53 year old dad may be being made redundant

stephg20

Hi all

Just after a bit of advice for my dad, he is 53 and has worked as a wood machinist for 26 years at the same company (manual labour).

Over the last years there has been quite a few redundancies at his place and he came home a few days ago and said they are making another 7 out of 16 people redundant in a month.

He has enquired and if he takes voluntary refundancy he will get £17,000 plus 3 months wages paid, im not sure how much hed get if he got chosen to be made redundant.

My dad is quite tempted by the voluntary redundancy as he has just taken out a £7500 loan to get a new boiler put in his house and pay off his and my mums credit cards which he is currently paying back at £140 a month over 5yrs. If he takes the voluntary redundancy he would be able to pay it off and still have quite alot left over.

My mum doesnt work, his house is owned, paid the mortgage, no other debts. Me and my sister have moved out.

How easy would it be for him to find a new job? Im concerned cos he doesnt have any experience other than what he does at the moment and because of his age.

Thanks in advance.

stephg20

Oops just seen the redundancy board D; how do i move the thread?

Takeaway_Addict

Would they actually pay him voluntary redundancy, if their struggling it's alot of money to find. It might end up being there are cheaper options for the employer.

tomtontom

I wouldn't worry about moving the thread, the other board is very quiet.

Has he thought about what transferable skills he has? Would self employment appeal, or perhaps an age positive employer such as B&Q?

cte1111

Have you / your Dad had a look round to see how many jobs there are locally that your Dad would be able to do? This might help him make the decision.

My gut feeling would be that the redundancy money might well run out before your Dad found another job. Manual jobs are tending to be reduced overall and having worked in one place for a long time can make it harder to demonstrate your transferrable skills.

I'd be concerned that your parents had debts of about 6 months net wages and whether that meant they had already been struggling financially. Perhaps help them work out how long the redundancy money would last (taking account of the debt you know about and any others that might not already be included).

trollopscarletwoman

stephg20 wrote: »

Hi all

Just after a bit of advice for my dad, he is 53 and has worked as a wood machinist for 26 years at the same company (manual labour).

Over the last years there has been quite a few redundancies at his place and he came home a few days ago and said they are making another 7 out of 16 people redundant in a month.

He has enquired and if he takes voluntary refundancy he will get £17,000 plus 3 months wages paid, im not sure how much hed get if he got chosen to be made redundant.

My dad is quite tempted by the voluntary redundancy as he has just taken out a £7500 loan to get a new boiler put in his house and pay off his and my mums credit cards which he is currently paying back at £140 a month over 5yrs. If he takes the voluntary redundancy he would be able to pay it off and still have quite alot left over.

My mum doesnt work, his house is owned, paid the mortgage, no other debts. Me and my sister have moved out.

How easy would it be for him to find a new job? Im concerned cos he doesnt have any experience other than what he does at the moment and because of his age.

Thanks in advance.

How long is a piece of string on the job front. Wood machinist doesn't sound like unskilled labour to me. Not that virtually all work is not unskilled these days.

53 is hardly old, is it?

The dole certainly wouldn't think so if that time comes. If you believe the daily mail readers on MSE then jobs are a plenty and anyone who can't find one needs to try harder.

It is said that you need to be flexible in what you will do. After all east europeans always immediately find work-or so we are told.

stephg20

I dod think and b and q, i asked him about taxi driving just to sort of tide him over but he doesnt like the sound of that cos hes quite shy. Iv told him you dont have to be talkative to be a taxi driver but he doesnt believe me lol.

Wev had a look and theres lots of call centre jobs, caring jos and lpts of driving jobs, iv tried to get him to look into maybe doing his lgv licence with some of the redudanct money but hes read somewhere that they want 2yrs experience so thats put him off.

stephg20

I did think about* sorry

stephg20

And i know their debts were quite high, most of it is my mums credit cards which have a high interest rate. My dad has a 0% rate but couldnt transfer my mums balances so he decided to get the loan instead as it was lower interest...plus their boiler went and they couldn't afford to get another.

theoretica

Could he pick up a few bits self employed while job hunting? Does he have a home workshop? Could your mum also look for a job? How much money do they really need a month coming in? Are their pensions sorted?

stephg20

He wouldnt really know what to do in regards to being self employed.

Im trying to get my mum to look for a job too but shes not keen.

And they dont have a private pension, my dad never earned enough to pay into one.

I think to pay for everything they would need about £600pm but thats being very tight.

If it came to it they could survive on JSA i think