JSA (IB) refused - Rental income too much, yet no money to live on! Advice welcomed.

gymfiend

Could you try registering on the tutoring websites? Not sure how much work you will find as you studied art but worth checking out?
Also - it's the festive season, baby sitters can charge some serious premiums. Stick up ads in the local shops, get yourself on gumtree, give up your new years eve to baby sit! Also, charity shops will be full on unwanted gifts soon - buy them and sell them on on eBay [obviously...you'd need to declare this to the tax man], ask friends and family if they have anything they need putting on eBay, charge them a percentage. Try employment agencies, every time I have needed short term work quickly it's never taken more than a couple of weeks, even if it is the most horrendous job ever! Good luck I am recently out of uni & a home owner, I work, run my own business and do other odds and sods to keep my head above water!xx

briona

Conor wrote: »

I did, unlike you. He is a LANDLORD. That is his JOB. Stupid bint.

Isn't it funny how the majority of your responses to posters are abrasive, rude and downright offensive and yet when faced with a fairly mild dose of sarcasm, you simply can't take it?! Put your toys back in the pram and grow up! :rolleyes:

KoalaElf: I see someone has mentioned tatieirregular's thread (the other Fine Art graduate) but unfortunately this has recently been deleted. Many of the suggestions related to selling some of her own artwork (which she was oddly very opposed to even trying).

I'm a Graphic Designer and have in the past expanded my job search to include the Bristol/Bath area. I'll do some digging later on to see if I have any art-related leads!

Briona

LizzieS_2

KoalaElf wrote: »

Last time I read the belurb on HMRC website regarding letting rooms in your home, you were able to decide which was better for you:

-to claim the £4200 odd Rent-a-Room allowance [which stacks with your personal allowance] - I cant remember exactly but icomes to something in the region of £9500ish altogether.

-or to offset the correct percentage of expenses incurred in the rental of your rooms [ie. all included bills, landlords insurance, mortgage interest, advertising costs, 10% wear and tear allowance etc...]. In this case this would be 75% of the expenses would able to be offset against my income from the property, because there are 4 of us here - 1 being myself [hence I cannot offset my own living costs obviously!]

whichever is better for you - is up to you to decide as I understood it. This year I would definitely be better off offsetting my expenses since my mortgage repayments have gone up so significantly.

I was under the impression that you had to select one choice at the begining of the letting and stick to it, I'm no expert in that field though. I can pm you a site where you can look into the various tax implications of different types of letting (cannot put it on forum as it does contain a paying subscription element, though you can get lots of tips off there without paying).

For Tatieirregular - go to search box, select advanced search, type name under username, select search by thread. Be warned it's a long one, there were a lot of comments over different jobs related to fine art, hence why I suggested it. EDIT - sorry just spotted previous post saying its gone, left desciption on in case anyone finds it useful for other reasons.

KoalaElf

cw18 wrote: »

Unlikely you'd get though....

With such a huge deposit on your property I very doubt that you'd walk away with less than £16k in the bank.

From your comment about your Dad acting an guarantor I assume his name isn't on the mortgage? But you say you're spending your inheritance now -- so does that mean he stumped up some/all of the deposit? If so you could have problems ahead, as you'd need to prove that money was his before the benefits offiices would allow you to discount it should you sell..... it's not simply a case of repaying him, as they would see that as capital deprivation.

Hmm, well its hard to say how much I could sell the house for at the moment. Since property prices in the area have gone down a lot, plus the fact I would need a fast sale [so i assume auction], plus the fact I would have sitting tenants... I can assume I could easily lose £50'000 of my deposit, maybe more. Since both my father and mother contributed £25'000 of the deposit [as interest free loans - if I remember correctly we had our solicitor write something up for us to sign to verify this loan to safeguard us both - ie. they would gain something if the property appreciated in value etc] then in that case I would have nothing left - I would have to look at the agreement again to see if i need to pay my parents back the whole amount if the property drops in value.

My inheritance [of 50k] is from my birth father [the guarantor is my adoptive father]. If what you say is true about problems ahead if I sell then I am indeed in even more of a tight spot than I realise!

KoalaElf

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Is thereany flexibility in the arrangement of your house that would allow you to let out another room? For example, is there an unused dining room or study that you could use whilst you let out your current bedroom?

Not really. The house is only really a 2bed house, I am letting out the box room and the dining room to house 4 of us. If five of us were here [which sometimes increases to more when people have their partners over to stay] then we would only have a tiny kitchen and one bathroom. I would also come under scrutiny from the local coucil for haveing what classes as an HMO I believe.

p1an0player

KoalaElf wrote: »

My inheritance [of 50k] is from my birth father [the guarantor is my adoptive father]. If what you say is true about problems ahead if I sell then I am indeed in even more of a tight spot than I realise!

but the way ahead is work not benefits, and keeping the house! good luck

you sound pretty organised in terms of the admin of the house, I'm sure an office would be delighted to have you do temping work (at least) for them

KoalaElf

skint-student-nurse wrote: »

Have you tried any job agencies? many seem to offer temp-to-perminant oppertunities and some even pay weekly. i hope things look up for you soon,its a shame the goverment are reluctant to help those who are in genuine need and help those who cant be @rsed to help themselves. if you are feeling yourself getting depressed, pls see your doctor. Also ,have you tried the CAB to see what help they can provide you with this situation?

Yeh I will sign up for the temp agencies this week, I had been resistant to it thus far since they have mainly admin jobs [i'm dyslexic and fear it will be very obvious although my boyfriend has done admin jobs and thinks I will be fine] or jobs I am definitely not qualified for [managerial, HGV, accountancy things!]

I think I may have to go see my doctor - the whole thing is really starting to get to me.

I am going to the CAB tomorrow and see if they can give me any advice, although I don't really hold out much hope . I know I am just as in need as anyone else fresh out of uni who has not found a job or been made redundant, but I hate the way when I ask for help, some people can be very rude as though I am stupid to even ask! I hope I don't get that treatment at the CAB - this time I might cry and I hate looking pathetic!

( I know three people so far who have lost jobs and not been able to find new ones which is illustrative of the way things are at the moment)

KoalaElf

p1an0player wrote: »

but the way ahead is work not benefits, and keeping the house! good luck

you sound pretty organised in terms of the admin of the house, I'm sure an office would be delighted to have you do temping work (at least) for them

Thanks - yes I think temping as an admin job is the way forward, then I have the safety net of being able to leave after a short amount of time [without actually quitting] which makes any potential embarrassments more bearable!

And yes, my organisational skills have come on a lot from owning the house and managing it so hopefully that will put me in a better position.

And thank you for your earlier suggestions ^_^

p1an0player

KoalaElf wrote: »

Thanks - yes I think temping as an admin job is the way forward, then I have the safety net of being able to leave after a short amount of time [without actually quitting] which makes any potential embarrassments more bearable!

And yes, my organisational skills have come on a lot from owning the house and managing it so hopefully that will put me in a better position.

And thank you for your earlier suggestions ^_^

You're welcome. Having worked with office temps I think you might be over-estimating what is generally expected from them, especially minimum wage temps. If you're embarrassed about making a mistake, I guess the thing to remember is that everyone makes mistakes, and every successful person has had setbacks along the way (easy to say I know)!

KoalaElf

briona wrote: »

KoalaElf: I see someone has mentioned tatieirregular's thread (the other Fine Art graduate) but unfortunately this has recently been deleted. Many of the suggestions related to selling some of her own artwork (which she was oddly very opposed to even trying).

I'm a Graphic Designer and have in the past expanded my job search to include the Bristol/Bath area. I'll do some digging later on to see if I have any art-related leads!

Briona

Thanks briona, you are a star! :A [that was the most suitable emote I could find...]

Shame tattieregular's thread has been deleted, but I have enough suggestions on here to be following up. I guess its very easy to get into a defeatist mentality in this kind of situation which is what I am trying to avoid. I am angry I can't get help when I feel I deserve it as much as anyone else, but I have to outweigh that anger at the same time with positivity to keep me going.

I suspect this Tattie girl let things get on top of her a little which would explain her attitude to suggestions about using her art skills. Art is a lonely discipline and you get very little support outside of your own personal motivation in my experience - it is easy to get jaded and feel like it is a fruitless occupation or you have no skill at it and so on. Except every now and again you do something and someone makes you feel like a genious! [but still won't give you any money for it...] As we all know - well apart from the eternal optimists - when you get in a negative mind set, you think negatively about everything, even helpful suggestions!

I would love to hear if you come across any art-related leads, but obviously don't worry yourself over it!