My husband was made redundant yesterday

tramac2812 · 25 February 2011 at 1:48PM

My husband received the devastating news that he was to be made redundant yesterday with his job to end in 3 months time. He was initially told by his boss that he would receive some redundency but that it would depend on the calculations from the accountant. (He has been with the company for more than 30 years). This morning he called me to tell me the accountant had told him there would be no money to pay him redundency. I am aware that in a case like this that he would be entitled to Statutory Redundency from the Government which would be worth about £9K. How do we go about getting this? His boss has also asked him to work on a week or two extra to help wind things up. Would this have an effect on this?
Very worried as do not know if I will keep my job either as work in local government, although I know that I will at least get a fairly decent payoff.

PaulLuke · 25 February 2011 at 2:22PM

If they won't have the money to pay the redundancy has he checked that they will have the money to pay his wages? The implication of what you are saying is that the company is either already insolvent or very near to being so and I do wonder if they have the funds available to pay the wage bill.

epsilondraconis · 25 February 2011 at 2:24PM

Sorry to hear the news.

There will be lots of people along in a mo to help out.

The following link goes to the DirectGov website that allows you to calculate exactly how much statutory redundancy your husband will receive (you need only enter three pieces of information (age, length of service, weekly wage):

http://www.direct.gov.uk/redundancy.dsb

The circa £9k you quote sounds about right.

There is a lot more information on the Direct Gov site that will help you:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/index.htm

Good luck...

tramac2812 · 25 February 2011 at 2:31PM

His employer does ship painting and the company they do 80% of their work for has decided to set up their own painting division in 3 months time. His employer is in semi retirement and was only originally going to go on for another year to 18 months anyway. He has decided to call it a day as turnover will be drastically cut reduced once this happens. IMHO I think his accountant has told his boss to salt money away for his family. Hope I'm wrong. Neither of us very happy, hence me joining this forum.

MrRedundant · 25 February 2011 at 2:41PM

Worth investigating whether TUPE may apply.

Poosmate · 28 February 2011 at 1:41AM

Hi Tramac, I can't offer any advice on being made redundant - I've never been there myself but I do understand how you feel as I worked in local government up until last year. It's horrible living with the threat of redundancy, I can't imagine how one would feel if there was no threat and it was just dropped like a bomb shell.

All I can say is that, as your husband has 3 months "grace" if you like, maybe you could tighten your belt, batten down the hatches and try living on just your wage (like, wean yourselves off his wage over the next 3 months). This way it won't be such a shock when his wage is no longer coming in.

Also, maybe you could start buying a little extra shopping each week (just 2 or 3 items) that will keep/store so that when the lean times come you have some stuff in reserves. I'm thinking of tinned foods (not very nutricious but when push comes to shove... a tin of spaghetti @ 14p is better than going hungry!), toilet rolls, cleaning products, pasta, pasta sauces, ketchup, vinegar, toothpaste, toiletries, even salt/pepper/herbs/spices (whatever you use). Some of these things may only cost pences but if you only had to get half of that listed in one week it could be the difference of £5-£10 on your shopping bill when you least need it!

If you have a garden, maybe you could start growing some of your own food, fresh and healthy to make up for the crappy cheap tinned stuff.

Maybe your hubby could look into TUPE'ing over to the other company or failing that, take the redundancy and apply for a job with them as they must be looking for people if they're just starting up.

Hope things work out ok for you both.

Poo

Gloomy_Past_Bright_Future · 28 February 2011 at 8:53AM

If I was your husband, I would be taking the day off work today and going to see the company who is setting up the new paint division, and having a chat about employment.

Good Luck.