The Great 'What to do in the event of redundancy' Hunt

Clowance

Don't feel you are alone. The worst part of redundancy is knowing that you won't get another job that pays as well: Both me and OH have been redundant. I was devastated as no-one else in my area needed my skill set and it was the middle of a countrywide depression in the early 90's. So I went to uni and did a masters on the same sort of scheme for unemployed people as mentioned in an earlier post. Then, because I hadn't been doing nothing, I did get another job (miles away though). Me and 7 other people also took the company to an industrial tribunal and instead of getting about £3000 redundancy, I ended up winning £16000 as they had done absolutely everything wrong in law.
OH was made redundant three years ago after 25 years with a company, he is the main breadwinner. However we had seen it coming and he had begun to retrain as an electrician (1 year in to 3 year course). He is nearly after all this time up to his former earnings now. But we survive.
There are no easy answers but it is not the end of the world.

ceridwen

Keep a record of all jobs applied for (both the ones you mean to get if you can and a lot of other job applications - ie for jobs you dont actually want) - at some point you will be asked to prove you're trying for work if the redundancy has resulted in unemployment. If unemployment might go on for a while - find something useful/interesting to do - eg some sort of study or voluntary work to keep yourself gainfully employed and with a purpose in life. If you have the feeling you might be made redundant - then do the best you can to ensure you dont have any debt and you do have a bit of savings. If you have the "cushion" of a bit of savings - then you can turn down any unsuitable jobs you are offered, whilst waiting for something better to turn up (there is always the option of taking an unsuitable job temporarily - but not telling them they are only a temporary employer -whilst you keep waiting for a suitable job - but the savings are your cushion in case the unsuitable job is WAY too unsuitable, eg a health hazard, unsociable hours, too far away, etc).

Elise1309

I spent the best part of a year out of work after the site I'd been at since leaving University 20 years ago shut down. We got a pretty decent redundancy package and other assistance such as personal recruitment consultants. However the job market at the time (Pharma) was very slow indeed, and it took a lot of highly qualified and very experienced people many months to find work.

My advice would be that everyone should try to make some sort of contingency plan now - however limited - in case it ever happens to them. I couldn't afford payment protection on every single loan/credit card that I had, but I did have two good insurance policies - one with Paymentshield to cover my mortgage and one with Norwich Union to cover a personal loan. Contrary to what you might see/hear on 'Watchdog' etc, both insurers did deal with the claims very promptly and efficiently and paid out in full, without quibble. This was a real lifesaver, particularly as the DWP were absolutely bloody awful at getting benefits payments out on time. I would undoubtedly have lost my home without this cover. Ironically, I couldn't afford the policy offered by my mortgage lender so bought the Paymentshield cover independantly and 'off the peg' as such. It turned out to be one of the best financial decisions I've ever made.

Be prepared for benefit delays - the govt truly are the most incompetant people on earth. There will be mistakes and you will need to have some sort of emergancy fund to tide you over. Be prepared for the fact that new work might not come along as quickly as you think. Consider temporary contracts as a way of getting a foot in. A good number of my colleagues very reluctantly accepted temp posts, yet a significant percentage have now been transferred to permanant positions. It's worth the risk.

Think carefully about what you're going to say to lenders/creditors. The official line is that it's best to be honest and up front about your situation to try to negotiate some flexibility with payments. However, for every lender that was sympathetic and offered a payment holiday or was prepared to accept reduced payments on a loan/credit agreement there were two or three who immediately froze credit accounts on hearing the redundancy news (even if all payments were up to date), or who increased the interest rate as I now represented 'an increased risk'. Don't get me wrong - I would not encourage anyone to lie and pretend they are still in work - but neither would I suggest you widely advertise your jobless status unless you really are approaching imminant and serious financial problems.

Service providers (mobile phones, cable etc) tend to be more sympathetic than financial institutions. Probably because you are likely to owe them less and they can withdraw the service if need be. However, it's worth noting that many will try to help out so as not to lose your custom - for example Orange happily let me downgrade to a cheaper contract with no catches or penalties for doing so even though I had just signed up for a very expensive all-in phone package. It's always worth asking.

Ebay is a boon - you can get rid of anything on there and pocket extra cash at difficult times. I also switched to buying Tesco economy range food which tastes EXACTLY the same, just has cheaper packaging. I used the car less and walked everywhere to save fuel, was extra mindful of saving electricty at home and clubbed together with friends to buy and share around newspapers, magazines, journals etc to keep costs down.

Good luck to anyone in this unfortunate position and believe me, you won't be out of work for ever. It may take a while, but you will find something, and in the meantime try to get at least some enjoyment from the break. My previous job had been very stressful and I felt very much unappreciated, so the enforced break - unpleasant though it was in some respects - did have an upside too. 8-)

sugarplumfairy

Hi Can anyone help?
I've recently been made redundant due to the company having to close, I had only worked there a few months so wasn't entitled to redundancy pay. The information I am after is how much are you allowed to have in savings before it will be deducted from income support/jobseekers allowance? I know that the Government reckons you can live on £59 a week as earlier in the year I had my hours increased slightly, I went from working 15 hrs to 21 hrs a week and was told that I would have to pay all but £2 a week of my Council Tax benefit.

I have applied for a temp job which would take me up to Christmas whis is one of the reasons I haven't been to the Job Centre, also I don't really want to be in the position of having to take whatever is offered, I have worked in an office for the last 4 years and am hoping for a change but know that I will just be offered office work.

Paul_Herring

sugarplumfairy wrote:

The information I am after is how much are you allowed to have in savings before it will be deducted from income support/jobseekers allowance?

Irrelvant if you have full NI contributions for the past two years. (JSA comes in two flavours - Contribution based (on NI) and income based. Savings only affect the latter.) I went to the job centre last week (unemployed as of the start of this month) and have over £16,000 in savings (their limit for income based JSA) and I'm still getting the £59 based on my NI contributions.

I have applied for a temp job which would take me up to Christmas whis is one of the reasons I haven't been to the Job Centre,

You can work up to 16 hours a week in a part-time job without it affecting your benefits. You just need to tell the job centre.

Do yourself a favour and go to the Job centre. They give you quite a bit of help if you want to take them up on it.

sistaimmaculate

Hi
My hubby is being made redundant after Christmas and has offered to use his lump sum to pay off our mortgage. This is brilliant as we are only 40 and will be mortgage free. This decision has been taken to ensure that we are debt free whilst he considers his employment options.

However, as we need a new kitchen (it is currently circa 1950's chic!) and bathroom, many people are advising us to use the redundancy money for our extension. They feel that we are maximising the house potential and not having to take out a mortgage at a possibly higher interest rate in the future.

What do you think?

sistaimmaculate

Many companies are 'age friendly' which means they employ older, wiser people. Try B & Q, Sainsbury's or John Lewis (especially in the run up to Christmas).

losborn9

I was made redundant earlier this year, and jumped straight into a job with a £8k payrise. As it turned out, I didn't enjoy it and went into another job...and another £4k payrise.
Then my old company asked if I would be interested in going back! I realise that I'm really lucky to have got straight back into work, been able to maintain my confidence and use this (and the skills I've developed in the other jobs - even though they weren't right for me) to negotiate a better salary and it's really made a difference. I also had recommendations from people I'd only met a few times in a business context, about job opportunities.
I think it's crucial to maintain contact with people who work at your old companies, and as many people in your industry as possible - you never know when they could be in a position to recommend you for a job, or to employ you someday.

onejontwo

I would advise anybody that has been made redundant to check the redundancy contract that is given to them at the time of redundancy.
The reason I say this is after being made redundant after 4 years service (which came out of the blue!), I had my contract checked and found a few minor discrepencies .On reflection they seemed nothing to me, ie. not told job was "at risk", not informed 30 days prior to actual redundancy date.
Anyway, advised I had a case and went to the neccesary meetings on the way to a tribunal, and eventually was paid a tidy sum without actually going to a tribunal!
BTW, not a youngster, but still managed to secure 2 jobs within a month.:beer:

ju1957

I would like some advice if possible, our company is closing and we have been told it will be by december, the 90day negotiations started on Monday. I am 50years old and have been paying into the company pension for 11years and we have been told that we can no longer commute our pension because of age discrimination,we all thought that after 50years of age this would be our choice. My estimated pension when I am 65 would amount to £60 a month which would be worth nothing,I would of liked to commute so it would allow me to put it in an ISA account ,is this correct?Also while we are running the place down we have 120 temporary staff who were there before the announcement ,is this allowed ? With the talks lasting 90days which will bring us ti mid March dose that mean anytime after that we could be asked to go?Looking forward to any advice you all can offer.Many Thanx Julie xx