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 would seem not - they seem to be maxed out with over £2Kpcm mortgage (more than I've ever earned a month & I was a manager in charge of 12 people in Civil Service for many years)

What about him doing some consultancy in the meantime? I know what you mean, I am always stressing about losing my job and not being able to pay the bills.

Definitely call every financial service you can and ask for a payment holiday.

There are always options, try not to worry too much. Do you have family you could stay with if you needed to rent out the house? Might give you some breathing room if it’s a long term issue?

I think you can get a 6 month break from mortgage?

They had two well paid jobs. Having no savings is nuts

I haven't read all responses so don't know if this has been mentioned already, but call your mortgage company, explain the situation and that you'd like a small break from repayments. They have to try and support you in these situations and would usually allow 2 months or so deferral (you'll keep accumulating interest but the break would help!) And get on job seekers allowance. Good luck and try to remain calm!

I don't understand that. They took UC off my disabled adult kid as soon as he hit 16k in his bank account (doesn't spend anything due to disabilities, lives at home). How can someone with 200k be entitled?

This is JSA, it's not means tested.

It's different to UC

But in a UC area you can't claim JSA. That's blatantly unfair, surely?

Because it’s not the same thing!

UC is welfare for indigent people.
JSA is insurance for anyone who has contributed.

Do you think auto insurance or life insurance shouldn’t pay out if the policy holders have x assets?

Having been in this situation and searching for a role for 8 months, if I had a mortgage this level to pay and no savings my best advice to him would be get to Tesco/Starbucks anywhere and get as many hours as he can and take an Uber eats delivery role in the evening. He can apply for jobs throughout the day easily on his phone. The market is terrible (sorry to say) and the worst thing you can do is wait 3 months to find that out. Get earning now in any way he can. If he finds a permanent job in his professional field quickly he can stop the other jobs asap. You have to do what you have to do. Cut all costs and spending to a minimum. He should also cold call recruiters. The days of agency and temp roles are gone. Best of luck to you. Give him a couple of weeks to get his head around it and be as supportive as possible.

Contact your bank to ask about putting a freeze on mortgage repayments or maybe going on to interest only. Your husband can do that. He does not owe his employer any loyalty so sorting that out should be a priority. Does he have any income protection insurance?

Cut back on all unnecessary spending. He also needs to take any job going if your mortgage repayment is that high.

You can claim JSA, it's a different benefit to UC think you may be confused.
Sorry to de rail OP

He needs to take on all the communications with the mortgage provider and sort out finances to cover your mortgage. He’s not working so he has time surely? And he needs to take on more childcare / house stuff while not working too, you sound so stressed.

Aw thanks for suggesting that, but no, I pay myself too much money, because between the household and my business, it costs £8k net pcm. My kids dont claim PIP or anything either, we just muddle along, but it was a massive shock not working for 9 months 😭
I just hope OPs DH doesn't do what I did and to not claim support.

Tell him to apply for New style JSA immediately It is contributions based not means tested
Do not shoulder his burden for him, or let him bury his head in the sand
He should be doing more daily tasks( including school drop off and collection.
I’ve not seen other posts about your DH, but sometimes it’s worth throwing all the pieces of your life into the air and see where they fall.
I’m sorry things are so stressful for you at the moment

Excuse the obvious question, but is the mortgage held by a bank where you can go in person? That would be preferable.

You've disappeared OP?
If he's optimistic then there must be a reason for that. You have not said if it was redundancy, work drying up on a zero hours contract, sacked for gross misconduct...so we can't judge how likely he is to get employed again quickly.
I wish you both the best though.
Even if he has to take lower paid work I'm sure he will get something soon. And I hope he's on all the benefits he's entitled to?

the thing is they are both high earners and they should be able to budget fro some savings. Since I started work 30 years ago I was putting away £150 a month.

Check to see if you signed up to any income protection insurance when you took out the mortgage. You will need to do some cost cutting and contact the mortgage company to see what they can do to help. You've had some good pointers on here re that by PP. I don't think it's that unusual for high earning men to be optimistic and unbothered in these circumstances, believing that another opportunity will be just around the corner when it might not be, for any number of reasons. This doesn't help you but it's better that you review your finances together and look at cost cutting rather than accrue debt whilst he refuses to be cautious about expenditure. At least you are earning good money OP, that is a huge positive!

Get a mortgage holiday for 6 months, it will give you a break x

What exactly does “lost his job” mean?

Why are you running around after the kids and calling the mortgage provider if he’s off work?

I think mortgage holiday is your best option here. Do you have anything you can sell?

I think you should consider whether you’d be better off without him. He’s been unfaithful to you and now this. I’m going to assume the job loss was his fault as you don’t mention a redundancy payout.

Are you sure you want to stay married to him?

Indigent people? What do you mean?

I hate to say it but this is a good advertisement for not getting a massive mortgage!

It's also a warning to ANYONE no matter how stable and secure you think your job is to get some savings and contingency in place. The economy is getting really bad and I think it will get worse. I hope I'm wrong, but in another 12 months time it may be the case that we are in full recession with no one hiring and a massive glut of people looking. It's kind of like that now to be honest - but it could get 10 times worse.