Flying gleefully into 2009 - One Fresians adventures in debt-busting

kissjenn

flying_fresian wrote: »

• If I take redundancy on a voluntary basis my mortgage insurance wouldn't pay out - Check the policy but insurance is usually based on you having no choice so you may well miss out. Same with JSA, they can suspend payment if you choose to leave so worth checking out in advance.
• Any future benefits could be impacted depending on the size of the lump sum - Income based benefits will probably be as they take a nominal rate of income based on savings over a given threshold. In English that means if the threshold is £6000 for something and you have £10,000 in the bank they will ignore the first £6,000 and assume you make £1 a week for every £500 over so in this case £8pw. In some cases it comes straight off in others you find it's tapered. All very dependent on your personal circs and what you claim. They can also count savings you no longer have if they feel you have disposed of an asset to gain benefit. So using the example here, if you paid £4000 off the mortgage to get down to £6000, they can still count it as being in the bank. Benefit thread could probably advise or CAB can do a benefit calculation for you and advise what's available. Thresholds vary by benefits. Also consider a Council Tax rebate.
• My payout would be tax-free as it's relatively small. - You get up to £30k tax free as long as its truly redundancy money. If they add in days in lieu of notice or holidays or compensation for share schemes etc all those monies are taxable in the normal way. You usually get a letter splitting out the final payment. Normally you find you get the redundancy you were expecting plus all the odds and sods you get when you leave any job.

Hopefully that helps a wee bit. I'm sure the other threads will have far more complete info but I'd honestly check with the CAB. Ask for a Benefits Check, they should go through all the options with you. Other thing you maybe entitled to at the end of the tax year is a tax rebate if you decide to take some time out before jumping into another job.

moo2moo

If you have 2 weeks to decide then you also have 2 weeks to trawl the job centres, employment agencies and anything else you can think of to see what is out there. There are lots of jobs available round here that no one seems to want to do. OK they don't pay fantasically and the hours aren't great (which is why no one wants to do them) but theres still plenty on offer. If you are going to move to the sticks this seems the perfect opportunity to do it. If you're prepared to live on your redundancy frugally then you could also live on minimum wage or even two part time wages whilst you find a job you do want to do.

Can Mr F-F find a part time job to give you a bit of breathing space? The bigger question is could you cope mentally if your next job was 15 hours a week at minimum wage working in a pub or a shop or as a cleaner? Its a hell of a change from management to skivvy.

mooomin

moo2moo wrote: »

Can Mr F-F find a part time job to give you a bit of breathing space? The bigger question is could you cope mentally if your next job was 15 hours a week at minimum wage working in a pub or a shop or as a cleaner? Its a hell of a change from management to skivvy.

It's not a huge change for me to be honest. I am "Manager level" but not a manager - it's only because I have a certain level of responsibility that I am classed like that. Before I took this job I mainly worked in shops/waitressing and have no problem with hard graft to pay the bills.

Mr Fresian could find a job, but with his mental health issues I don't want him to feel any pressure to work to keep us with a roof over our heads, as if we become dependant on his wages again and he can't cope.....that way danger lies.

mooomin

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 2

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 1125 Wouldn't have it if I chose redundancy
Other................................ 10 This is the £5 Reward payment from my Halifax accounts
Other income............................ 355 Flatmates rent/bills money - wouldn't have this if we moved
Total monthly income....................10 :rotfl:

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................350 Guesstimated - currently less based on staff mortgage rate
Council tax............................. 122 Includes water as in Scotland
Electricity............................. 87.5 Gas and electric at present - would hope for less
Telephone (land line)................... 20 Would be for internet only
Mobile phone............................ 30 For me and OH, both on £15 per month contracts
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 Would reduce from £200
Clothing................................ 0 Haven't bought new clothes in months. Don't need anything right now so I'm happy budgeting as zero for the timebeing
Other travel............................ 0 We may have to look at a car if we move North though.
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 22
Buildings insurance..................... 16.47 For flat in dodgy part of Edinburgh, may be less for nice house in nice area - this includes staff discount though
Life assurance ......................... 20ish
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10 + anything in my Sealed Pot
Haircuts................................ 0 I rarely get my haircut, and tend to only do it when I have spare money
Entertainment........................... 20 Will reduce from £50 if we move
Holiday.................................10 For me and best friend to go to London for 2012 Olympics
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Union...................................0 Would be cancelled if I no longer worked with Big Bank
Total monthly expenses.................. 879.92

Assets

Cash.................................... 800 Woo Savings!
House value (Gross)..................... 110,000 This is a guesstimate tbh
Shares and bonds........................ 400 Roughly, shares in employer. Worth about 10% of original value

Total Assets............................ £111,200


Secured & HP Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 49053....(214)......0

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Loan...........................6338......129.......7.9

Including my loan payment, my total outgoings would be £1008.92. Hmmm....that's quite scary when you look at it.

XSpender

Hi F_F

I am sorry to hear that you may be made redundant. There was a communication sent out yesterday to say that 700 jobs were going in the bank but they didn’t give any indication where they would be.

I don’t have much advice to give only to say that when I was made redundant some years ago I got £5k almost 5 months wages. It took me almost 3 months to get a job at a salary £10k less than the one I was on in a job I hated.

If you move up north will you rent or buy? It may be difficult to secure a new mortgage if OH is not working and your income is reduced. My friend was made redundant in Jan and her and her OH tried to remortgage a very small mortgage to reduce their outgoings and they found it very difficult just on OH wage.

It took this friend 3 months to find a job in retail management again at a store she didn’t really want to be in and a further 2 months to find a new job at a similar store to where she had been made redundant from.

Will they put you on garden leave? I think that this can affect your redundancy pay if you take a job in this time. Not sure about this but the people made redundant at my part of the bank don’t leave until September then are on garden leave for 3 months and if they get a job in this time they lose their payout. Might be worth checking.

It seems to me that employers look more favourably on candidates that are currently employed than those who are not which is bl00dy unfair when it’s not their fault they were made redundant in the first place. I once went to an interview when I was made redundant for a job that was ideal for me to be quizzed by their HR officer for 30 minutes on why I was made redundant and no one else (I was the only one who did my job!). I nearly walked out. Needless to say I didn’t get it and they later went bust.

XS

5*shopaholic

hi ff
sorry to hear the latest news is affecting you
OH came home and told me
lots of my friends are in the same position
are you in the union? because they are really good with advice in these situations (you pay your fees use them!!!)
good lick and keep us uptodate

mooomin

5*shopaholic wrote: »

hi ff
sorry to hear the latest news is affecting you
OH came home and told me
lots of my friends are in the same position
are you in the union? because they are really good with advice in these situations (you pay your fees use them!!!)
good lick and keep us uptodate

\Teehee, I'm a union rep :rotfl:

moo2moo

Total Monthly Expenditure £879.92
Loan Payments £129
Total Outgoings £1008.92

Income from flatmate £355

Total left to find each month £653.92

Minimum wage is currently £5.23 per hour. 37.5 hours per week would bring in £736 after tax and NI.

kissjenn

Hi F_F

Seem to remember you talking about retraining or new career direction. Is that a possible route to take the cash and go and do teacher training or whatever floats your boat? And then move up north with a shiny new career maybe.

pointypenguin

flying_fresian wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 2

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 1125 Wouldn't have it if I chose redundancy
Other................................ 10 This is the £5 Reward payment from my Halifax accounts
Other income............................ 355 Flatmates rent/bills money - wouldn't have this if we moved
Total monthly income....................10 :rotfl:

OK I hate to be all doom and gloom but do you still get the £5 reward if you are not paying in your wages each month?

Hope you are having a better day today after all the stuff yesterday.