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

It is relevant as if he resigned, for example, he may be sanctioned for benefits.

Why did he lose his job @GARLANDGIRL2024 ?

Claiming JSA with £200K in the bank?! WOW!

It changes mine. Firstly, I think he should be the one phoning around to mortgage providers and everything else. He's put OP though enough. She should not have to deal with that hassle, too. And if he lost the job because of not keeping it in his pants, I'd expect him to pick himself up and find something else to do while he applied for long-term employment.

If your husband isn’t working why didn’t he call the bank??

This is a busy time of year when many people need help n gardens, cleaning out their garages or on allotments. He should be circulating flyers or advertising on local sites to pick up some work in between job hunting.

Why should it be means tested? Most people need it at one time or another and (unlike so many of the reasons people claim benefits) job loss is generally an involuntary situation.

When/if he makes a claim the Jobcentre will ask about that - they will ask for his reasons. But you're right, the Decision Maker (DM) may decide that it's not a good reason to leave & that can attract a 3 month sanction. More difficult for DMs to make a decision about being sacked for misconduct as they not allowed to contact the employer &, if the claimant, decides not to give any information, they will decide on the information provided. If the claimant choses to just say that they were sacked & nothing else the DM will say that they don't have enough information to go on & will not sanction - same with leaving voluntarily.

That must have changed as i used to work in HR and we were frequently contacted by JC+ about ex employees now claiming to verify the reason for leaving. There was a special form you had to fill out.

Why can’t your husband call the bank or collect the kids? This is the real issue here.

Yeah but who here has £200k in the bank? Surely someone who has should live off their savings rather than ask us, hard-working people to support them?

That was in the old days of JSA - DMs not been allowed to sent the old JSA84 & JSA 85 letters out since about 1995.

If this was my h who had an affair and lost his job, he wouldn’t be living in the house with me. He’d be a millstone around my neck otherwise.

Workers contribute to JSA so it’s there when they need it.

It’s not a handout, it’s insurance.

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't read your whole post - yes your relative could claim Contribution based JSA as they had paid their Ni contributions in the relevant Income Tax years -usually the last 2 complete tax years before they claimed. It's not means tested so perfectly legal. TBH the Jobcentres leave those people alone to get on with it & concentrate on those claiming Universal Credit.

Hi OP, firstly I am sorry that times are tough. I work in financial services and it should be relatively straight forward to take a short holiday from paying the mortgage. This would give you some breathing space and also reduce your stress levels. I would arrange a specific time to discuss. All mortgage company have slightly different approaches, but you should be ok. DH will I am sure be back in work soon. In the interim is it possible he could contract depending on his profession? That at least gets some revenue coming in.

I'm not that old... this was in a role I was doing in 2011. Definitely a form where you had to say why they'd left etc but maybe it's no longer a thing

Sorry to hear that. Easier saying than done but try not to stress as it is not going to help.

Hope your husband finds a job soon.

Yes definitely no longer a thing - since Jobcentres moved to Universal Credit. Possibly your local Jobcentre was one of the last to be converted - my understanding is that there was a High Court judgement that backdated their decision. I have a friend who's a DWP DM & it's a constant frustration to her.

@GARLANDGIRL2024 Have not read whole thread - and don't think you've responded yet to any questions . I'm so sorry, it must be incredibly stressful.

• Like other have said, look at getting a payment holiday from the mortgage company but also - try to switch to interest-only (if you're not already on that).

• In the short term, if your house is large (assuming it must be) and in a desirable location, you COULD let it out and rent a much smaller place whilst your DH is looking for a job.

• OR, rent out a room in your house?

• Definitely get your DH, once he's over the shock - and it will be a shock, assuming he's not someone who often gets 'redundant' i.e. performance issues - to look at engaging with head hunters and recruitment agencies.

If he was senior (Senior Director/VP level above), look up 'executive search consultancies/firms' - these work on a retained basis for their clients but it would be really good for him to network with these. The big ones are Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Egon Zehnder, Korn Ferry but there are lots of smaller, 'boutique' head hunters that he should reach out to. By networking with them, and making sure he offers to help with 'recommendations', he will be on their radar.

Good luck!

This. ^

I have a feeling the attitude would be different if someone was claiming benefits and won £200K and kept on claiming the benefits 'just because they can,'

This really is a case of 'just because you CAN do something, that doesn't necessarily mean you should!' I find that quite appalling actually - that someone has almost a quarter of a million pounds squirrelled away in their bank account, and they are claiming jobseekers allowance. If there is no limit on savings for it, there should be!

Benefits to the shiftless are not the same as insurance that workers literally pay into. Educate yourself!

Or do you think pensions should be means tested, too?

People with assets are allowed to have insurance against adversity.

I so agree. My suspicion is that, when they rushed the Universal Credit (UC) legislation through someone said 'hey Dave what about contribution based benefits - we will have to put another Act of Parliament in to rescind that Act'. Oh Crap - no time for that, 'Roger quickly write something to cover contribution based benefits into our new Act - you have 40 minutes before it goes to Parliament.' That's how we got the mess of Contribution Based JSA (JSA(C)) & ESA & no real systems in Jobcentres to cover it - this is why they leave JSA(C) claimants alone. 😂

Op have you got any savings you can eat into just to bide your time? I know it's not what you will want to do but just to get you out of this viscous cycle of anxiety for the time being

Of course it's relevant why he lost his job, it may be the last straw for OP

Hoping you're OK OP - no contact from you. Sending you our love. 😘