newbies looking for some advice please :-)

mhacon

hi, I live with my husband and 2 year old son and our lives have been tipped upside down! We have spent the last week on the phone with Payplan trying to figure out a way forward after I lost my job and salary - last pay coming next week. Husband has secure and reasonably well paid job so thats at least something. We are not eligible for any benefits as he earns £24k, other than normal child benefit and £100 a month child tax credits. We have to save £1k a month from our current outgoings just to stay afloat.

I am 5.5 months pregnant. Work were not impressed about that telling me how disappointed they were and had I ever heard of contraception when I told them. They sacked me with a smokescreen of a reason which i'm gutted about as I love my career and up until last week, my job. Having taken Union advice I can't go to tribunal having been employed for only 6 months. Pregnancy makes me unemployable until i've had the baby in May. Plan is to get registered as a childminder so we limit childcare costs for our own kiddies.

Anyway, Payplan have suggested we pay our creditors a token £1 a month as we only have enough income to cover our living expenses and therefore can't arrange any sort of payment plan until i'm earning again. We don't live a flashy existence as it is but have managed to cut back on everything that is not essential and have got an income and expenditure from them.

My question is: does anyone have any experience of Sky and Bannatynes? we have a basic Sky package for our internet, phone and tv that we simply cannot justify at the moment and our Bannatynes membership is also a luxury we can't afford. Payplan didn't advise us if we could move them onto a token £1 a month payment as well?

We lived comfortably and were looking forward to our new addition and now its so worrying.

looking forward to reading through and learning about moneysaving and thank you for reading, hope someone can help!

banwa

Hello, I'm sorry I can't answer the specific questions you have asked re Sky and Bannatyne's, but I just wanted to offer my support and share my fury at the way you have been treated by your employer. It's outrageous and my I feel my face getting flushed with anger just thinking about it. Have you tried Acas?

What right do they have to comment on your family life? How dare they say they are disappointed?

Grr.:mad:..good luck

niccatw

Hi - like banwa, don't really know the answer to your specific questions. I suspect they wouldn't go for token payments but would probably agree to letting you out of any contracts early, meaning you'd need to cancel.

If you're good at haggling, then you could probably get both of them to reduce the prices right down (but perhaps not to £1!). I'm rubbish at haggling but have one friend who successfully negotiated to half her gym menbership when she became a student again, and another who got the price of her Sky package right down because she cancelled and when they tried to win her back, she couldn't afford what they were asking - they reduced at least 3 times for her. Don't know the exact amounts though, sorry.

And I completely agree with banwa- what a horrible way to be treated! I'm speechless! Try to stay positive and not let it ruin what should be such a happy time for you and your family! Take care.

Mr_Mistoffelees

Hello,

I was moved to register to respond to this post.

I would seek a second opinion re your employment. Don't take your union's word for it. Whilst you usually have to work for an employer for a year before you claim for 'unfair dismissal' you may still have a claim for discrimination on the grounds of your sex. I would try a local solicitor who might talk to you for a few minutes on the phone for some quick advice, the CAB or Community Legal Advice (if you can get legal aid). Otherwise you could simply 'go it alone' and make the claim in the tribunal yourself. The form is available on the employment tribunal website. You have to make the claim within three months less a day from when you were dismissed (which isn't necessarily your last day) which is why you should act asap. Good Luck.

mhacon

thank you both for replying x

I will call sky this evening and see what they say and won't have any problems getting emotional as the pregnancy hormones are racing through my bloodstream!

Bannatynes I feel might be a more difficult kettle of fish....a few months ago my husband was going to be working away and we asked to put the membership on hold (like Esporta allow you to do for a small monthly fee) and the answer was simply "No". Will try, if they say yes, great, if they say no then so be it.

we realise that our credit ratings are completely screwed now but family is more important to us and putting food on the table.

My governing body are in shock, colleagues across the UK are in shock and I have cried so much i've got to the point where i'm over it with my job and employers. Husband is more for letting the world know what a bunch of so-and-so's they are....its a real shame he is a journalist!!!

thanks again. Already found the moneysaving food pages and old style for some amazing ideas and where i can cut our £200 food bill way down (although that includes nappies and all the stuff our 2 year needs)

mhacon

Mr Mistoffelees (hope thats right!)

thank you SO much, off to have a look now. I am in the process of writing my grievance letter but I know that any tribunal will accept their reason for sacking me, however they followed no procedures and made it very clear they were peed off about my pregnancy from the outset. It just makes me livid and that they should be made to pay for it.

banwa

Good luck and please keep us posted x

Butti

See where you get with Bannatynes. If you don't have any joy you could always try the 'nice juicy story for the local papers, afterall there's no such thing as bad publicity'.

My parents tried this successfully with Jennings who had sold my mother a car warrenty about 2 months before she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

mhacon

thank you. update after the weekend is both Sky and Bannatynes have said a big flat NO to reducing payments. So...i'm just going to include them in the £1 a month token payment as we have signed an agreement, which we are going to now break but have a duty to pay the remainder of the agreement - even if it will take us a LOT longer than the companies would have liked

so much for these companies having statements saying that they will help customers in financial difficulties

niccatw

I know what you mean - I often feel these company statements on helping folks in financial difficulties are just tokenistic! :mad:

With a bit of luck, the £1 payments might let them see you were serious when you contacted them and you may be still be able to negotiate at a future date. I hope you casually mentioned your husband's job to them both

Have you sent off your grievance letter re. work yet? I'm still speechless on that one! Have been thinking of you over the weekend. Take care

angel.cake_2

Hi

Have you sorted Bannatynes yet? How long have you been a member?

Also, with regards to your employer, you get discrimination rights from day 1. I have recently done a course in Employment Law and the thing we learnt was the a pregnant woman has more rights than any other employee. There is virtually no grounds for sacking a pregnant worman unless gross misconduct such as theft. Even if there are redundancies, most companies would avoid pregnant women for fear of discrimination claims.

I think you should see a solicitor because they will be queuing up to take on your case.