No sign of a job yet

Not much to report really. Andy is still job hunting (even in areas outside of engineering now) but nothing is coming up. I feel so helpless and I can sense that he’s really starting to panic now.

I also notice that he seems to somehow be ashamed that he’s lost his job. Yesterday at this new church that we’ve joined the pastor was introducing himself to us and I noticed Andy really beating around the bush regarding work. Afterwards I asked him why he didn’t just say that he’s been made redundant and he told me that he felt like the lowest of the low for claiming benefits. Now I despise claiming any sort of benefit myself (not that I’ve had any benefits except 25% off council tax and disabled student allowance) but anyway – I digress. So anyway I despise claiming benefits but he’s paid tens of thousands in tax over the years so £60 a week isn’t exactly anything to be ashamed about. But I can see his point – he’s got a very strong work ethic like I have and its killing him to have no job. But I trust that this is all part of Gods plan and that Andy will have a job that gives him what he needs – when he needs it. Weather that is money or self development or professional growth I don’t know – but God will him everything he needs.

Andrew applied for JSA yesterday

Andrew went to register with the Job Centre yesterday and I think its fair to say that the experience wasn't quite as bad as he's anticipated. Although he did say there was a shocking number of track suit clad young men hanging about outside. Andrew always finds track suits very shocking so to see so many of them in one concentrated area must have been a real eye opener LOL. The reason he was a bit worried was because we've heard these horror stories about people being forced to take the first job that they are offered otherwise they'll loose their benefit. I must admit we were both worried that they'd make him accept a job in a supermarket or something. But anyway it turns out they give you a contract which lists what jobs you will consider - your allowed to refuse 2 I think? So he's got a contract to find work as a design engineer or project engineer within 40 miles of our home and paying 26,000 or more. Its still a good step down from 32,000 a year and a 5 mile trip to work but that's life I guess and beggars can't be choosers.

Job Centre meeting

My husband got his official notification of his redundancy yesterday and today he received his appointment to go to the Job Centre for an initial interview. I really hope they know how to help him but to be honest, I can't say I feel too hopeful about it. The feeling I get from listening to other people is that the Job Centre people are good at finding help for unskilled people but not so good with the professionals. When the JC people came into work to talk to the affected workers about the upcoming redundancies, my husband said they were trying to push him into a career change or plumbing. The thing is he loves his chosen career and he spent alot of money on his education to get there so a career change isn't really an option. I can understand his point. I mean I reckon my education has cost me £70,000 and its going to take me until retirement to pay it all back so a career change wouldn't be an option for me either. I think the professionals are the forgotten people in this recession.

Last week we wrote to our MP about supporting local engineering jobs. We got a fob off just as I susected *sigh*.

A very late update

Wow! I have so much to update but first I must explain what happened to me and my blog. Well me being the klutz that I accidentally deleted it. I mean seriously how stupid was that? Well anyway I finally figured out that it is possible to get your blog back!

Well I have alot to update on. First of all I'll recap on the potential issues that we had a few months ago and then I'll update on them. The first issue was that our 2 year mortgage deal comes to an end in May 09 and we could be in negative equity by then which means we wouldn't get a new mortgage deal. Our mortgage provider is Northern Rock and well we all know what's happened with them so that was a worry. We were worried the bank might just call in the mortgage and we'd be left homeless. Also job losses were announced at our company and we were both waiting to hear something.

So I can tell your dying to know what happened :)

Well first of all we couldn't remortgage as we didn't have enough equity in the house because of the huge price drops. We did have SOME equity but it was only like 1 or 2%. Our mortgage company would put us onto the standard variable rate but wouldn't offer us anything else. For now though that works out cheaper as the interest rate is so low right now. But now for the horrible part. Andy did lose his job in the redundancies. He is our chief income earner and we are now 70% less in income that this time last year. That is very worrying. He is applying for jobs like there's no tomorrow but nothing is coming up yet :(

Well now I have my blog back online I'll update more ofter. I might even do a little makeover on it :)