interview and network as much as possible.
Possibly even applying for less senior positions.
Please don't worry, things will work out and although I agree this market is tough, do reach out to your networks and keep up the fight!

So I did as a previous poster suggested and went through our bank accounts with a fine tooth comb and I forgot 2 subscriptions we have - annual travel insurance (£56 a year, renewed in March) and breakdown cover (£96 a year, renews at the end of this month).

I've added these to our spreadsheet.

I was made redundant twice in 6 months
the first time I took a day to breathe and mope, then started looking. Secured a job to start at the end of my retention
second time I took 2 days to mope as I was more annoyed! Then started looking at jobs that paid what I wanted, and were what I wanted, near where I live, then further out, then jobs that paid ok but I didn’t really want and so on. Applied for JSA and UC
secured a new job after 9 days

yes it’s tougher than it used to be but it’s not horrendous. We are currently recruiting, 50% don’t reply to interview request and 50% of those people that do don’t even turn up for interview.

I think you are very wise to hope for the best and plan for the worse.
From the list you made:
Swimming £42 (council run swimming lessons)
Children's clothing etc allowance £150
Christmas savings £75
Pocket money £45
Sports club £60
Horse riding £140
Coffee beans £22
Children's savings £200
Cleaner £140
Netflix £19
Prime £8
Claude £19
Rock climbing £35
Beer52 £25
Lottery £10

I would only keep Tutoring £140 (eldest is dyslexic). Everything else, you can pause until September. Then you reassess.

Cutting expenses is one thing, trying to bring some money in is another. It might be easier for you to get a weekend job. Care, retail, restaurant, ...

When my husband was made redundant a few years ago ago these are the things we did

• cancel gym
• cancel subscription tv (as you don’t have a tv license then maybe keep which subscription is cheapest or that you watch the most)
• review all our utility and phone bills to see if we could switch to something cheaper
• switch to shopping at Aldi and buy less convenience food
• really track all those little bits of spending (coffee out, lunch out, etc)
• sold things that we had at home that we no longer used (mostly old tech)

The redundancy managed to stretch until he found a new job and although we relaxed somewhat when he found a new job we also realised how much money we’d been spending on nothing and now have a better handle on our budget.

Possibly not what he wants to hear but when I worked in decent hospitality I could easily take home 500 a month in tips on top of my wages. It's hiring season too

Another suggestion.
While hes not working you can move some tax allowance so you pay less tax, but obviously that depends on how much hes earnt this year already etc.
I would suggest applying for any job, not industry specific. Join indeed and search local super markets, Aldi pays well are are often looking for employees. Anything that pays the bills (minimum wage is still a wage) until he can find something in his field.

I would get advice but consider using the lump sum to pay off the mortgage if it's £14k and their is no penalty clause.

We are in a similar situation, dh big wage earner but made redundant last year. We are using savings to pay the shortfall, we didn't cancel TV subscriptions, as we rarely go out so having good TV options was important.

I went full time, cancelled all non essentials. The bank encouraged us to to meal plan and internet shop . Sold clothes and toys on vinted;!

It's been scary but we are ok, we socialise occasionally but will go for bargains (IKEA sells veg rice £2.50 and free drinks in the week for members).

Dip into your savings.

Sorry to hear this OP. You’ve had some good suggestions, but I don’t think anyone has suggested your DH taking in ironing?

If you log into your account what’s the balance- your bill is sky high! Surely you must have a huge over payment now and even more than you’d need in the winter? Over £300 a month is ££££.

Can you get your water down that also seems high to me although I know it varies depending on where you live.

Things like Netflix etc are all small costs tbh in the scheme of things it’s more about looking at the bigger costs and you’ve got quite large amounts put aside for things like clothes and going out. I would immediately cancel the stuff at the end of your list though - Claude and beer?! I wouldn’t really want to cancel kids swimming.

Ok I see
I think you are catastrophising tbh
Deeeeep breaths and give it a few days
Whilst its sensible to cut back making yourselves miserable wont help
I would give it 3-6 months for DH to find a new job, 100% get rid of the CC debt and increase your hours a work straight away.

The credit card isn't accruing interesting and we can reduce the payment down to about £90 a month. Seems silly to me to reduce the cash pot by £8k - that's 3+ mortgage payments. Or is there something I'm not seeing?

I will ask about increasing my hours but I suspect it's unlikely, and if possible, not quick.

Getting a mortgage holiday can be difficult and they won’t give one unless they can see that you will be able to afford the mortgage at the end of the period. Ie it needs to be well defined with a visible end point. Unless he has a job lined up, you’d be unlikely to get this. Going interest only for 6 months is very easy and can be done online in most cases, no questions asked. It’s part of the ‘Mortgage Charter’ that loads of banks signed up to in covid or when bills went up for the Ukraine war (can’t remember which). Switching to an interest only product is possible but depends on the bank, your situation and the product you are on / when it expires.

I agree, I’m part time on slightly above minimum wage and only earn 1300 a month.