Nightmare unfolding in a Wifes eyes! (My experience of Redundancy)

Member Name: scoutingbargains

Product:	My experience of Redundancy
Date:	13/02/09 (240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None apart from making you re assess your financial future

Disadvantages: Stress, debt and unsecurity

My experience of redundancy is based on my husbands very recent redundancy.

I'll let you in on a few details about us so this review makes sense. Been with hubby for 10 years, got an 18mth old money eater (toddler), a morgage, finance on the car, an overdraft that we live in etc etc.

Hubby has never been motivated enough to qualify in anything. He thinks that he's not intelligent enough for college etc but this simply isn't the case. He excells in practical tasks so would be best suited to a work based learning programme. Because of his lack of self belief he has gone from one manual job to another.

Hubby was a removal man for eight years. He loved his job, he was out and about every day travelling sometimes hundreds of miles each day. Each day was different for him and he loved it! The pay was 'average' (nice way of saying he didn't earn alot) but him being happy was more important than a big salary. After all, we couldn't expect a big salary for an unqualifed manual job.

When my son was born in 2007 it changed our lives so much! I was on maternity leave for six months in which time I obviously wasn't bringing in a wage as such so the bills kept coming and we slid slowly into our overdraft. My maternity leave finished and I was due to go back to work on four days a week (with on call & weekends). I tried my hours and hated it! I couldn't bear carers bringing my son up and I was missing out on so much. I quickly asked work to go part time to which they obliged. We couldn't really afford my drop in salary (approx half from when I was working full time) but I was close to a depression so something had to give and It wasn't going to be my sanity!

What with hubbys low wages and my reduction in salary things were going to be tight for a while so we agreed that I would locum to bump our income up a bit. I'm still locuming but even with this extra work we have been unable to replace our savings due to our outgoings.

Then the ground opened up and it felt like we were sinking quickly when hubby comes into my work and reports that he was going to be made redundant at the end of January. All I could think about is our overdraft that we live in and the bills that just keep on coming.

Hubby certainly didn't sit on the news of his impending redundancy and got down to the job centre the same day to see what was about, but i'm sure as many will already know there just aren't many jobs about at the moment. He started to apply for anything and everything that didn't require qualification. He even applied for carer jobs! I registered his details with every temp agency registered (to which we are still waiting to here from despite chasing them). He has applied for so many jobs it's unreal, most of them he didn't want to do but in our financial situation beggars realy can't be choosers!

On the last day of working for the removal firm a client mentioned that he was looking for staff. Hubby and his work mate quickly gave him their details and forgot all about it. I got a phone call from the company a week ago to ask hubby to go in for a chat and he came home saying that his first day was the following night! Suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel!! The hours and pay are appaling but at least it's a job and we'll have a full time income soon.

It had been a hellish three weeks in total. Two whilst he was still in work and one whilst he was out of work. I stopped eating through stress. Every time I looked at food I felt very sick and besides that the freezers were full at the time and I wanted to save what food was in there for my little boy. It sounds extreme but as of the day that hubby was informed we haven't made one withdrawal from our account as we knew that we just couldn't as every penny was needed for bills! I didn't know when I would be able to go on a food shop again so I was on conservation mode with the food. At the end of the day, as long as my little boy ate well I didn't care about me (I can afford to loose weight anyway).

It sounds awful but I remember my Grandmother telling me that I would be a benificary of her will so I even asked her if I could access some of the money now to tie us over but unfortunatley it was locked in somehow. It felt like my world was ending. I'm such a worrier anyway so this was absolute hell! Thankfully my parents gave us £500 to help. It's not done a thing for the bank account but it has ensured that we could all eat, I could put fuel in the car to do my extra work (seventy miles north), I could put new tyres on the car and obviously pay the odd bill here and there.

Hubby being made redundant has made me look at our finances is a completely new light. I'm going to work my backside off so I can get rid of the overdraft and put our account in plus for the first time in years. Then i'm going to save some money so god forbid that this happen to us for a third time at least we'll have something to fall back on!

This extremley stressfull time as put a massive strain on our relationship but I think we'll be fine. I've told hubby that I just can't go through this again as I was the one to bail him out the last time before we were married. I appreciate that he didn't ask for this to happen but as the main wage earner and a father he needs to do his best to secure a job somehow. One of the jobs he has applied for is as a Police Community Support Officer. At least is this kind of public service role we would hope that a job is as safe as it can be unlike an unskilled role.

One of the final insults to us is that his former boss couldn't pay hubby is redudancy package due to the way that he was folding the business so we have had to fill out endless paperwork to get what hubby is entiled to. With any luck the National Insurance contributions place (which who pays for redundancy) will process the claim as soon as possible but then again with the amount of claims going in we may well be in for a bit of a delay. The plan is to wipe out the overdraft with the settlement and then at least we'll have made some headway into the debts that we've created.

While i'm talking about organisations, the Job Seekers 'allowance' is £30 a week! That doesn't feed a family for a week let alone help with the bills. The only way out of redundancy is to find a job somehow and claw yourself out. How people can stay claiming benefits is beyond me! I just can't understand how they can pay bills and eat for £30 a week.

The Citazens Advice Bureau would be able to point you in the right directions of your entitlements (and this was the next step for us). If you're claiming Tax Credits then you could get an adjustment but you would need to arrange this with them to find out how much extra you would get. Apparently you can get a council tax partial rebate whilst unemployed. All these little things don't really amount to much but when you're worried about bills every bit of help offered should be taken.

If you are reading this and you've been made redundant, try to keep positive. Hunt jobs down and apply for everything! Something will come up and in the meantime, slash your outgoings as much as possible and accept help when it's offered.

Summary: Redundancy sucks!!