Daughter facing redundancy!! - advice please

most public sector employers (used to and probably still) provide redundancy support. she could ask the Head or approach the county council education dept for help.

I would advise an appointment with the CAB. An advisor will go through the laws concerning redundancy and any entitlement to benefits.

If the school is an academy, there won't be any help from the local authority. The first thing your DD needs to do is look at her contract and find out how much redundancy pay she will receive. I can't remember exactly what the statutory minimum is. I think (but could be wrong) that it's a week and half's pay for every year she's worked. However, it will depend whether she's been employed on a permanent contract or a series of temporary contracts, which is often the case with non-teaching roles in schools.

The school should have somebody in charge of HR, who should go through the options. However, in my experience, academies don't really know what they're doing with regard to employment matters. Some of them employ external companies to manage HR. Your DD should find out exactly what the situation is and then make an urgent appointment with the CAB.

Is she in a union?

If you have a look ta the ACAS website there is all the up to date information you need on redundancy rights and entitlements. I do hope this doesn't happen to your daughter but I know the stress hanging over you is horrible. Best wishes.

Your DD probably feels really stressed at the moment but presumably she will be entitled to benefits to get over her period of unemployment whilst she looks for a new job. Although it doesn't feel like it at the moment, this might be a forced change which could place her in a better position in the long run. When my DS was suddenly made redundant, he joined an agency to get work and he got taken on full time after a year. Within a very short time, he got promotion and has found himself in a far better position than he was when he was made redundant.

Katy, I don't have any advice to offer just hope that your daughter and the children have better luck very very soon. Different situation but my DD1's partner lost his job last month. They have two young children and he is the only breadwinner as DD is doing a nursing degree. He starts a new job on Monday, very stressful time though.

She should join a union if she isn't already in one- maybe Unison ?and ask them for advice.

Ask your DD to use the benefit calculator on you.govuk this will help her understand what help is available. Whilst she is looking for a job she will get housing benefit.Please dont panic

Is she in a union, GMB are good and you're covered immediately if you join online. There are horrendous cuts taking place across our schools, truly horrible.

Thank you for all your comments, advise and pointers all very useful. She is in a Union and has a meeting next week. Luckily she has her children today until Tuesday so won't have too much time to fret.

The cuts are criminal and will have a huge impact on our schools. Support staff earn next to nothing anyway.

My DD spent redundancy money on a re-training course and has been offered lots of work since then.
She is single, so has the freedom to go where she pleases which makes a difference, of course but there would be plenty of work in her new career in this country too.

here are some facts:
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/redundancy/redundancy/redundancy-pay/

Retraining and work flexibility isn't that easy with children in tow. Kateykrunch's DD is unlikely to receive much redundancy money. Depending on personal circumstances, she'll probably find she needs the money to tide her over until she finds a new job. She needs to check how the redundancy pay will affect JSA. Unfortunately, all schools are cutting support staff, so it could be difficult to find a new job.

The redundancy payment might be complicated by her support staff contract, because support staff aren't usually paid for a whole year and are sometimes on variable contracts. She should ask her union official for details about how it will be worked out.

Kateykrunch If your DD isn't already claiming child tax credits, I would advise her to apply now. These will carry on after redundancy and should increase.

After redundancy, she will receive JSA (approx £73pw), approx £60pw child tax credit for each child (plus existing child benefit - £33pw?). She should receive housing benefit Possible as part of Universal Credit), which depends on the Local Housing Allowance for her area and how many bedrooms she has and is eligible for a reduction in council tax (which depends on an individual council's policy). So, in total, she will receive about £193pw plus some housing support. The children will also be eligible for free school meals. (Sorry! I don't know the exact figures any more). She will also be required to attend the JobCentre every two weeks and spend 30 hours a week looking for jobs (and show proof she's doing it). If she wants to do a training course, she could take out a loan, but could find that she's no longer eligible for JSA while she's doing the course.

PS. Agency work as a school support worker should be avoided. The going rate is about £40 a day. Agencies aren't usually able to offer more than a couple of days a week (if that). The work is often at short notice and she will have to be able to find childcare. The money will be deducted from JSA, so she could end up working for nothing, but paying travel and childcare costs. If she's in an area with Universal Credit, it could also affect the amount paid for housing.

Thankyou daphnedill for all this really useful info, I really appreciate it. Thank you to everyone for your comments as well.

If she goes on this site www.turn2us.org.uk/ she can work out what money she'll get from benefits.

Thanks again everyone, will look into everything mentioned. Her meeting has been postponed now until next week as her Union Rep couldn't make the meeting planned for today. She hasn't had much time to take it all in or look into things as she has had the children until today and busy days at work!

If she is made redundant would she consider becoming a registered child minder? Depending on where she lives there could be a big demand for someone who could do a breakfast club before school and also provide after school care for parents who are in work and often cannot reduce their hours to fit around school times. One lady I knew when I lived in Dover did this, she charged £4.00 per hour or part thereof per child and, because the children she looked after were all older, she was allowed to have quite a few as a registered child minder. www.childcare.co.uk/information/setting-up-a-childminding-business is an excellent site for more details.

She should notify the Housing Benefit and CTB office immediately as there is a limit to how far they will backdate and they have to be applied for separately from JAS. They are income based and not related to other benefits. Also be ready to apply for JAS because it can take a while to come through.
There is quite a bit of information online and some useful sites have been named above.
There are also a number of supportive sites if she is on facebook and just needs to talk to people in the same situation as it can be a demoralising process, eg Respect for the Unemployed and Benefit Claimants.
Hopefully it won't happen or will be short lived.

Please tell her that being made Redundant is not the end of the world. My son has been made Redundant 3 times. He is now much happier in his work and climbing the ladder, something he had no chance of doing at his last place of work. Look on it as an opportunity not a disaster. Lots of practical advice here so I am not going there. I wish her loads of luck in finding a new, better job!

Would your daughter consider training as a teacher? Usually Teaching Assistants do very well on such courses and redundancy might well be a good opportunity for her to retrain. If she has a degree then she could do a post graduate or School Direct course for a year. This is a useful website getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

Wishing your DD and her children well. Glad to see so much wlpful advice on here ?

helpful advice!!

My husband has been made redundant three times in his career and he always got back on his feet. Of course, it is all much harder with small children and no partner so I am not making light of the situation, just offering hope and encouragement.

Could your daughter make up a C.V. and covering letter and send it to all the schools she could work in from home to test the water? They might appreciate not having to pay agency fees and sometimes a temporary or supply-type job leads to a permanent one.