Husband has lost his job

[GARLANDGIRL2024]

My husband lost his job 2 weeks ago.
It was a well paid job. Our bills are so high including a monthly mortgage payment of £2,200
I have a well paid job but I cannot cover the bills, food shopping at petrol by myself!
He’s been applying for loads of jobs yet to hear back from any.
But I am stressing , when I think about it to much I feel like I’m physically suffocating. It’s causing me such anxiety and even had a panic attack last night. My husband is a very optimistic person and he’s not worrying half as much as me. Says he is being positive and he is very confident he will get a job interview soon.
we have 2 young kids, we cannot lose our home!
we don’t have any friends or family we can ask to help, we done have any savings to fall back on.
i wonder if anyone knows of any help we can get? I tried to call the bank yesterday to discuss with them and see if they can freeze our mortgage payments for a month or 2, but I was on hold for 40 mins then had to end the call to collect the kids from school.
thanks for reading x

This. If you can, when you get the finances back on track, save enough to cover a spell of unemployment or other crisis.

Good luck. It’s terrifying when you don’t know how you’re going to manage… x

Maybe give him a break if he's just lost his job, it's not a nice thing to happen. It's just happened so maybe he needs a week or two to get himself together? OP has also said he's applying for loads of jobs so it's not like his sitting on his arse

We went through this and the anxiety made me so ill. It will work out ok one way or another. So you need to actively find ways to relax. Meditation, yoga whatever. But don't let it eat you up. Get help from the Dr if you need to.

Secondly, he just needs to keep looking for and applying for good jobs. Personally I wouldn't bother trying to find low paid work or temp work. Temp work isn't available these days and they won't take him in a shop etc as he's overqualified. There's little point if it won't pay the bills anyway.

I agree he could phone the mortgage provider. Ours refused to do anything until we defaulted on payments. One of the reasons I changed provider as soon as dh was back in work. But they are all different so worth a try.

DH is in a niche market so it took a while for him to get work. We sold our home and went into rented, paying 6 months up front. Then bought again about a year later. It was actually fine and we ended up in a nicer part of town.

The only thing that wasn't fine was my health afterwards with the stress. So do look after yourself. A house is just a building. Your health is everything.

Remind yourself it happens to people all the time. You can get through it.

OP isn’t getting a break and she’s working full time. They could divide and conquer with these tasks. Also he lost his job 2 weeks ago so he’s already had a week or two

What's his notice period? Did he get any redundancy pay?
Is he working out his notice or can he do the school runs for you now?

Do you have anything valuable you could sell, even to make a bit of a cushion?

I would look at trimming any surplus costs (subscription TV, gym memberships, etc) now.

There is a 6 month mortgage freeze thing you can do. We did it and it was really helpful when my partner lost his job.

It's not clear whether he will still be working though? Sometimes people have a notice period so he may drill be working

This.

Which he should be sorting along with the ruddy school runs.

Do you not realise that some people don't earn enough to have 'spare' cash for those things?

Re finances remember it's incredibly rare for a bank to repossess a house with young children in, they would not want the bad publicity and it's very much something banks do when there is no alternative, the person is not communicating with them and not offering any solutions. One of you should call the bank and let them know and see what the options are but letting them know will help in itself having worked for a bank.

I would also look at cutting costs, looking at all bills, seeing if can get a better deal and cutting out things not needed.

Longer term, once back working, you need to make sure you have savings or insurance to cover this, around 6 months as an emergency fund though anything would be a start. It's very common to lose jobs and if he's in a high paid specialist job it may take 6 months to get a new one. Hopefully he has notice and / or redundancy pay which will be tax free to £30k.

Someone with a mortgage of £2200 should have been able to factor in income protection insurance though as part of the costs.

I would presume he would be eligible for job seekers allowance, it's not much at £92 a week and think it's for 6 months. https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance. I am not sure you will be eligible for anything else with you on a high income as well but might be worth checking https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

Do you have any overpayments on your mortgage? That might help too if you do

Or could you extend the term

I am sure there will be options but you are right to be proactive

Are you entitled to any benefits?
can you cut back on any subscriptions?
meal plan and budget for food
sell unwanted stuff
cut back on everything that is not essential.
if you are running 2 cars then don’t at the moment.
contact everyone you have credit with and explain your situation, they may reduce payments or allow a payment break.
get your husband to phone or email the list of creditors and pick up the school drop offs, you can’t do everything!

The Money saving expert site is excellent at all aspects of finance and also has a good forum where people will give you tips.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

What were the circumstances? Did he get a payment in lieu of notice, annual leave etc? Do you have any protection policies on utility bills etc.

He’s still had 2 weeks ‘break’ and needs to start planning now though

Personally I wouldn't bother trying to find low paid work or temp work. Temp work isn't available these days and they won't take him in a shop etc as he's overqualified. There's little point if it won't pay the bills anyway.

Probably the worst advice I've read on this website. OP and her husband have a high mortgage and other bills to pay for, as well as supporting two children. They have no buffer, so OP's husband needs to be doing everything he can to get some income coming in.

I have just seen your other post saying your DH has been having an affair. I would absolutely be going through all bank statements and finances myself and ideally making sure I am financially independent or can work towards that. Probably explains the lack of savings on 2 high incomes.

Yikes. Agree. What a shit situation for you.

Oh I remember your thread about his affair OP.
That puts a totally different slant on your current situation.

Wow. Yes. It might also explain why DH has lost his job?

He's not much of a partner is he @GARLANDGIRL2024 I am so sorry

Sending you solidarity @GARLANDGIRL2024
I was wondering why he was leaving everything to you. No wonder your anxiety is through the roof.
As others said, go through your direct debit and standing orders, get rid of subscriptions that you don't really need, check your Amazon subscriptions too and ones via your phone account. If you can, move utilities etc to lower monthly payments. Can you do the mortgage stuff online?
I hope you get things sorted one way or another.

I agree that the immediate answer is temp/agency or interim work.

Absolutely