Made redundant @ 9 weeks pregnant

SUESMITH_2

what subject would you hope to teach or would you be doing primary? not one to put a dampener on your teaching ambitions but it can be quite difficult to get onto a pgce even with volunteering and or TA experience, the competition can be very fierce.

good luck!

Horseunderwater

One reason why you are crying - is the hormones from the pregnancy. All expectant mums to be go through it, some much more than others. It is not just job loss related. Ber that in mind.
As others have said:
Write down a list of all out goings that must be paid - These include Rent/mortgage, Council tax, TV licence. Those must be at the top of the list. Followed by: Gas and Electric and Water, then Phone (landline/BB/Calls) One package all together can be cheaper, but not always. Do you need a mobile contract and is it cost effective, PAYG might be better. Car insurance, Look at cover for mileage - where you park it at night, how many drivers are on policy, sometimes adding a spouse can reduce costs, title of job you do, Market value of car. Same with house insurance, definitely check that one. Do you for example need legal help on that policy or cycle cover or garden cover. Me I cover Acc damage on build/contents and have rebuild set as £1m or unlimited and contents at £50k. But we do not buy or have expensive items, so that is ideal for us. Look around for an indep garage that others use and tell only their close mates about that has a good rep. I now have one that dos a £45 MOT and £40 labour/hour costs. Charges what they pay for parts and no more other than VAT. Saves me £150 per car per year.
If you have room for a chest freezer, Get one on freecycle or freegle if you do not have one already. Buy reduced meat/veg that can be frozen - they may not be cuts that you have used before, but you can look a recipe up. I bought 8 beef kidneys yesterday for £2.06 reduced and these are huge. They will be wrapped and frozen for when I want to do steak/kidney stew for a pie or pudding. That is at least 8 portions of kidney. The neck fillet of pork for lunch was £1.53 and it should have been well over £8. Fed 3 comfortably. Now is the time to begin stocking the freezer right up with the reduced bargains. Then when the income drops away, you will be able to eat and not have to worry too much about all that.
Also are you tied into a mortgage deal that is ending soon? If yes could you get a better one or would stand variable rate be easier and lower.
All these options need to be taken on board. By doing it all now, it will take you mind off it as you will be so busy and if you have the type of unique job that I think you have, it will be very good practice for many other things as well. Oh and congrat on being pregnant. Time will fly.

Chickola

Thanks everyone.

I do have some savings which I have paid into instead of a pension (my company didn't offer one) so although I didn't want to drain that account I do have about 10k, but some of this will be needed for a car.

I really do want to give a teaching career my best shot and can spend my pre-birth redundancy time getting some classroom voluntary experience. I just can't see how we will cope financially for the next 2 and a half years if I do take this route.

I'm also terrified of something going wrong with the pregnancy - I still have two weeks to wait for my 12 week scan. I have previoulsy had a miscarriage and it has taken us several years to fall pregnant. I just can't bear to think about things going wrong.

I have a job interview this week for the sort of role I know would make me unhappy but should I go for it, should I tell them / not tell them, agghh I just don't know.

Catherine_Johnson_2

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Would you mind please demonstrating that you know what you are talking about before you use language like that to summarily dismiss an argument?

The OP is plainly very upset about her predicament and had seen signs that the business was not doing well before she ever knew she was pregnant.

However, she announced to her employer that she was pregnant and in very short order it seems she found her job being made redundant.

That IS an established prima facie case which I imagine is also undisputed, at least in terms of the chronology.

Under EU and UK law, pregnant women are not supposed to have to endure the type of problem described here which from the OP's position materialises solely out of maternity and is a protected position in law. The right of protection to which she is entitled and her reliance on it have been very much spoiled by her employer's decision to choose this precise moment to make her job redundant.

The case is established for all to see. So, if the OP so wishes, the employer can be made to prove that no element of sex discrimination entered into the decision to make her job redundant.

The OP sounds a very fair person, but we might forgive her for not yet thinking all the aspects of this right through and clearly. Dismissing her option to claim at an Employment Tribunal is surely not in her best interests without further exploration?

Every year, tens of thousands of pregnant women are unfairly dismissed. Let's be completely sure shall we (before we start using language like "fundamentally flawed") that the OP is not one of those victims.

Might be best to read the entire thread before advocating the OP claims unfair dismissal?

Sales haven't been going well for some time.
OP is the only employee.
Owner is moving abroad.

Given all of the above, and that the OP states categorically that it isn't pregnancy related, why are you going on about unfair dismissal?

And, do you actually know how patronising your statement "The OP sounds a very fair person, but we might forgive her for not yet thinking all the aspects of this right through and clearly" sounds? With an attitude like that towards a pregnant woman, I'd be surprised if anyone took your 'advice' seriously. I can just imagine the reaction if you expressed that opinion in the workplace. We don't need, or appreciate, being treated condescendingly just because we are female and pregnant.


I think the OP needs help with how to cope with her finances during and after pregnancy and what to do, career-wise, for the future and doesn't need to be pushed down the unfair dismissal route which clearly, in this case, would fail and would bring with it a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety.

Chickola

Hi

A few people have said to post a SOA - what does this stand for and where in the forums should I post it, sorry I couldn't see.

jaydeeuk1

Teaching really is a crap job at the moment, 20% is spent teaching, the rest is paperwork, meetings and stress, and will get worse over the next few years too, my wife who is maternity at the moment is looking to get the hell out of there ASAP as are several others at her school. Just depends on how my job pans out in the next 3-4 months. Plus schools (at least hers) don't want to take on PT staff due to disruption to kids, so unless you're thinking of going it full time come the end of the year I reckon think of something different!

a51_ufo

SUESMITH wrote: »

what subject would you hope to teach or would you be doing primary? not one to put a dampener on your teaching ambitions but it can be quite difficult to get onto a pgce even with volunteering and or TA experience, the competition can be very fierce.

good luck!

I second this. I can't really offer advice on the baby front (Congrat BTW!) but teaching can be very hard to get into and takes up a lot of your time outside of the school day. I work about 2\3 hours every weekday evening \ night and all afternoon Sunday - which I don't mind as I get the time back in holidays. But you will find you will have little time for your little one during term time.

LL30

I'm not going to say don't do it, but I'd really recommend that you follow up your idea of getting some experience in a school and find out what teaching is really about. See if you can do 'a day in the life of' to get a real understanding of the hours you have to put in - the 7am-7pm (and beyond!) is a real possibility with teaching now. The workload is immense, holidays are eaten up with planning, evenings swallowed by marking, even weekends are taken with 'new catch up with coursework' strategies. I loved teaching, absolutely adored it, but, I was a size 4 after doing it for 3 years, developed thyroid problems and was going to burn out at the age of 27! Teaching jobs are not as stable as they were either, so that's something to consider. Re: pension - have you thought about opening a stakeholder pension? I do a lot of contract work, so that's what I've got.

On the baby front, you won't know what's hit you until baby arrives. I thought I'd go back to work after 3 months...hell no, I couldn't even see straight until she was 7 months (prem baby, reflux issues, bad sleeper - scrap that, horrendous sleeper!) She's 18 months now, and I'm nearly recovered (although I still have baby brains, I'm keeping that excuse as I like it!). I got made redundant when she was a year old, so I understand your feelings on that one, it's not nice at all. However, I plumped for a nil hour contract and it's perfect as I work the hours round me and my lo. I got a job within 3 weeks of being made redundant, which truly shocked me. I currently do 2 days a week in employed work and I also set up my own business too - it's lovely being your own HR dept Is that something you could explore?

Re tax credits - unsure how much your oh earns, and the limit is being lowered to 26K from April, but it's worth noting that with SMP you don't count the first £100 a week. Good luck! xx

SUESMITH_2

if you're feeling like that about the interview then i would seriously think about not going, this baby is very precious to you and i don't think you want anymore stress in your life at the mo and this job seems like it would be

melancholly

Chickola wrote: »

A few people have said to post a SOA - what does this stand for and where in the forums should I post it, sorry I couldn't see.

it's a statement of affairs - there's a great link in the second post on this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/562271

the debt free wanabee board is great for looking at budgets and finding savings - they're really great for that on there.