Dd has been made redundant

[BooberFraggle]

Feel so sorry for her, her boss has decided to fold the company with immediate effect and sent everyone home yesterday. Sounds like they’re all getting a months wages which is something.

she still lives at home so at least there’s no major financial worries though I guess it will impact on me/dh as she won’t have money for food/petrol, etc.

she only found out yesterday and has applied for another job already so is being proactive. But she is going back to uni in Sept/oct for a Masters so just needs something for the next few months.

i assume if she is applying for admin type jobs to tide her over not to mention going back to uni in 9 months? She’s also going to look at temping agencies.

Im going to tell her to look into JSA as well. But she’s currently abroad (at her boyfriends) so can’t do that until she’s back in the country I guess. She is meant to be flying back this weekend but is going to ask BA if she can change her flights as she doesn’t see the point in coming back now as she doesn’t have to be at work on Monday.

@BooberFraggle you have my sympathy as the same happened to my DS last September. Unfortunately he had moved to a new city for this job, took on a year long (expensive) rented flat and was just making new friends and joining new clubs. Poor lad can't find anything else as everyone has stopped recruiting after the Budget. He managed to get some temporary work the week before Christmas but nothing since and now has to move back in with me when his contract ends on the flat next month.

I am gutted for him - he's worked so hard since Uni, worked in a very boring job for a couple of years after firms stopped recruiting in his field during Covid, self funded a Masters then finally got this job in a related field 14 months ago.

He's applied for so many positions since then but nothing. He applied for UC but his claim got cancelled as he missed a weekly meeting because he was on an induction for his temporary job! They said it would be OK to miss the meeting for that reason so now he has to start all over again.
Thankfully his Dad is rolling in money right now so is paying his rent and living expenses for a couple of months.

You can apply for JSA on line, so you could do this for her, as there's a delay in payment / you lose a week. She can also send her CV to agencies now, so start the ball rolling.

It depends on why the company has folded as to what and when she gets any money, along with any additional monies due.
Worth checking ACAS https://www.acas.org.uk/manage-staff-redundancies/work-out-redundancy-pay

Always ask / confirm attendance / non-attendance for UC on your journal to the Job Coach and Service Centre just to cover all the bases, (no journal for JSA) and ensure that the confirmation is in writing too. Any excuse to not pay or sanction and it will be taken and what you say is often forgotten!

The job market is hard at the moment. Your DD should not have problems getting new style ESA as long as she has paid NI contributions over the past 2-3 years. If this is not the case then she would need to claim Universal credit instead.

@YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME he said he did all that and it still got cancelled. However he is a bit ditzy sometimes so I do wonder if he didn't follow something up when he should have done. He's put another application in so hopefully he will get something to tide him over.

Thanks everyone, she’s only had that job for the last 13 months so has definitely paid NI for that length of time. Prior to that she hadn’t worked for six months but prior to that she’d had a part time bar job. Not sure she earned enough for NI but it was official (not cash in hand). But good to know she can get either JSA or UC.

im not rolling in money, but we’re not skint either. So we can afford to support her even if we have to tighten our belts a bit. I think the new wool coat I’d just ordered a real splurge/treat might be going back to Whistles though!

@blobby10 thats awful for your son, especially with just having moved to a new place. It’s good his dad can pay stuff.

dd says the company had just taken new staff on, one person has been there a month and someone it was his second day!

apparently the company isn’t even in financial trouble, the owner has just decided to fold it. Sounds odd to me, whether he’s being truthful I don’t know. But he does have another unrelated business so it could well be he’s decided to focus on the other one. His other business doesn’t have staff so Dd can’t move over to that one. I guess if his second company is less hassle/makes more money it makes sense for him.

It may be that one of the sections you need to complete, when opening the claim, was missed and that would lead to an issue too. Easy to do and I used to help others claim UC and you need to work through the sections and ensure you've ticked all the boxes. Might be worth you going through it with him, as another pair of eyes always worth it!

Given her going back to Uni in September, I'd probably say working with temp agencies might be best. I'm not sure how much admin temp work there is nowadays, but she might find a maternity cover job perhaps.

Or, could she try and seek out a paid internship in a relevant role for her degree?

We've had someone working for us part time recently while studying for their degree (which is connected to our work) and we're hoping she'll come back and work for us full time when she finishes.

Sounds like they’re all getting a months wages which is something.

She needs to check whether the company is going into voluntary or involuntary liquidation, and compare her contract terms and statutory redundancy entitlements against what she's being offered.

On a practical job-hunting level, she should also request a written reference now. Once the business closes it may be harder to get a reference from her current employer.

I don’t think she’s entitled to redundancy pay as has been there less than two years.

i told her about the reference request so thank you. Good idea.

Paid internships related to her degree are like rocking horse shit. And this is actually what this job was essentially. So in her industry she has to do 2x year long placements before she can qualify. A year ago this was one of only a handful we saw advertised in the whole country. Most of her ex UG cohort are doing shop work, etc. she was very lucky to get the year.

I’ve told her to make sure she gets evidence of her year with them as well as her references

Ah, that's extra gutting then. Your poor DD.

I'm sure she's probably already doing this, but if not, she should get onto LinkedIn and start contacting people in the industry too. You never know if an email is going to hit the right inbox just at the right time.

I wish some of our staff were as pragmatic and keen as your DD obviously is!

In this case, I suggest she writes the reference that she wants/needs and gives it to her employer to review or as a suggestion when she asks for a written reference. It's not unusual (except in the UK) to write your own reference for your employer to sign.

Other tasks she should do whilst things are still fresh:

• Update her LinkedIn profile. Get connections with as many people she's come into contact with in her role. Get it out there that she's looking for opportunities.
• Update her base CV, and whilst doing that she'll likely spot things that need to be added to her LinkedIn profile.
• Update her profile on any associations or memberships related to her profession. If they have a careers service or job-seeking service, make sure she's registered with that.
• Check what careers services her UG university offers to alumni. Does the department she earned her degree from maintain industry connections, or a recruitment portal, etc.

Thank you for all the advice. Sadly the chances of anyone in her sector wanting someone at her stage for a few months only will be very unlikely. It will be obvious to most employers that she’d be planning on going back to uni as you can’t qualify without the masters. Any recruitment also tends to happen in the summer after people have finished their UG.

She will definitely update her LinkedIn just in case and I’ve told her to contact local firms and offer her services on a free lance ad hoc basis even if they don’t want to employ someone. She has enough experience to go out and do site visits, etc unsupervised so could be useful.

@BooberFraggle this isn't just advice aimed at getting a short-term position. All of this would be equally valid for someone not already planning on going back for a PG qualification. It's basic career admin at a time like this.

She can get JSA or UC, but it will take 6 months to actually get any money through so may not be worth it when she's back to uni in 9 months.

Blimey what do people without a support network/parents do? Not eat for six months!

Took my DD more like 6 weeks to get UC.
Company let go everyone with less than 2 years service last spring. She was actually relived as was struggling with working from home every day (IT role and they had closed the local office 6 months after she took the job). Took her about 6 months to get an apprenticeship in a new field although she didn’t claim UC at first but used her savings to take them below £6000 first.
It is so good to see how much happier she is even though she is starting at the bottom again.

Glad it worked out for your dd @FluffytheGoldfish

This is not true at all. JSA is paid out within a few weeks and UC is round five weeks.

Well she will fly home this weekend. She’s messaged me asking me not to hassle her about finding a job. That she feels burnt out and has decided she doesn’t want to work for a bit and she’s off to uni in Sept anyway so not much point. Aggghghhhh

she has got a habit of thinking me and her dad are just a source of ready cash who will support her no matter what. And while technically she’s correct it irritates me that she thinks she can spend nine months not working!

before she got her job she wasn’t working from May-December and refused to sign on as it was too much hassle which caused arguments. And have just realised actually that she can’t sign on now as when she was a kid I saved money every month for her and put it in an account with the intention of it being for a house deposit…..so she has too much savings in her name to sign on. Which is irritating when technically it was my money!

You mentioned some of her peers were working in retail. To be honest, that's not a bad option until September. I learned a lot from a temporary retail job that I still apply 20 years later in my professional career.

It's going to be a very boring 9 months with no money then, isn't it?!

I'm afraid my parents made it very clear that they wouldn't tolerate me not working during uni holidays. It's stood me in good stead and I didn't realise how important it was at the time.

I would be somewhat what sympathetic but the redundancy isn't a free pass to lie on the sofa until September. Getting another job will prove she is a safe bet to an employer. Sounds like she needs that edge if her industry is as competitive as you say it is.