I was a top-level consultant a year ago –now, at 62, I'm on universal credit

I was a top-level consultant a year ago –now, at 62, I'm on universal credit

It was an ordinary work day in April 2025 when Michael Gibbons, then 61, logged on for his usual weekly catch-up with his line manager. But when he noticed there was someone from HR on the call, his heart sank. After nine years of working for his company as a global root cause analysis consultant and industrial incident investigator, he was told he was being let go because of company-wide redundancies. “I was gutted – I loved my work,” he rememb…