Soon to be redundant - Oh noes!

Cash-Strapped.T32

Hi all, I have to come clean this is my first post in this section of the forum & if I'm being even more honest, I wish to god I wasn't posting here at all (lovely people though of course! ).
Ok, here's my problem, I'm hoping other people here might have some experience & advice they might share please?


* I'm part of a large national company, been working for them for 3yrs who last month announced all staff within my area of expertise will be laid off within the next few months, and on average about 3 in every 25 across the country will be re-hired to similar contracts, & we will be encouraged to compete for these remaining jobs.

* This restructuring has been brought forward by 2 years due to some poor business decisions in the recent past - To be fair to them I will not go into details, but suffice to say that I like most in my division I thought I had a good 2yrs at worst to put in place any measures to protect myself, including a well thought out PPI plan.

* However, we recently got a general announcement (the notice was "embargoed" until everyone across the country could be notified at the same time to avoid news spreading) that we will be made redundant, no if's, and that this will take place site-by-site between Nov this year & June next year.


My biggest problem is an outstanding personal loan, & housing.
£200+ p/m, for the next 30 months on the loan, & I rent for £450 p/m all-in from a family friend.
As I say, I was (safely, I thought) working to the plan that I would choose a PPI plan to cover me for the second half of the loan, which would be a fair on me, fair on them way to go about it, as even as far as we knew, redundancies would not be as extensive as this.

Anyway, enough of my bitterness.
I have a few questions, plus any advice you could offer me would be really, really appreciated.

I assume that I'll be looking at;
* 1x month's pay in arrears (taxed, so my normal take-home monthly pay)
* 3x week's wages stat-minimum, but with tax taken out of the equasion. (in the event, the company might increase this)

I would hazard that to about £1200, perhaps a bit more if I get my full holiday & leiu days (I've since cancelled all my holidays, etc..)

With only a bare minimum of savings, I would be reliant on that small payout to subsidise me until I found a new job; My calcs predict that just living on £240p/m JSA alone, with no social activities/luxuries and the bare minimum of running a vehicle etc.. I'd be running a £600-odd deficit per month until I found a new job.
£200 of that deficit comes from the loan, about £400 from housing costs.


* So, am I right in thinking that PPI is totally off the table for me now?
I have been unable to find any products at all, that once you find the small print will allow someone in my circumstances.
We have not had the official notice, where you're given a timeline & some idea of the final package, but I have been told that it'll happen, and enough people around the country were told at the same time that it's most certainly "public knowledge".


* If the worst comes & I don't get one of the remaining jobs, what options are open to me re; my loan?
It's with HSBC, and to be honest I don't want to annoy them.
Is re-negotiating my repayments even an option? (by then I will be roughly 9-15 months into a 36 month agreement)
Keeping my payments up honestly is a priority for me, so reducing temporarily it is something I would take seriously.


Luckily I am not constantly in-hoc to the bank each month with an overdraft, although I do have the facility.
If I inform the bank I've been laid off, and try to re-negotiate my repayments, they will almost certainly wish to withdraw my overdraft.
I can live with that; I have a second current account with a small o/d for if that mystical "just incase" situation happens, an account which I keep open solely for savings so if I lose my HSBC o/d it's not the end of the world. I don't tend to need my o/d anyway & I'm certainly not budgeting with them in mind.


* This being the case, other than save as much as I can for the next 3 or 4 months, are there any other measures I could take specifically regarding the loan or indeed at all?

* At some point I will probably have to go cap in hand for housing benefit, & probably have to move house if I don't get a job within the window of my payoff subsidy. (2-3 months depending on how I work the numbers, maybe even 4)
That however is a post for another day..

Prudent

Why can't you apply for housing benefit to cover your rent?