As the credit crunch continues, the Welsh workforce is feeling the squeeze. Rachel Treadaway-Williams discovers how those faced with losing work can manage when the worst happens.
As the credit crunch continues, the Welsh workforce is feeling the squeeze. With the number of people out of work up by 44 per cent on last year, X-Ray sets out to discover what help there is out there for people facing redundancy. Reporter Rachel Treadaway-Williams meets Ian Campbell from Cardiff and Helen Williams from Wrexham - Helen was a project manager for a pharmaceutical company, and Ian worked for a security company for 17 years, but both have been made redundant in recent weeks. Rachel sets out to discover how those faced with losing work can manage when the worst happens.
Jackie McCarthy and Vannita Popli are two very different women with two very different life-styles. Jackie's a working mum with two small children and spends a lot of time in her home, whilst Vannita's single, focused on her career and frequently out socialising. But despite having very different lifestyles - the amount they pay for their heating and hot water is exactly the same and there's no incentive to save energy. That's because they live on the Duffryn estate in Newport - designed in the seventies with a state-of-the-art community heating system, for which all the estate's tenants pay the same amount. Now many residents say it's time for change, so that bills are split more fairly.
And Rhodri Owen catches up with Helen from Blackwood. Last time we saw her start a month long challenge to lock up her credit cards and live on cash. This time there's plenty of temptation in her way as she goes out shopping with her daughter and enjoys a girls' night out with her friends.
With the holiday season approaching, it's worrying that around a quarter of people who travel abroad on holiday don't bother taking out insurance. Lucy Owen warns of the perils of holidaying without cover.
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