How Redundancy Can Lead to Debt

Keeping Your Head Above Water When You Lose Your Job

Being made redundant is never easy and it comes with a whole host of dilemmas from whether you’ll be able to find another job to how you’re going to cope financially. A recent survey by Yorkshire Building Society found that over a third of adults in the UK could only survive financially for 11 days if they lost their job or were too ill to work and the average person could last around 52 days before reaching a financial crisis point.( (What are the main warning signs that redundancy could be taking you down the road to debt and despair?

Lack of savings – Redundancies often come out of the blue and as such are very difficult to plan for. If your employer has just been taken over by another company or lost a major contract then not having a nest egg or big redundancy payout could make the financial impact of losing your job even more severe.

Trouble finding a new job – If you’ve been made redundant and have built up skills and experience in a certain line of work then it may be difficult to find a similar job in your area or to find the money to re-train and learn something new.

Borrowing just to get by – Being out of work for a while after redundancy will undoubtedly impact on your day to day life and your ability to pay the bills on time. The worst thing you can do in this situation is to borrow from Peter to pay Paul as this will quickly lead to the interest and repayments becoming unmanageable.

Hoping that something will turn up – Realising that you’re beginning to fall behind on repayments and get into debt is one thing but it’s another to be able to admit it. Too many people bury their heads in the sand when it comes to dealing with debt and before they know it their level of debt has spiralled out of control. Taking decisive action at the first sign of debt problems could save you a lot of stress and misery in the long run.

No motivation – There’s no doubt that debt can be depressing. A recent survey by the mental health charity MIND showed that 91% of those surveyed thought debt had contributed to their mental health problems. Feeling lethargic, helpless and depressed is another warning sign that debt may be starting to take control of your life.

If you’ve been made redundant and are finding that your financial difficulties are beginning to mount up, then now is the time to take action before they get even worse.

Call us free today on 0800 043 4747 for professional debt advice and an individual solution to tackle your debt problems. Don’t let redundancy drag you down because you could be debt free before you know it with our help.