WE always believed my husband’s job at the Redcar steelworks was a job for life. And then, a month ago, we received the devastating news that the SSI plant was to be closed.

Paul had been there for four years, but the job was suddenly pulled away from him in a matter of days.

Our daughters, Honor, four, and Monica, two, understand little of what has happened and we hope to shelter them from the reality of our current situation.

Paul and I, meanwhile, have spent the weeks since the news broke in emotional turmoil.

I believe the government could have helped. It didn’t. It has allowed the plant to close — completely. Steel-making will never return to Teesside. The 170-year-old tradition has died. Redcar has lost its soul, the people their pride, the nation a great industry.

The day before we heard on the news that SSI was to be mothballed, we been happily celebrating Honor’s birthday. We were together as a family, unaware of how our lives were about to change.

I was at work when I received a text from Paul informing me that he was very likely to be losing his job.

It was Monday lunchtime and I immediately rang Paul, unsure of what the term “mothballed” meant.

He confirmed that it basically meant the plant would shut down, rendering the staff redundant but that it would be left in a state so that a potential buyer could perhaps reopen the site in the future.

My immediate reaction to the news was to burst into tears. Margaret, my colleague, comforted me in typically English fashion by offering me a cup of tea.

Mondays are always my busiest day of the week. I work as a teaching assistant and immediately after school on a Monday I go to an exercise class followed by choir practise. However, this particular Monday I needed to go home, be with my family to try to digest the news.

Paul was advised to continue to go into work as normal, so he returned, as planned, on the Thursday.

We were given little information as to what was happening, but Paul remained positive and expected to be at work for at least another couple of months covering a consultation and notice period.

He also expected to receive a redundancy package of two-and-a-half weeks’ wages for each year he

had worked at the plant. We knew that with our savings we could get by for at least six months.

Unfortunately things did not quite work out like this.

News began to filter through that SSI was going to be put into liquidation. Due to the huge debt the company had run up, it was unable to afford to pay its creditors, thus having an impact directly on the employees.

Paul’s boss told the staff on shift that it was “game over,” to collect their things and leave the plant. For good.

Shock, disbelief, anger and sadness are some of the emotions that Paul and his friends have experienced since that day.

One month on and the emotions are still raw. Paul feels abandoned and worthless and is still unemployed.

The government has offered an £80 million support package to help the steelworkers in their search for new employment. Out of that, around £30m has been used to pay redundancies.

Paul has received the grand total of £1,700 — not even a month’s wage. That is it. No notice or consultation period.

This leaves us in the desperate

situation of him needing to find work. Now.

We have no idea how to access the “money” promised for retraining. We cannot get answers, we have been left in the dark along with hundreds of other families.

We recently saw David Cameron in the news wining and dining the Chinese president while taxpayers footed the bill for the ostentatious attempt to broker a deal costing the taxpayer millions of pounds to build a nuclear power station in Hinckley.

This confuses me. Surely steel will be needed to build this power station? Surely skilled workers will be needed? Our infrastructure is dying.

We are relying on foreign input instead of making use of what we have here in our own country. How can this be right? I read that we are buying Swedish steel to be used in the manufacturing of Royal Navy ships and armoured vehicles.

So many questions and very few acceptable answers. The government has not given any clear reasons as to why the steel industry in our country has been left to collapse when steel is very much a necessary commodity in the ongoing development of our infrastructure.

My family is facing a very uncertain future. We had plans that are now on hold. The financial impact is huge, but the emotional impact cannot be costed.

Paul is desperately searching for work. I am trying to remain positive but feel emotionally drained.

Christmas is looming and we will make the best of it, but the one thing we want is for Paul to be employed again and a chance to start rebuilding our lives.