Daughter facing redundancy!! - advice please

My daughter, after being made redundant, made a claim for JSA and during that same week was offered work on a zero hours contract, she explained this at her JSA first meeting and they told her she should sign off and when there was no more work available (she knew it was available term time only), then she could just reinitiate her claim via a fast track! She has attempted this today, but has had to complete a full application again and now await an appointment. She is not 100% mentally at the moment as the whole redundancy situation really knocked her for 6. It seems really unfair that when you really need a bit of help you have to jump through hoops. She made a claim for Housing Benefit at the same time back in April, they have said she should be entitled to something, but nothing come yet from that and a big rent increase hasn't help her budget much either. She did get some redundancy payment, has joint custody of 2 x 6 year olds, which makes it difficult detailing her situation on tick box forms. I have seen that there is a local CAB scheme to help with benefits, but she won't go for help. She has seen her GP as it has all affected her, he suggested she needed counselling, that of course took months, they suggested she needed 1 to 1, but instead they sent her to a group session of 30 people 3 weeks ago for a 6 week course (2 hours, once a week) which she is not finding useful at all. Blinking heck.......sorry just needed to write this down.

Thank you everyone, I am passing on all this information and tips, you are really valuable as sometimes the very obvious is missed in the upheaval and emotion, oh and having to get on with being a single parent as well leaves limited time to focus, you are all really helpful and I really appreciate your input, thank you again.

My daughter has been made edundant twice. She is now in a job where she is happier than she has ever been. Your daughter needs to think about her transferable skills and put her CV on LinkedIn. Employers and agencies actively look on that website for suitable staff. It's how my daughter got her current post.

Kateyk The answer is "no" (I just asked my daughter, who works in HR), but reasonable employers will often negotiate a leaving date and redundancy package.

From "Money Advice Service":

Leaving your job early

If you’re offered a job and your new employer wants you to start before your redundancy notice ends, speak to your employer and see if you can leave early without losing your redundancy pay.

Put your request to leave early to your employer in writing saying when you want to leave.

If you leave early without your employer’s permission, you could lose some or all of your redundancy pay.

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/your-legal-rights-when-facing-redundancy#leaving-your-job-early

Ww is right. Consult ACAS.

My DD's circumstances were almost identical to that of yours' - husband left her homeless and penniless with 3 children. We found that there is a local authority website for school vacancies. It is updated daily and included application forms, no CVs wanted. DD ended up with several interviews and job offers. the Primary school in her village increased the hours of the vacant position to suit her. Previous experience is much sought after. Her previous post from which she was made redundant was in an independant school. She was offered enough redundancy money to equate to her monthly salary to see her through to the start of her new job. She was already in receipt of benefits so they continued the same.
I hope your DD manages to achieve a similar result. It will be a worrying time. I took on the task of checking the internet for her and printing off details of anything remotely suitable. DD was grateful as being a working single parent is time consuming!

ACAS can give you the answer to that - you should find a local number - we found them very helpful when we needed advice.

Hope someone can answer this for me, if in the notice period you find another job, do you still get your redundancy money?

Encourage her to start looking for another job ASAP, talk to the Job Centre, and any local employment agencies about temp work. After 16 years she has a stable employment record (so her children have not created problems in doing her job) and should get a good reference. Is there someone at the school who can take her through the application process and show her how they look at applications these days, what to include etc, which is likely to be very different from when she was last applying for jobs?
You say it's a non-teaching role; could she apply for a similar job in other organisations, not just schools? If it's admin, that's a possibility, if she's been a teaching assistant, it's less easy. Child minding is certainly a possibility but I think her twins would be included in the number of children she is allowed to care for.
Encourage her to list all her qualifications and skills whether acquired through work or leisure activities (you may need to help with this as it's easy to dismiss things you're good at as being "unimportant") with examples of how she's learnt and shown them, this will be useful for a CV to show she can meet the requirements of another job.
If she's recently divorced, make sure she's getting child support from the father and that there's a formal agreement as to what he will pay.
It's difficult for you too but all you can do is support her and encourage her to see that redundancy is not the end, nor is it her fault, she has been a valuable employee for 16 years and will still be a valuable employee - just for someone else.

I'm a teaching assistant, made redundant after 15 years. I took the redundancy money and went straight into another school aged 61! My experience was to my benefit even thought I was competing with many younger graduates for the post. It was nerve wracking to have to do interviews again but proves it can be done.

My daughter was made redundant when she had a 2 year old and a big mortgage and husband wasn't on great salary. She went to CAB and got lots of advise. She started up her own little business and today it's the best thing she could of done.Everything happens for a reason, it could be new happy beginnings.

daphnedill's advice is spot on - the only thing I would add is that if she can upgrade her skills so she can apply for better paid work in her home area afterwards - opportunities need to be carefully researched - it may be worth losing the JSA for the training period. Could you help tide her over at all?

Sometimes banks are quite willing to give you a loan for a fixed period if they can see you will have better prospects of employment after a course than before.

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.

helpful advice!!

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

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/

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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