Will try to keep this short. I was/am employed 4 days per week in a very small company. I have had a health issue recently which culminated in surgery and meant a couple of periods of sickness for around 2-3 weeks each time (first period for illness, second for surgery/recovery time). Had a conversation with employers just before surgery in which they informed me they were cutting my hours down to 2.5 days per week (other people were having this done too but not as drastic as me) verbally telling me it was due to my illness. I was a bit 
about this but looking it up it appeared I couldn't claim discrimination as other people were having their hours cut too. Officially it was because there wasn't enough work around. I was told that this period of reduced hours would be kept to a minimum and reviewed monthly.
So given that I couldn't afford to work 2.5 days/wk I started looking for another job, found one and handed in my notice. Completely overlooked the fact that my notice period was 2 months and could have sworn it was one month (which is industry standard). Yes, big cock-up on my part. I explained to employers that I'd messed up and offered to work out some sort of compromise. Employers have dug their heels in and are not only holding me to every second of the 2 months notice but won't let me take my annual leave which would have effectively cut my notice down to 6 weeks. New employers are withdrawing their offer as they can't wait til end April for me. So now I have no job at the end of April.
The people that have secured me the new job are suggesting that I just tell them I'm leaving at the end of March and that's that. However that would mean breaking the contract.
The final piece of this is that mysteriously enough now that I am back from sick leave and fit for the job again I've been put back up to 4 days per week. Just in case you're wondering, new job was secured in a telephone interview on one of my non-working days.
Any advice please? Am in a quandary as to what to do. Still want new job which I can't go to unless I break my contract. No guarantee that I'll get anouther job when I leave in April which would really leave me up a certain creek. Thanks.