I'm being made redundant on the 30th June. I work part time over 3 days, my son goes to nursery on them 3 days between the hours 8-6.
I have been looking for a job for around 6 weeks now I've probably applied for around 40 jobs, I've had 2 interviews but keep getting told we're not taking your application further. We live in a rural area so most jobs are over an hour a away with traffic so trying to get a 9-5, an evening job or weekend work it feels impossible as there isn't a lot about that meet those specific requirements where I live. A lot of 12 hour shifts in factory, care work and warehousing but I can't do the shift patterns.
My issue is if I don't have a job come September not only does my redundancy money run out we also will lose the free childcare hours which means if I want to keep my son in nursery we'll have to pay 800 a month which we definitely can't afford when I have no income. We're not entitled to UC because my partner earns 32k around 26k after tax but his salary just covers our bills not including food so it's going to be tight!
I would have no choice but to take him out of nursery but my problem is nursery/childminders around where I live have a 1 year waiting list for spaces/cancellations so if I then find a job how am I able to get him back into nursery/ how am I supposed to afford nursery until I'm working it feels like such an impossible situation.
The best I could hope for is wait until he is 3 years old then he'll be eligible for 15 hours of childcare but that's almost a year away and even then that's basically two days of childcare.
Few things to note:
.We have no support from friends or family to help us with childcare.
. My partner work's away 2 days a week leaving the house at 6am back at 7pm so I have to do any childcare drop offs on those days.
. I am applying for 9-5 jobs, evening work and weekend work but it's very limited and often get told I need to be flexible any days even if it's a 16 hour contract which obviously I can't be.
I'm applying for full time and part time as long as it fits around childcare as I could put my child in nursery full time if they have space.
Has anyone been through this or know of what I can do?
We could probably put nursery fees on a credit card for a month or two so he keeps his place but it's a risk because if I don't get a job within those months the interest will accumulate and we'll have no way to pay it off.
It's so stressful!