Redundancy and nursery

[User2847929]

DC is in full time nursery, receives 15 funded hours and I pay through tax free childcare. It's looking likely that I'll be made redundant soon: I doubt it will be anything more than statutory pay (we don't seem to have a policy on this). Just wondering how anyone else has coped with this? Nursery has a waiting list so I can't just pull DC out and then put him back in when I get another job, but of course the funded hours and TFC will disappear if I'm not working. The plan would be to get another job but of course that may take some time, and I'd need childcare for interviews (no family help and all friends also work full time). I really can't afford to spend all redundancy on nursery fees higher than when working but I just can't see a way round this.

I really should be asleep but instead I'm worrying about nursery....

Depends so much on your field or whether you can pick up temporary work. When I was let go I worked in a shop for a few weeks whilst I job hunted to tide me over, got that between being told I was being let go and my final day (2 weeks)

Remember you do get a grace period so if you were to find another job quickly and depending on when you are actually made redundant you may not have an issue

there is a grace period. my sister was in this exact situation. She was madw redundant and time to renew her hours came and so called them and explained situation and said she is about to receive an offer and actively looking so they have extended by another 3 months

Thanks - I didn't realise there was a grace period, I just presumed that if I was made redundant I wouldn't be able to renew for the next period. Ideally I'd cut his hours down to two days a week while I'm job hunting but if I do that I suspect it would be difficult to get him full time again.

We had this recently when my job ended. We threw savings at nursery, then reduced DD to 4 days and I now work 3 which covers it. Didn't dare take DD out as it was 9mth waiting list to get in!

I had this around 18 months ago, I was very lucky in that I managed to get another job offer before I was given my official redundancy notice (I started hunting as soon as we were told of consultation period) and had a lovely month off between my redundancy day and starting my new job. Very lucky but I would say to start looking for a new job as soon as possible and don't give up hope. Best of Luck ❤️

Sorry forgot to say, that I was in the middle of my confirmation period it didn't affect my tax free childcare (didn't have funded hours then)

Temp work till you find a new job

If you do temp work you can at least keep the free hours (my DCs are so old we had childcare vouchers so I don't know if all employers have to offer tax free childcare).