advice please on change of job/ benefit or self employment??

relynutz

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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: norfolk
Post Count: 143
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advice please on change of job/ benefit or self employment??
sorry ... long

not quite sure where to start really, ...

on 3rd jan we had our house repossessed due to not being able to keep up withthe mortgage repayments. we are now living in a hostel .
we have been told that we didnt make ourselves intentionally homeless and have been told that we are now eliglible for social housing but we have to bid on a house ( we need a 3 bed )

my dh works between 55- 70 hours a week, (plus any overtime whenever and wherever he can get it... hes a lorry mechanic and really wants to go self employed) i only work between 18 - 30 ish hrs a week
we have 3 children dd9 ds 4 ds 2

the rent at the hostel is costing £166-62 a WEEK because we both work, its crippling us!!!
we do claim tax credits but only the child element , we earn to much to claim working tax credits.(there are 21 flats here and we are the only people working here)

my husband has been offered another job this week but its either gonna be 16hrs or 40 hrs a week ( we think) he really wants to go self employed,( he also thinks that he has nothing to lose now) he has his tools but no premises , thought about going mobile?

we pay childcare when i work approx £150 per month. in sept ds starts school and they only do a morning intake ...... i work mornings and afternoons and not able to do just mornings coz its a restaurant, so gona have to give up the day shifts then.
i enjoy working and have always worked except when kids were tiny tiny, but i did go back to work when youngest was 2 weeks old.

sorry to post in wrong board or go off topic or anything like that, i just dont know where to turn anymore, i feel really ashamed that we were repossessed.
i hate it hear sooo much ( yeah i know that it was us that lost our house) but i feel that i have failed my kids by losing there home , .but there was 1 bloke from a flat here this afternoon OD'd on somthing by ambulance whilst he was looking after his son 12ish. kids urinating in car park ( dd was sexually abused few yrs ago and this upset her again) kids throwing stones in car park and smashing windows, throwing stink bombs in corridors, jamming lifts, no where for kids to play ,

starbump

Sorry I have no advice to give. Just wanted to offer my sympathy for your situation. You might not be a homeowner but you are still clearly keeping a roof over your kids' heads and will hopefully be able to move to a better location in the future. I'm sure your kids appreciate how hard you're working and that you will all come through this as a family. ((hugs))

Spendless

Hi - Can't give any suggestions re housing but your son starting school. How long do they do morning only for? Could you get a childminder till he goes all day. Is he currently at private nursery would they be able to help out by picking him up? Our local one does this. Or is it possible for him still to go to private nursery in the afternoons, and you swap him over at lunchtimes?

claireandella

Hi, I sympathise with your position. Self-employment is scary but in your position it sounds as if you would be better off and you don't have much left to lose (sorry, that sounds harsh, I mean that your house won't be on the line and your husband will be working less hours). Why not try self-employment and see how it goes?My partner became self-employed last year after running a lorry workshop for a number of years as he'd had enough of the way it operated. He now works longer hours but is based at home and, despite charging much less than his previous companies hourly rate, he earns about twice as much per hour as he did before. (although you must take the extra expenses into account) He does have to be on call in the evenings for his best customers and rarely gets a day off (though he does try to keep Sundays free- but usually ends up working at least part of the day, but this is his choice) but I've just asked him and he says he's happier than he used to be! He's able to drop our daughter to and from nursery and has collected her when she's been ill so I've not had to disrupt my work. You don't have your own premises so Could your husband operate as a mobile mechanic? Where we are there is a huge demand for competant mechanics to go to the hauliers and to repair break downs and all your husband would need is a van, tools and insurance (you may be able to get the tools on credit from snap-on or similar if he doesn't have his own- not sure about this as we already had ours). We've found that it's inconvenient for lorries to be taken into mechanics for repair as it takes drivers away from hauling and they tend to work on the biggest customers vehicles first so that the small companies who rely on their vehicles most are stuck for several days without them whilst the lorries are in bits. I'd say give it a go!