No option but to resign.

[edgewater]

I have no one to look after DS from Monday. Our family is 3. DH earns more than double me so he needs to keep working.

I’ve got parental leave I can ask for and also a week off at Easter but we are totally screwed if closure keeps on until after the summer.

Do I have any other options?

No grandparents to ask, no brothers or sisters etc.

Can you ask for unpaid leave until the schools go back? If you're planning on resigning anyway it would be worth asking if they'll keep your job open on the off chance.

Obviously it depends on whether your role is one they would have to recruit for straight away or whether it might be of financial benefit to them to cut payroll at the moment.

Is DS in nursery? If so what’s happening with the nursery worker’s jobs? Could you employ one as a nanny?

There are a lot of ifs and buts but it might be worth looking into.

Speak to your employer. At my place we would be grateful for people to take unpaid leave whilst this is over. We won’t have enough money to cover everyone’s wages for longer than 2 months, but desperately don’t want to lay off loyal staff.

Can you ask them to make you redundant so you can claim UC?

Use parental leave (you can have up to 4 weeks a year) and annual leave. Also your employer might be understanding and allow more leave in light of the coronavirus situation.

Are you a union member? They can help you if your employer is not understanding.

Otherwise the government may well introduce some measures to give employees extra rights during this period - you never know

Unpaid leave? It might help your employer as well if they are struggling with costs.

DS is in primary school.

If I use all of my annual leave now, I won’t have anything for the summer or October holidays.

I’ll look at universal credit.

Thank you everyone for responding. I am grateful.

Unpaid leave (parental leave) isn't the same as annual leave. If you take unpaid leave then it preserves your job and employment record for when things, hopefully, pick up again.

Hold your fire. Everything is changing so fast and you’d be gutted if you resigned just before you were offered the option to take unpaid leave or made redundant or new employment protection laws were passed.

Aren't some schools remaining open to provide child care? Or did I misunderstand that?

Could you work from home? Or take parental leave? Most probably unpaid but as least you'll still have a job to go back too. Maybe offer to reduce your hours and work weekends. They'll have to have some understanding of the current climate.

You don’t really know that unless you talk to your manager. First thing to do

You can't just resign and claim universal credit. There are sanctions for voluntarily giving up a job.

(Also if your DH is a high earner you might not be eligible for UC anyway.)

What is the job - can it be done from home? You won’t get UC if you resign

Take the unpaid leave. Wait. As others are saying things are changing by the day. The government are discussing universal income for all as being an easier, immediate option.
It could happen as the alternative seems to be a crash worse than America in the 1930s