Jobs in jeopardy as Comet goes into administration

Much of the UK's recent economic news may have been positive, but that may be of little comfort to workers at electrical goods retailer Comet.

The struggling firm is to go into administration next week and 6,500 posts are at risk. This will be bad news for all those who are not able to quickly find jobs with similar or better pay, but particularly so for those whose finances are most vulnerable.

While some may have some savings to fall back on and few debts to pay, others may go from a situation where they are able to manage their repayments on loans, credit cards or overdrafts to one where they no longer have the means to do so.

Those who do get into deep trouble with rising debt may benefit from a debt management plan or, in the case of those owing £15,000 or more and unable to pay, an individual voluntary arrangement may be the best solution.

Despite the fact that unemployment has been falling, there are still some businesses failing and redundancies occurring, with official figures listing 131,000 between June and August this year.

One reason may be that it is not just the recession alone that has harmed companies, but also the inability of some to modernise. Comet may be a case in point as technology entrepreneur Dan Wagner told the BBC a failure to focus on the growing online sales sector has undermined the firm.

He stated: "Comet failed to understand the importance of this for driving business."

Comet employees are not the only ones who can expect redundancy notices to be coming their way soon.

Coventry-based taxi maker Manganese Bronze is currently in administration and its administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers made 156 people redundant with immediate effect this week.

Trade union Unite is seeking to prevent the jobs being lost and a handful of workers staged an overnight sit-in at the firm's factory.

By James Francis