My Redundancy Diary

Andyboy

Barnabylovesicecream wrote: »

I was made redundant on 31st March. I am signing on- I feel that it is really important to be counted in the statistics. The £65 a week isn't worth the hassle but being a statistic makes it worth the trip to sign on.

The job centre also can't really cope with professionals - they don't know which box to put you in which makes them confused. The guy said - so you could do admin then - we have those jobs. I said well yes if it pays me 80k a year. Basically they have agreed to leave me alone for 3 months to find my own work as what I do is too specialised and jobs would never really be advertised.

Welcome and thanks for bringing your position to the thread. I am guessing that you won't even see much of that £65 due to tax but you will hopefully encourage more (myself included) to follow you. I will see if the same approach of being left alone will work for me when I sign on.

You didn't mention your field of work (possibly on purpose) but it is important for all to see that all walks of the working world are touched by and have to cope with redundancy. Just because somebody is a professional does not mean that they are not affected by redundancy in the same way as all are. IMO the more you earn the harder it must be to cope with the sudden change to life and income.

Good luck to you.

Lyncroft

Just curious, but has this thread been edited?

Andyboy

Lyncroft wrote: »

Just curious, but has this thread been edited?

Hi Lyncroft

what do you mean by that? Am i being naive. Can Anyone else answer this for me?

Lyncroft

Hi Andy

It could well be my mistake but I could have sworn there was a post on this thread yesterday that's not here now. Not to worry though, I might have got confused and seen it on another thread. Easily done.

Very useful thread by the way.

My edit: Thinking about it, maybe a post has been edited by the author which is fair enough.

Andyboy

Lyncroft wrote: »

Hi Andy

It could well be my mistake but I could have sworn there was a post on this thread yesterday that's not here now. Not to worry though, I might have got confused and seen it on another thread. Easily done.

Very useful thread by the way.

My edit: Thinking about it, maybe a post has been edited by the author which is fair enough.

No problem. Can you remember the contents and was it anything worth bringing to the party? If not i am not worried. There are plenty of useful and positive comments coming in and I look forward to reading them and adding plenty more.

Would I be right in saying you are a current or ex-public servant? Even so, I am sure that you can understand the difficulties they and the private sector currently face.

Please feel free to share any experiences.

Lyncroft

Andy

It wasn't a positive post but in a way possibly useful for those deciding whether to go or not. I think this thread is for people who have made the decision and very useful it is too! I've been umming and arrrhing for a long time now and if I make the decision to go I'll definitely add my experiences!

daisyf_2

The hardest thing for me at the moment is having to go through the 90 day consultation and then to work your 12 week notice - i just want to be released to do other things lol Been on 5 courses now with business link and h m revenue and customs which was very helpful and have 5 potential contacts for being freelance Just need to built my website now

xxxx

Barnabylovesicecream

Did you find business link courses any good? I went on 2 last week. 1 was ok (no better than ok) but the other was unacceptably poor. Many people left at coffee. I was going on a few more but now not so sure.

daisyf_2

One was very good on how to do business planning but more to do with the tutor - the other three have been really good particularly website design and hm revenue and customs on self employment was good tooo.

stick with it as they only have funding until september xxx

Andyboy

Went to see mortgage and investments guy at bank. i was prepared with OH to face the barrage of products that "we simply couldn't do without" but we weren't. We had a good visit and discussed all the options available to do with our mortgage and also what we could do if we wanted to invest rather than pay money off the mortgage. We even found out that we could reduce the term of our mortgage to 3 years! :T

I guess what I am trying to say is do a little homework before you go to the bank and have a rough idea of where you are wanting to go. Then go in with an open mind and see what is there. An independant financial advisor will of course give you more options but I have found that they sometimes try to sell too hard. Especially the ones that you don't pay upfront. That said, it is their job and I have not been to one for years, so they too could surprise you with options.

I officially finished work yesterday so join the world of the unemployed on Tuesday. Next step, I need to see what tax I end up paying on my payout. Should get this in the next few days. i will let you know where I go from there.:)

Has Anyone had a recent payout? Did you manage to claim some tax back?