Job is safe as houses...Oops I mean your now redundant

natman

I have posted on here a while ago asking about local government cuts so thought it only right to outline what has happened in our case.

My wife works for a Childrens charity in the North west of England. Her role is to - support teenagers that have are expoited/ pregnant/are young parents within a deprived area
many of these very young females are extremely vulnerable to domestic abuse, drug and alcohol misuse, child protection concerns and many other very serious issues that young teenagers with babies have to contend with. Much of her work also looks at trying to prevent pregnancies in the future.

This role is funded through a local authority funding stream. that is renewed every year due to the child poverty and health inequalities of the teenagers she supports.
She was told following a local government publication that outlined - that the borough wanted to protect essential safeguarding services for vulnerable people living in the borough.

She was told at the start of the year this was an essential service and should not worry about any cuts to her role etc.

On the 1st March 2011, she was called into the office and given 30 days notice as the local government was no longer willing to fund this service.

We are totally devestated. My wife is constantly in tears on two counts, that the teenagers she supports and their babies are at massive risk of harm and personally thather job is going.

Luckily I was brought up by my grandad who had 'old fashioed rules' and luckily I stuck to two of them
1 You spend half you save half.
2 when time are good, you save more, as they wont be good for ever.

Like i said luckily we have some savings but cant beleive what a mess we would be in if we had not saved etc, but what a mess we may be in if this country is continuing to axe hard working people that care for the vulnerable in society. Also our savings will hopefully be used as a buffer, my salary if we ake some drastic changes, may be able to support up in the short term.



We have already started to contact the mortgage company about reducing monthly payments. Cancelling sky, milkman.
We no longer have any personal loans
We run quite a tight ship anyway making sure we dont spend if we dont need, but we have just replaced our car based on the information that jobs were safe(ish)

Any other advice would be great!!! any information you would like please ask!!!!

GotToChange

What a shock - and a sad time - for you and for us all at the moment. It truly is terrible in so many ways these days. I do feel that the Government has no idea of the realities of everyday life for the average person in this country, let alone those that are truly in need.

Well done to you for having good and sensible practices in place and I hope that everything turns around for you.

23rdspiral

i'm really sorry to hear of your wife's job loss. it's terrible how they've treated her, and aweful for those that she works to support.

i'm in local govt myself and am expecting the Big R letter anyday now. Again, what i do is not considered essential... despite the fact they are about to spend 1 million on funding a renovation that they'll then have very few people to staff as they are getting rid of the experts!

the 1 month notice seems a little harsh, also did she get a Consultation Period? Did she protest as to the need for her job? If there are less than 30 in the role then there is no 'set need' for consultation, but you can push for it. i did and got 2 weeks to file my comments. so that was 2 weeks untill they could hand me my notice, so it was worth it.

there's loads of tips here in MSE, and by the sounds of it you already know, and do, so much! but i'll point you towards the Frugal Living Challenge. Not as i think you should join, though you could and you'd be more than welcome, but because the Hints and Handy Links in the first post are very useful and nice to have all in one place. Also the Spreadsheet given there by CW18 is very handy too i've found.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2952832

oh and dont forget to sign on, even if you dont want to / cant claim JSA, it'll keep your wife's NI going - simple and probably obvious but i Wish someone had told me the last time i was jobless!

good luck.

ceridwen

Sorry to hear this.

Have you/your wife read the Old Style Board on this Forum? Well worth doing so - for picking up all sorts of tips on thrifty living on the housekeeping front.

SevenOfNine

Sadly I'm not remotely surprised - having got the chop from a Local Authority which effectively cut funding to a local youth counselling charity I was co-located with. They took such a hammering the Council have effectively shut it down with the cuts.

Virtually ALL the LA charity support was first on the chopping block for 'savings'.

Pity junior staff can't have a bigger say in what gets cut, I can think of several upper managers who are totally incompetent, yet have a massive say in what's cut - obviously not their own jobs!

natman

My wife had her consultaion meeting on wednesday 3rd March. She was told her last day would be 31st March 2011.
She was told she would go on a redeployment list until the 31st March to hear about any jobs, but afte this date she would have no information about internal roles that could be redeployment opportunities.

the young girls she supports are completley devestated. Many of them are being sexually expolited by their lanlords. in violent relationships as they have left the family home.
One girl was on the run from her violent ex partner and was so scared she ended up neglecting her baby so much it died!!! My wifes role is to support these young girls and their really vulnerable babies.....now they have nothing!!!

Our weekend will consist of beans on toast, which I actually really like and looking at creating a new budget that has been halved.
But we have made some decisions -
contacted mortgage company and verbally agreed to increase the term and cut payments a from 700 a month to £430. I had to write and request this, so hopefully this should happen soon. Cant beleive I got charged £50.00 for this.........
Cancelled milk, cancelled sky.

Need to think about -
reducing food budget
getting rid of a car
reducing energy costs

cant do anything about -
council tax
my travel outgoings
tv licence

Luckily we have no loans...........

need to look for new jobs
need to look about signing on for contribution based JSA.

Aa very sad time in our house!!! I know were not the only ones, i know others will be in a more serious situation.
What a bleak time it is to be in this country!!!

daisyf_2

if it is any help there will be quite a few people in a similar position - I'm just coming to end of my 90 day consultation (well no consultation has happened) and will be served my notice in April. Time to start planning as you say and I think next years budget for the public sector is going to be much worse..

foxgloves

The current decimation of public services is going to bite the government hard on the bum before too long. They won't pay public sector workers to do the work as they want to reduce the size of the state (there'll probably be some nice tax cuts for higher earners ready for the next election!) but overall, they won't save any money, as vulnerable people not getting help from one source will just cost money further down the line, in much less positive ways, like prison, mental health units, courts, hostels, health, etc. Both my partner & I are employed in the public sector. He's just had to reapply for his own job, which thankfully he got, & after long & careful thought, I've taken voluntary redundancy. I shall use some of my pay-out to pay off our last debt, then I will be applying all my old-style lifeskills to their full, making sure we keep within our budget. I just got sick of the current culture of restructure after restructure, which look good on paper but don't deliver in reality. It's not that I 'don't like change'......just that the 'Change' that senior managers spend months on setting up is never big enough to make things better. We all seem to have been under the sword of Damocles for ages. We will be financially a lot tighter, but we are both looking at it as a new start, beginning with extending our vegetable garden so we can grow a lot more food. If this had happened even 4 years ago, we wouldn't have been able to manage, as we never ever budgetted & had a fair amount of debt, but learning how to budget has been a complete revelation & thankfully we're going into this new chapter far more prepared than we would have been previously. I feel absolutely gutted for colleagues who are being given compulsory redundancy. To add insult to injury, I heard on the news at lunchtime how much bonus the Northern Rock (a NATIONALISED bank) is planning to pay its bosses, despite them making a big loss last year. Disgraceful!!

ceridwen

'Twas ever thus....:cool:

A friend of mine is waiting to hear whether she will keep her job - but says "The IMPORTANT things have been dealt with so far - ie all the 'high-ups' made sure THEY kept THEIR jobs. So - now they're ready to cut OURS....:(:mad:"

daisyf_2

I feel really angry about the banks receiving huge bonuses when lots of people are being made redundant... it is immoral....

The worse thing about being in a 90 day consulation is I've not had any consultation!!!!!!

dickydonkin

Sad to hear these stories.

All we will hear on the news is the numbers of jobs going in the public sectors, however, as this thread highlights, when you actually see what roles are going, it must be devastating not only for the dedicated people losing their jobs but also for those who have been helped and supported who will now be left stranded.

What a bleak time it is to be in this country!!

And it will get worse unfortunately. It seems this 'government' know the price of everything and the value of nothing.