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

Not so easy, say if you live in the SE and don't have family help - just to get roof over your head now, a standard family house no frills, means many people are mortgaged up to the hilt. It's like a modern form of indentured labour, only with indentured labour you didn't have the risk of losing your job and still having the debt

I am surprised they have no savings. Even £25/£50 a month (if a high earner) is useful. Obviously more difficult if low income.

The thing is, even these are had to get. My nephew (recently left navy) had to go through 3 interviews, one of which was all day, for a minimum wage job at Asda.

I would just focus all his efforts on getting another good job that uses his skills and qualifications. There will be less applicants for these jobs but they'll be very well prepared. Upsell any of his USPs and skills that he has gained. Take online modules to boost his CV and research areas that are relevant to his industry eg: AI, Compliance, HR. Business intelligence.

Make sure all social media presents him well and get signed up with recruitment agencies.
Consider temping in his field to make contacts.
Are there any upcoming conferences he could attend as recruiters often attend these.

Work out max commute time and don't waste time applying for anything outside this.

Good luck. I've been there and it's so stressful.

Sorry OP, I've only just read about his affair, I'd actually have left him at that point.

Great advice.

Has he had no redundancy pay? Or are you waiting for that to come through?

Contact your mortgage company and any other creditors asap and explain the situation they may be able to give you payment holiday or reduce your payments temporarily

I don't think he was made redundant

Can you clarify the nature of the job loss? Company folded? Redundancy? Misdemeanour on his part leading to the sack? What happened? It makes a difference: if, after everything he put you through last year, he's now done something in the workplace that's led to him being dismissed then you need to get rid of him. He's not the type of person you can build a life with.

It could be - gross misconduct as lots of places have strict rules about relationships with colleagues - if so there would be no redundancy and her dh is an arse

If he signs up with an agency he could likely be in a minimum wage job within the week, which would go a good way towards your mortgage payments if you could stretch to cover the rest. He really needs to do this as his 'optimism' will likely mean he may delude himself about how easy it will be to find a new job, and weeks will go by with no money while he applies, waits to hear, tries again etc. He can look for a better job while in whatever job he can find. If you really can't manage everything if he does that, then you need to prioritise, mortgage, utilities, council tax and food. Any other non secured debts are the ones you need to be making arrangements on.

That’s the angle I was coming from when I asked the OP if losing his job was anything to do with his affair as @Blushingmstates “…lots of places have strict rules about relationships with colleagues……”

If he was dismissed for misconduct he might have to wait 13 weeks to claim benefits.

Why did you stay with him after two years of lying and betrayal?

Actually it is. No fault of his own? Fair enough. If his conduct finds him dismissed, OP has bigger issues.

Just to confuse things there are two types

https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/jobseekers-allowance/

but even if you just sign on to get your NI contributions for 6 months that's worth it.

I haven’t made a post on here but my partner lost his job about 6 weeks ago. I don’t work as our child is severely autistic.

He arranged informal meet ups with people to see if they were looking for anyone (it’s how you get some professional jobs in my city - it’s weird the first time you do it - I’ve done it before and it actually works).

He found something. Two offers came in at once and he starts this coming week.

There was about a week where nothing was happening but that was because of the Easter holidays.

This is what savings are for. This is what termination of employment payments are for. How much did your husband get as a payout? I’m not asking the dollar amount - I’m asking how many weeks. Surely he gets annual leave paid and some notice/redundancy?

Even if you don’t have savings you are going to be ok.

Your husband needs to call the bank and stay on hold for an hour and work out a deferred payment due to job loss. Then he needs to apply everywhere and ask around if any places will be hiring in future. When your money runs out you can put things on your credit card and pay back the credit card when he starts working again.

You’re going to be ok.

I had considered worst case scenario and that would mean changing cities - but we didn’t need to do that.

Was true once upon a time, but was increased to 26 weeks many years ago for JSA claimants, and these days can be 91 days (which about the same) if claiming Universal Credit which they probably won't qualify for due to OP's earnings.

But didn't a previous poster say that the jobcentre can't ask former employers why someone left employment? So what's to stop anyone just saying they were made redundant?

Yes I said that & you are correct. If Jobseeker says they were made redundant, other than asking for last 3 month's bank statements (which should show redundancy payment) they have to accept what they're told. Equally if Jobseeker says they were sacked or left voluntarily & refuse to give any further information the DWP Decision Maker will decide that they don't have enough information to make an adverse decision on & won't sanction.

Frankly at that first Jobcentre meeting the Work Coach has too much to pack into the 30 minutes that's allowed for that first appointment & they don't question the Jobseeker too much about why their last job ended. They're too busy making sure that they have an effective CV, looking into their work history, any barriers to finding another job, telling them about the conditions of entitlement to benefits, answering any questions, creating an action plan & Jobseeker's Commitment, referring them for help to create a CV, budgeting advice etc.

I've been in this position and in spite of my husbands optimism and words he was lazy . Luckily he got 9 months full pay a largish settlement and a retraining grant . He used none of it to help the household and sat watching tv for 9 months whilst I cooked cleaned and earned the money . In the end I gave him a job in my company and regretted that decision as he clung on to it long after we divorced .
Im sorry I'm sure this is not what you want to hear or is the case in your life.
i had to just really budget and ring every company I had debt with and make arrangements . He took nothing to do with these negotiations.
Any wonder we divorced

Most income protection policies don't cover job loss or redundancy only illness !

You can get specific redundancy insurance that's what my DH has.

Hi
Are you able to message me the name of that agency please? My hubby has been made redundant and is in technology. Any help gratefully received.
thanks x

You can get him to sign up to Evri- money not amazing but can earn quickly