Sacked, what now?

anymeans

Hello, I've just been dismissed from my job of 8 years, was on a final warning for sickness and absolutely had to take 2 days off recently (not that I didn't previously absolutely need the time off but it's broken the company policy) I've not known anything other than this job since leaving school and I'm abit miffed as what to do... I live with my OH and our 2 sons (6mnth and 3yr) we get WTC which I assume will be stopped as I'm now not working, CTC, Child benefit and bit of housing benefit.

I assume my first stop is the job centre to sign on for JSA, inform tax credits and the council I'm no longer working, I ran our details through the entitled to website and we are going to be about £450/month worse off per month; this is the rough numbers over 4 weeks (not to the penny)

£432 CTC,
£154 Child Benefit,
£400 Housing Benefit,
£268 JSA

£1254 total per 4 weeks.

I'm actually really scared this will sink us, already being in financial trouble, anyone know how quick the JC find me work? I don't care if it's picking potatoes or scrubbing toilets! I'm due to start fulltime college study this sept which it doesn't look like I'll be able to afford if I'm out of work for long, sigh.

Thanks alot.

Hammyman

It isn't up to the JC to find you work. You have to find your own work. Time to start hitting the newspapers and job websites.

How were you intending on managing financially if you were doing a fulltime college course?

Becciboobah

As above, it's not the JC's job to find you employment. You have to find yourself a job. They will expect you to spend a decent amount of time looking for work and record this in a job search journal for them to look at.

They used to do a job search on the vacancies they had on their system and print out any that are relevant to you, it's been a while since I've had any dealings with them so not sure if they still do this. You are expected to apply for any jobs they print off for you and will sanction you if you don't. You go through the same process as anyone else, application/interview. They don't have jobs you can just walk into.

It's tough if you haven't done it before but in the experience my OH had, MOSTLY they do just want to help and I can completely understand the wanting to gain qualifications but you have to look at how you will finance your family without an 'income' as such but the advisor at your JC should be able to explain your options.

Good Luck.

merlin68

If your Oh doesn't work you should get the couples rate which is £100 a week. you will also get council tax benifit.

allen35

merlin68 wrote: »

If your Oh doesn't work you should get the couples rate which is £100 a week. you will also get council tax benifit.

Surely this is dependant on whether JCP accept the reasons for why he left work, there's a possibility of a sanction

rogerblack

anymeans wrote: »

Hello, I've just been dismissed from my job of 8 years, was on a final warning for sickness and absolutely had to take 2 days off recently (not that I didn't previously absolutely need the time off but it's broken the company policy) .

I would wonder if the first thing to do might not be to work out if your dismissal was legal.

The 'redundancy' and 'redundancy planning' forum may be more appropriate for that.

bigjl

I suspect you may have issues in getting some benefits due to being sacked.

If you were in the job for eight years why didn't they cut you some slack?

Are you, for example, currently considered Disabled under the Equalities Act?

What was the reason that you needed two days off but were unable to use your Annual Leave?

If it was a Hospital Appt or similar then surely they would have to give you time off if they are a reasonable employer.

That is the only thing that most companies would find reasonable when discussing things like short term absence from work.

I take it you have already started an appeal, you need to do it within a certain time of being dismissed, or are you not that interested in going back to work for them for some other reason.

stassy23

job centre might but a sanction on for you being sacked but im no expert but inforn your council etc to see if you can claim hb and ctb and also tax credits good luck

relic

Impressive, entitled to more in benefits than I earn in a month.

No wonder people don't want to work!

anymeans

Hey thanks for the replies, I thought the JC had a list of jobs etc you could apply for, I'm looking through papers and such while I go through the appeal process with my union at any rate.

I thought I might have been cut abit of slack after 8 years too, I broke my back for the company, taking overtime that nobody else wanted on important holidays because they we're stuck without staff, comming in at stupidly short notice to cover other peoples shifts, working over my shift to help when nobody else would, then I had a rough time the last 2 years and did need support from work which they gave, shift adjustments and the like, apparently they had forgotten everything I've done for them over the years, that's Tesco for you though. Appealing all the same but I don't want to sit around and do nothing for the appeal to be rejected if you know what I mean.

I planned on studying along side work, it's 15hrs a week which I could have fit in around my shifts as I worked nights (fri, sat, sun, mon, tue) and college was wed, thur, fri. Wouldn't have been the best but it would have been doable, and I'm willing to do it for my families future at the end of the day.

/Stress

Dognobs

Same happoned to me when I worked for Royal Mail I got sacked after 7 years because I had a bad year broke my hand then my foot and got ill twice = sack!! I had the snip and needed a week off they said unpaid as it was classed a cosmetic surgery!