Best way to use my income?

MoneyWaster2007

Hi all, i work as an electronic circuit board assembler/ solderer and the pay isnt great. I get £6.00 per hour and do 37.5 hours per week. The job is through an agency and I get paid by a third company the agency use to pay their employees. Problem is, I get charged £24 per week just to receive my pay. This is the charge for using the payment company- its outrageous!! So after all deductions are taken away from my wage, I end up with less than minimum pay (apparently it's legal because the wage is higher than nat. min. wage before the £24 payment is taken away). Anyway, I know theres a lot of people out of work so I must be grateful to have a job.

My question, as you may have guessed from the title is what to do with my money when i get it each friday.

At the start of each month I write out all 'essential' outgoings for that month, then divide this figure by 4, to show me how much of my wage i need to set aside from each weeks wage of the month. My surplus income per week for this month is £77.00. I want to use the whole of this £77.00 to throw at my debts, but that means no social life, and theres nothing worse than sat at home alone all weekend (ok well not quite alone as live with parents, but you get the picture). If i did use all of this £77 for my debts i would really start to see an impact pretty quickly over, say, a couple of months it would be a whole different picture!! But its just the fact that Im 24 very nearly 25 and single, and what do most lads of my age want to do when it hits friday night? exactly, go down the pub....

....but, small wage+ going out to the pub = no/ very little off my debt. So i really have to make a choice which is going to be hard. any advice?

went out last saturday night and woke up on sunday, out of pocket and severely hungover and what did i gain by doing this? not a lot from what i can see. so i can see that its logical to stay out of the pub, but i have great difficulty actually putting that thought into action when the weekend actually arrives.

i guess what i really want is to stop going out to the pub, being hungover and out of pocket. need some motivation though, and advice if anyone can help? thanks in advance, Money.

fairydiamond

I'm pretty sure they can't charge you £26 a week just to get paid. The agency is robbing you I think!

Fire_Fox

MoneyWaster2007 wrote: »

Hi all, i work as an electronic circuit board assembler/ solderer and the pay isnt great. I get £6.00 per hour and do 37.5 hours per week. The job is through an agency and I get paid by a third company the agency use to pay their employees. Problem is, I get charged £24 per week just to receive my pay. This is the charge for using the payment company- its outrageous!! So after all deductions are taken away from my wage, I end up with less than minimum pay (apparently it's legal because the wage is higher than nat. min. wage before the £24 payment is taken away). .

I find it very very hard to believe this is legal. Minimum wage for an adult is £5.75 and you are not earning that once the £24 is taken off - that's 64p an hour! Seriously get some advice from an expert cos you are being ripped off. You are not the one employing the wages company, the agency is so they should surely pay the cost.

Can you possibly go onto monthly pay, thereby incurring only one set of charges?

Fire_Fox

"Deductions from pay
Deductions which you make to cover the cost of an item or expenses, for example uniforms, transport or meals, do not count towards minimum wage pay. If you make deductions for these things then your workers’ pay after the deductions must still be at least the minimum wage."
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file48127.pdf

"Restrictions on agencies

If you are an agency worker using an agency, your agency can't:

• make a provision of finding a job conditional upon you using other services that the agency is allowed to charge a fee for charge a fee for finding you work (see further below)

Fees and payments for services offered by the employment agency

Your employment agency can’t charge you a fee for finding or trying to find you work but they can charge you for additional non-work-finding services such as CV writing. However, they cannot make you use fee-paying services, for example CV writing, as a requirement for finding you work.
If your employment agency provides services which are charged for, you must be given full written details of the services including your right to cancel or withdraw from the services and the length of the notice period you must give. You can cancel any paid services without suffering any penalty, including any services for accommodation, transport or training. However, you must give a minimum of 10 working days written notice to the agency to cancel living accommodation and a minimum of five working days notice for all other services."
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Agencyworkersandemploymentagencies/DG_173258