Husband made redundant, 2 small children

[saminamama]

Mortgage 2k a month and 28 years to go, husband and I are mid 30s and whilst no debt, everything is so expensive

2 children 1 a baby of 7 months one a 3 year old due to start school September 2027

I’m on maternity leave and due to return to work in September but will go back sooner and full time to keep us afloat. Full time I earn £2,800
any advice of people who have been through similar

we have some savings but we would need to move if he can’t get into employment soon

gutted and feel like my security has gone in one conversation

Your DH needs to apply for JSA or UC on day 1 of unemployment. This will mean that his NI contributions will be paid and he'll have a (small) income coming in
He should dust off his CV and sign up with recruitment agencies. If he fancies trying a whole new career then temping is a good way in. Also set a time limit on getting THE job and then if nothing is happening in his area of expertise, then he needs to look for A job.

Overhaul your finances.
Does he have insurance protection with redundancy cover on his credit cards?
Can you cancel any subscriptions?
Shop around for cheaper utilities etc.

Does he know his package yet?

Sorry to hear that op. It’s crap isn’t it. Dh was made redundant a year ago now and we have a dd at uni and a teen at home. Hope he manages to find something soon.
agree with pp, get in touch with UC and see what you’re entitled to, unfortunately as you have a mortgage you wont get any help with that. You could look in to a mortgage break, however, be mindful of the rate of interest they’ll charge you after your break is up. Hopefully he’ll get a good redundancy payout to tide you over for a while.

He needs to get a job asap in whatever he can and not just apply to jobs in the area he has worked in. He doesn’t have to put the filler job on his CV

I could have written this myself last year. Luckily DH found a new role but in the time period when we knew he was going to be made redundant we made cut backs wherever we could

We sold our expensive car and got a cheaper one which reduced the monthly payments and reduced the insurance costs

Cancelled Sky (I would happily cancel the TV licence but DH wouldn’t)

When our phone contracts were up we reduced them to sim only

I started using Olio to save some money on food shopping

Batch cooking will also help

If you are on maternity can you reduce down your eldest childcare, if they attend?

You can claim a percentage of mortgage interest when signing on, that was good news to me when I was made redundant. Check everything you can claim for and do so asap. Good luck lovely xx

@saminamama Don’t panic. I’ve been there twice. First time the DC were 4 weeks old and 3 years old. What’s his package? When you know that, go and speak to the job centre about what benefits you can apply for. Speak to your mortgage lender and see if they’ll let you just pay interest for a few months. Are you on mat leave from a job? Could you go back sooner? (In my case I got paid 90% salary for 5 months and my (female) boss would not let me think about coming back before that ran out).

Your DH needs to pull on his contacts, ex employers, anyone to get himself out there. DH has once gone back to a further employer, and once went to work for a client (this was only 2 years ago). What line of work is your DH in?

Obvs - don’t make any big financial commitments, and minimise what you can.

He’s stressed and holding on hope that the consultation later this week will result in his employer changing their mind

i know it won’t and so I’ve started to plan for the worst but he won’t let me speak to him about it at all as he says it’s too much to think about until the consultation meeting later this week

we don’t know the package but looking at statutory minimum (let’s face it they are an American company they are tight) its 3 weeks pay and circa 2k

American company but if office in UK - must comply with UK emoluments laws re redundancy minimum
how long had he been there

don’t let him wallow. He needs to dust off that CV. Tonight

Do you have mortgage repayments protection insurance? That may help cover some of the payments for a bit.

You get a grace period for funded childcare hours, speak to your nursery. You'll lose tax free childcare at next reconfirmation so put extra in beforehand if you can to compensate.

Only after three months on UC and if you are eligible for UC I think.

Very very good point here

You will still be entitled to 15 hours funding

May I suggest that you explain to him that he’ll find the consultation meeting more productive and easier to deal with if the two of you have calmly gone through your options beforehand and made plans?

I’m about to be made redundant and here’s what I’m doing/some points to consider.

• challenging the short consultation period to buy more time, as well as reviewing scoring (if applicable) to make sure it’s fair
• asking the org to make available both advertised jobs and internal possible moves so that they are genuinely offering alternatives
• dont forget he will probably be paid in lieu of working his notice so you can add that on - for me it’s 3 months.
• Any redundancy payments (not inc the notice payment) the first 30k is tax free.
• I will stretch out the date for TFC reconfirmation to the last day I can do it.
• nursery I’ve submitted the funding request for 30 hours for summer term already (before I knew) so this is good until September (it’s not retrospectively adjusted - it’s based on the information at the time of applying).

obviously I’m hoping to find another job asap but no guarantees and I may step away from work to further study.

I would advise having a month deadline from the consultation to get his preferred job (he needs to be networking asap on LinkedIn), then he has to do any job and should be applying for one of those alongside jobs in his preferred industry. There will be something he can do. £2K isn’t much at all and your savings should only be used for emergencies.

Also, are you familiar with the current UK property market? It’s not great so don’t rely on your house selling if you need to or selling at the price you want.

I think it’s always best to focus on cutting expenditure and building income in these situations, rather than using savings and redundancy money (I’ve been made redundant more than once).

How old is your DH? Statutory redundancy increases to 1.5 weeks pay per year served over the age of 40.

He needs to negotiate the best possible package.

DH and I have both been there, me when I was pregnant with my second, and DH during Covid. It is a shock but in the end it wasn’t as bad as we had expected and in hindsight it was one of the best things that happened to us.

I was in a stressful job where you were expected to do long hours and lots of work at home/unpaid overtime. It was fine before kids but I would never have coped with it with 2 young kids and being made redundant forced me to find a new job after maternity leave which fits so much better around family life and I am so much happier and less stressed. Check what he is entitled to, my pay in lieu of notice almost doubled my actual redundancy payout and I found that we could easily cut back on a lot of non essential spending during maternity leave meaning I didn’t need to use much of my redundancy pay.

DH’s redundancy also forced him to find a new job, and although he ended up in one job he wasn’t too fussed on for 6 months or so, he eventually ended up working in a company close to where we now live, with really flexible hours and it suits family life so much better.

Neither of us would have been feeling so positive at the time, but in hindsight it has improved our lives so much for the better. It forced us to change jobs which we may have been reluctant to do as it can be difficult to make that move when you are familiar with somewhere.

if you use tax free childcare definitely find out when you need to reconfirm. I was able to reconfirm just before DH actually lost his job which gave me 3 months, by which time he was working again.

Personally, I would put the house on the market. He will still have to pass a probationary period and it is taking months for house sales to complete. You can always pull it off again.

I waited and waited for exH business to pick up, everything I had is now gone. He was refusing to get a job though, so slightly different.

Mid 30s

Thank you so much, this makes me feel a bit more positive, I know there will be ‘work’ but it’s finding something he will be happy with and we can thrive and not just survive,

life had only just started to settle after my youngest being born; sun out and things looking up

and now this, why can’t life ever just be straight forward even for a short time,

know we’ll be okay,

I don’t know how he can negotiate over statutory pay? Would he have to say there is an unfairness to the situation?

Redundancy is so tough. My advice is not to waste a minute, they won't change their mind, the job will likely be made redundant at the end of the consultation period. Best he comes to terms with that as quickly as possible.

Then as others have said, get the CV updated, start job hunting (even if there may be internal opportunities) it is best to have more options than you need. He will get paid time off to attend interviews (usually after notice is served, but most employers permit it during consultation). He needs to make it his mission to get some job offers and not wait for this to be done to him. Total Jobs, Indeed and Reed are all good search websites where you can upload your CV and employers will proactively approach you too as well as you applying for jobs. Good luck.

This is now a loan and has to be paid back with interest.