my parnter already does shift work, working for social services in a childrens home, he often does crazy hours, double shifts, does nights at least twice if not three of four times a week. his shifts change every week, and we often only get a acouple of weeks notice, sometimes they can change even after the rotas have been given out.
we have four kids, three school age and one toddler, there is NO way i could get any kind of job to fit around his, his hours are so unpredictable and he has rota support as well, so even when he is not at work there is the possibility of him being called in, ie for staff sickness or because there are problems with the kids he looks after etc.
i have looked at part time work, evenings etc, but dp works three weekends out of every four, and there is nothing available that is flexible enough to fit in with his shifts, let alone to sort out school runs etc.
we rely on ctc/wtc and will be screwed without it, purely because prices etc have gone up so much since we had a family, previously dp earnt the same or less but we survived, now rents/mortgages are so high that we simply couldnt afford to live on just his wage without the ctc.
i suppose we would eventually end up homeless as we would be unable to pay the rent etc and then go on the list for a council house?
we are both university educated and have struggled paying off debt and now have a small amount of credit card debt we are paying off.
we havent lived beyond our means, we budget carefully etc but we will be hit hard by a rise in vat and a cut in tax credits.