dh leaving the navy, can we get any help to ease back into the real world?

[pinkdolly]

Ok so here is the deal. Dh has been in the navy for 9 years. We have been living in married qaurters for 7 years. Since I was pg with dd1. We are now expecting dc 4 (april) and his official leave date will be soon after in July sometime.

Currently dh earns 29 grand a year. He is leaving to work for our church and will be earning between 22 and 24 grand a year.

We do not own a house of our own and we have no savingsd to fall back on. We pay roughly 490 quid per month on loans and then there are other expenses.

Obviously we need to sit down and work out all our finances properly.

Living in married qaurters so long we have been lavishing in low rental prices and not having to pay much council tax and cheap water rates. But all that is about to change and am finding the cost of renting outside the services quite dauting.

Are there any schemes the navy/forces provide to help you with this transistion. Or do we have to go it alone, so to speak?

Thanx for your advice.

Pink

i think there is a website called entitledto.co.uk (or similar) which you can use to see if you'd be entitled to any benefits or anything like that

Do you mean actual financial help? Or advice?

Just advice really I suppose- I dont expect any handouts or anything. I know there are loads of people living outside the forces on a lower wage then what dh will be earning. But we have been somewhat sheltered from all that and do have some financial committments that might have to be adjusted to allow us to live within this type of budget.

Thanx for the link.

there are lots of different things available/ courses etc through resettlement -not just the 'how to do bricklaying' type but other transition advice. i don't know what the navy system is, but we have a resettlement officer that can provide all sorts of advice on all aspects of the transition to civvy street. i think some services run a week long course which deals with these issues - not sure about navy as a greater percentage tend to have own homes etc so there may not be the demand - worth asking though. has he used up all of his resettlement entitlements?

I think you are very sensible to be doing this. However mad MQs drive us, financially they are a good deal, and the transition to reality can be a shock. we have just gone the other way, and to find that our less than £400 rent includes council tax and water(which alone would come to over £2000 a year) while being aware that a similar sized private rental in the area would be about £2000 a month, was a pleasant surprise. Going the other way will be unpleasant.

I should think that this will be the major financial outlay - but don't forget about Dr and dentist. There must be some info for leavers, but I am afraid I can't help further.

Have a look here Pinkdolly

You should find plenty of info on that site.

we have been in this exact same situation recently all i can say to you is for your dh to get his name down for resettlement courses as asap as sometimes they fill up very quickly or only happen a couple times a year.

Like you we just had a second child and were living in mqs.It was a very stressful and worrying time.However it did work out for us in the end well most of it.

Resettlement run a housing brief so def worth your hubby putting his name down for that as it tells you your housing options etc. If you wish to apply for social housing which we did then You must also get a notice of termination of service or something like that 6 mths before he leaves. You can then send this to MOD housing who will send you a notice of eviction it sounds scarey but this is all part of the procedure.You can then send this to the coucil along with an apllication form or housing association or MOD nomination scheme.

Whatever you do-do not leave the mq's. You have children and therefore have a legal right to be there.We had to declare homelessness but were still living in mq's even after dh left the navy the only difference was we had to pay a higher rent charge which was a £100 more.Mod housing did send us scarey letters of eviction but were lovely, helpful and reassurin on the phone its just their way of giving the council a kick up the bum and rehouse you.

We were very lucky and were offered a lovely 2 bed house (wish it were 3 but cant be ungrateful) just down the road from our mq. I f you need any more advice or info then pm. Dh was only in for 9years too so prob got the same help as your dh.