Husbands lost his job.

[Tiredprobably]

We've been careful for a while now but now know come Friday there's no more work. I've been Reading up on all the tips on making shopping cheaper etc and am off to lidl when the freezers empty, any other ideas for serious cutbacks?
We have an 11 month old who I've been at home with, no option for family to look after him, am I able to get any benefits at all? I'm not sure working I'd earn enough to justify paid child care, we've been managing to scrape by since my maternity pay ended 3 months ago. Hopefully a job will come along soon, it's all really unsettling.

Your husband needs to phone the jobcentre to claim job seekers allowance. You can also claim child tax credits and ask for it to be backdated.

Speak to your local council about claiming housing and council tax benefit too.

It's worth you looking for work as well as your husband and one of you can stay home with baby if you're successful in finding work. It might be possible to claim help with child care costs through tax credits when you do find work.

Good luck

Are you claiming JSA? For the two of you together, claiming as a couple, you should get JSA of about £105 a week. Plus child tax credit, if you are not already claiming that. You should also be able to apply for Housing Benefit & Council Tax Benefit if you have no savings of note. It's not a fortune by any means but it is definitely worth speaking to a Benefits Advisor to make sure you are claiming all you are entitled to.

I really hope a job comes up for one of you, if not both, very soon. Oh, and if you are working then you can claim part of your child care costs back through your Tax Credit claim (assuming you are using a registered child care provider, like a nursery or childminder). I don't know how much that would be, but worth asking.

Good luck .

X-posts .

Thankyou everyone, who do I ask? Do I go to the job centre?

Morning tired. My DH was made redundant whilst i was on ML, its such a shock, and so scary when you have a little one to think about, isn't it?

Let's start with benefits - have a look here www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

or here www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DoItOnlineByCategory/DG_172666

I think there is a number you can call as well, someone hopefully can help you find that.

Are you on ML, or has that ended? Or would it be easier for you to find a job than him right now? Because you woulnd't need childcare if he isn't working, so that's one cost you won't need to worry about.

Concerned that you seem to be taking this all on yourself when it should be a team effort and shared responsibility. DH should be at the Job Centre the first opportunity he gets and you could look at online Benefits Calculator for what other help is available. Good luck

Hi, thanks for all your support. He is running round in circles a bit ergo but we have an appointment at the job centre in the morning, I'm not sure what to expect or what they will ask. I'm a bit worried! Does anyone know what they will ask?

They will check identity, proof of any other income, bank statements to check you have no savings and his P45.

They will want to know what sort of work he is looking for and what hours and area. I think you get 3 months to look for whatever you like, then you have to modify your search to accept more work.

So for example, if you want to be a part-time astro-physicist with a salary of £75000, you can look for that for 3 months. After 3 months, you look for work as an office clerk or till operator on £18000!

Hope it goes well.

If DH isn't working then why can he look after the kids rather than you paying for childcare while you go back to work?

Get in touch with your local Surestart Centre too. Ours has a lady from the Jobcentre who specialises in benefits that families can claim, and how it is best to do so. She was far more helpful than the JobCentre when DH's hours were cut.

Can a stay at home parent really get job seekers allowance? Surely only one of you can claim it

The claim is made by the job seeker, who also claims for the SAHP (and DC -through Child Tax Credits is it now?).

You have probably found this out by now, but any redundancy money is supposed to be used for living on, I think.

I have just seen this had been looked at again so I thought I'd update. We went to our appointment I was willing to work and him stay at home it was just the intrim period before either of us had work that was my concern. However within 15 minuets of arriving he got a job starting the next day! Problem solved! Thankyou all for your support, I will continue to be thrifty as it's a temp contract and am going to train as a childminder so he doesn't feel so responsible

It's so nice to hear everything works out. Everyone is worried about redundancies atm, so it's good you can train as a childminder to lessen the burden on the family finances.