Help! Redundant

There are seven things you need to do immediately if you are made redundant. If you follow these tips you will not only survive redundancy but you could turn it to your advantage.

First of all, don't take it personally. This is very hard to do as redundancy can make you feel worthless and undervalued. If you are made redundant it is the fault of the company, it is nothing to do with you. Remember, last in first out so there is nothing personal in redundancy.

It is the company that has underperformed, not you. It has failed to reach its targets and it's you that has ended up paying for this failure. If it had been anything to do with your performance or conduct, you would have gone through the company's disciplinary procedure and would have been fired.

Remember a job for life doesn't exist any more so redundancy is a fact of life now. People change jobs frequently and companies downsize and restructure in the same way. Unpleasant as redundancy is it is commonplace, so you have to learn to live with the fact that you could be made redundant at any time.

Your first step is to register as unemployed straight away, even if you got a good redundancy package. You need to get to the job centre and sign on, even if you aren't entitled to benefits straightway, you will get your National Insurance stamps paid. You need to check whether you are entitled to benefits anyway.

Be careful how you spend your redundancy pay. This money is to help you survive whilst you are unemployed, so use it wisely. The best thing to do with it is the pay off your credit card debts and make sure you meet any loan repayments. Don't forget there will be extra interest and you could get penalty charges if you miss payments.

Next get out your insurance policies to see if you have any cover for unemployment. Some insurance policies, or your mortgage could pay you whilst you are unemployed, usually for a year, to help you whilst you look for another job. Don't forget that your mortgage or a loan may have payment protection plans with them that you have been paying and these could help with your mortgage or loan payments.

It is very important to contact your mortgage lender immediately if you think you may have problems paying your mortgage. If you don't make contact with them and don't make your payments you could find your house being repossessed and sold off cheaply. Your lender wants you to carry on paying and they want to help you so they will have special schemes to help you keep going whilst you are unemployed.

You really need to draw up a budget now so that you know what your outgoings actually are. Check your last three bank statements so you know what your direct debits and standing orders are.

Check to see that you are only paying for what you actually use, so if you've got a gym membership or something else that you don't use, cancel them. You should then contact all your other creditors and explain to them what has happened. They will be very helpful as they want to keep you as a customer, so they will probably help you sort out a budget you can stick to or waive any extra fees they could add to your debt.

Try to keep positive, there is life after redundancy and you are likely to find a new position very quickly in a new company. You could find that redundancy is the best thing that has ever happened to you when your new job turns out to be for a bigger, better company who will pay you more than your old company.

Use the time well to decide what you really want to do with your life and get yourself out of a rut. Good luck!

Learn more about this author, Oeillade du Val.
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