dh redundant

[aladdinsane]

DH has just been made redundant, this is the first time in our lives one of us has not had a job - we are in our late 40s
He will get enough money to pay off our mortgage so I am thinking that will be our first priority
He has been out looking for a job and applied but no luck as yet and they are all part time
We have 2 DC and I work 21 hours
Any advice on what we can claim

oh no - so sorry for you.
it's scary times isn't it?

benefits are in the process of changing, but I'd recommend have a look on www.entitledto.com or co.uk - can't remember which as am on phone!

basically you put all your details in and it'll tell you what you can claim for.

is his employer providing any job seeking support as part of his redundancy package? alternatively, try going to your local adult education service and they should have careers guidance there around application skills and updating his cc.

good luck

He should at least get contribution based job seekers allowance for 6 months. If you can find another 3 hours work you should be able to claim working tax credits which should bump your income up a bit too until he finds work.

Is paying off the mortgage your first priority? Yes, you will have somewhere to live and not have to worry about that but how will you pay for food & utilities? We're in the same position and have worked out how many months we can survive for paying the usual bills (but with substantially reduced food & sundries budget). If DP gets a new job before we've used up all of his payout, we may then use the remaining redundancy money to pay off some of the mortgage. Or we may use it to bolster our savings having realised that, despite having always been in employment until now, we're as vulnerable as the next person to redundancy.

My Dh got told on monday that he is being made redundant too and he has been there 17 yrs so was a big shock :( He will probably get about 4 months worth of wages so got to hope he gets a new job quickly as I am self employed earning not a lot.

He started looking for jobs immediately despite not being able to leave for a few months and went to see a local company on the off chance. The company is actually looking to expand in the next few months so it could work out really well, so keeping fingers crossed. If not he will do agency work.

Good luck to all DHs in jobhunting. It really knocked the stuffing out of my DH and hope yours are ok.

Good luck to you all