It's an unfortunate fact that a contract is a contract. I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but it was a mutual agreement entered into in good faith by both parties. It's also a fact of modern life that a lot of services are provided in this way and a sudden change in financial circumstances can cause significant problems with outgoings that are beyond an individual's control.
So, what can be done practically? Vodafone does not allow contract downgrades and, as far as I'm aware, no network does. A lot of the mothly cost is the hire-purchase payment for the handset and that will have to be covered in any case. An obvious solution would be to extend the contract period, allowing for lower payments over a long time. Unfortunately, Ofcom limits how long mobile phone contracts can be, so that that's not a runner.
The only other way out would be to look at early termination, which will be a one-off payment of the remaining months, minus the VAT and with a 2% (I think) discount. You can do a rough calculation yourself and customer servies can provide an exact figure. You can look at at selling the associated handset to defray at least some of the cost. The downside is that you'll lose your number and I don't think there's any way of combining the process with a transfer to PAYG. However, it's also possible that PACing to another network (you'd be taking on a new contract, of course) would initiate the process and achieve both aims.
Assuming that loss of empolyment insurance isn't available (I haven't looked, but it sounds like an idea), you can really only protect yourself by buying your handset outright and sticking to 30 day SIM only contracts. That doesn't help in the immediate situation, of course.
I'm sorry not to be able to come up with more positive ideas. However, if there's any room for flexibilty, the forum team will have a better idea of what can be done and may be able to talk to you directly.
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