redundancy triple whamy

am59

All,

I could probably post this under several headings, but here goes.

I'm getting made redundant at the end of December. As a Civil Servant I'm actually getting early retirement/redundancy as I'll be 53 (redundancy is day before my birthday, lol!) so the package is fairly generous, even if worth a third less than it would have been a year or two ago.

Meanwhile at home, my wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May and has been off work since and undergoing chemotherapy etc.

Daughter #2 had a baby and moved back home in April, currently daughter #2 is on statutory maternity pay, and returning to work in January. The wife is on statutory sick pay, but hoping to return to work in Jan/Feb. I'm not actually at work anymore (my job ceased to exist on 1st October) and am on reduced pay as shiftwork/weekends added a big chunk to my salary.

Initially in September when the redundancies were formally announced I'd already been promised redundancy on 1st Oct (we had actually known about the scenario since March) rather than the 3 months notice but higher up the chain have never acted on my/my union/my line managements request, so initially I wasn't too bothered about the money situation as the lump sum would pay everything off bar the mortgage and leave a fair lump over to put towards the mortgage/whatever.

However with the whole thing dragging on and on and with things like the wife's last Chemo cycle not going so well, she was in hospital 14 of the 21 days, a 30mile round trip twice a day, etc the o'draft and CC's are max'd out, and with our combined household income down by £2K a month for the last 3 months at the moment and no time to try and sort it out.

The work folk suggested going to the bank and explaining what's going on, so I took all the letters detailing the redundancy/pension lump sum etc but bank said they can't help. The MacMillan/CAB benefits advisor said the wife isn't entitled to anything else and suggested asking mortgage/car HP folk for temporary payment holiday/reduction but mortgage folk said no. The bank did suggest going to CAB to set up a debt management scheme, but even if it is only for 2 months?..... This is the first month we've actually hit the bufferstops, so can we muddle through for 2 months more of missed/late/part payments?

It is all a bit depressing really, even when you know it's all going to sort itself out fairly quickly. Back in March I was thinking come 1st Oct I'd be debt free (other than mortgage) with circa £40K in bank, and a £65K mortgage on a house worth £120K and a £9K pension to underpin any job I might get, which seemed a fairly fortunate position to be in really, but life has been steadily unravelling ever since. My boss's boss says he's still working "flat out" to try and get me paid off now rather than end Dec, but it seems that the powers that be think it's more bother than it's worth.

Certainly drives home the point I've seen elsewhere of trying to have enough in the current account to cover the bills for 6 months!

Any thoughts/advice etc gratefully received,

Cheers,

am

SarEl

I'm not sure that there is a shred of advice that would help. But on the positive side - you have your health, a wonderful new grandchild, and a wife who sounds like she is fighting with everything she has got to give. Money can't buy a single one of those things. I do hope that it all works out for you - but if that isn't possible then I would wish that it's the money side that takes longer, whilst your wife returns to health and your grandchild thrives.

I'd suggest that you try posting on some of the other boards - for money advice etc. It seems to me that there is no good reason why you shouldn't be able to work out some agreement with the people you owe money to, and just because they said no doesn't mean that some good folk around here may not be able to suggest how to make them change their minds!

Good luck

Lizzybop

I recommend the Debt free Wannabe board. They're a great bunch over there and are not just for those in debt, but most of the advice is great for those who don't want to get into debt in the first place.