Redundancy Money

kanboo

Hi,
Not sure if this is the best place to post this so please be kind if I've got it wrong. Really hoping to get some opinions from people who are not involved and won't mind if I ignore them and do something else. Hope that doesn't sound like it's not worth replying but sometimes when I can't make a decision if I ask someone else what to do and they tell me I know in my gut if it feels right or not.
I was made redundant 6 weeks ago after 14 years with the same company , and received a payout of £13500 of which I still have £12000 (technically I still have it all but the rest has been put in pots for Christmas, sister's wedding, tax bills, etc)
I found a new job straight away which was a massive relief as my husband is self employed so I rely on my income for paying mortgage, bills, etc.
We have debts which add up to approx 16K between us which relate to approx 10 years ago when we were skint and spending on credit cards just to get by. We are now in a position where we do not spend on the cards, and are ok to get by and make over minimum payments on cards but have never been in a position to pay them off. The cards themselves were cut up years ago but the debt remains.
So I was in a position where I could pay a huge chunk of these cards, and get ourselves nearly straight when my husband was diagnosed with a disease which although fortunately isn't cancer is similar, it's incurable but can be treated by chemotherapy. He has been in a lot of pain for over a year and has only just got a diagnosis. He is a self employed manual worker and has been unknowingly working with multiple fractures in his spine for over a year and just struggling on with the pain because as anyone in this situation knows if you don't work you don't get paid.
The position with the illness is that chemo will sort out the disease which will them allow the fractures to heal, and we will them enter a cycle of monitoring, and chemo when needed for the rest of his life.
We are okay with this as until today we were terrified it was cancer and he was going to die so this is going to be hard but he'll live so we'll be fine. I lost my mother at the age of 7 and have never got over it so the thought of my children going though that was unbearable.
Anyway I know this has been very longwinded but looking for an objective viewpoint on what to do with the redundancy money, should I pay off debt, keep hold of it to tide us over if chemo makes him to ill to work, spend some of it on a fantastic holiday to give kids some good memories of what's otherwise going to be a rubbish time. I just don't know.
The job I found is maternity cover for 12 months but I am told it is unlikely the lady on maternity willl come back, and the job is with a large organisation so if she does come back there will likely be other opportunities within the organisation I could apply for but obviously this is a factor too.
Unfortunately whilst I had critical illness cover through my previous employer for myself and my husband, when I left this was automatically cancelled and by this point he was too ill for anyone else to have covered him.
If anybody has read this far then thank you just for that. I have found it a help just to write it down and get it out of my head.
Thanks for any suggestions anyone may have.

seven-day-weekend

My own personal gut feeling is get rid of the debt. At least then you can start with a clean slate and not have to worry about that on top of everything else. That is definitely what I would do.

I hope your husband feels better soon and that his treatment is not too traumatic.

getmore4less

You need to plan this properly. gut feeling don't cut it.

do a proper budget

start with a SOA if you don't hve one
http://www.stoozing.com/msoc/soacalc.php

Asume hubby won't be working for some/all of the time

You also have to consider you will need time off and how that will impact your employment.

investigate benifits other support.

if this debt has been hanging around for 10 years then there are other budgeting issues.

Look at the rates on the debts and any mortgage.

With the bigger picture then someone can have a look and help with a plan.


Why is redundancy money being used for tax bills?