The recession, benefits, the safety net, and the learning curve

BitterAndTwisted

"She was horrified to discover that she would only get Jobseekers Allowance for 6 months and after that she would be on her own."

Your friend's situation mirrors mine almost exactly, bar the mortgage. I am expecting to be laid off any moment (I'm temping and have been doing so for the last two years) and I don't understand how your friend would only be entitled to JSA for six months and then nada, nothing. Surely some other benefit kicks in after six months? I'm about 100 times more frightened now than I was a minute ago.

fc123

PN I see what you mean,,,,me being a London person, there is every course imaginable......it's my emergency get out if things go T's up.

bo_drinker

fc123 wrote: »

I hate to bring up gender, I really do, but I notice female posters tend to open up more. I am thinking Thriftybabes threads on her business.

We need the metrosexuals back on the board. I think a campaign is needed.

Sometimes, if one writes out the issues, it sounds like ones failed or is rubbish.....as no-one really knows the person or their life directly....and there is always the chance that some poster will type out 'loser' or whatever, or remind one that they are OK Jack etc. That's how I feel anyway.

Some do not know or look at the whole picture. I can see a familiar sign happening when folk have been in the same job/career since day 1 and never had to do anything else then they know nothing else really, and change could be daunting for some. My work dried up in January and my head was shot for a short while but I know other things and I am diversifying to go down those routes, I am lucky I can do that. It's not that easy for some as they have never been in the position to have to be flexible. I retrained @ 33 to go into construction, look where that is now, totally on it's ars3. I will be out this year. Take the bull by the horns and do some thing that will put the bread on the table I am going back in to the motorcycle trade, small acorns and all that, you are only here once. Think outside what you know. Good luck.:beer:

PasturesNew

People try to make me feel like a failure. But I am taking time out to come to terms with my new-found speshulness after a lifetime of working 3x as hard as others trying to overcome an invisible barrier.

And it's nice to do f3ck all all day. Not claiming a penny is one way that I needed to live my life because it's another way to withdraw from society and its questions, its forms.

It's like being dole scum, but I don't even have to get dressed and go out once a fortnight. Brilliant

chupov

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

"She was horrified to discover that she would only get Jobseekers Allowance for 6 months and after that she would be on her own."

Your friend's situation mirrors mine almost exactly, bar the mortgage. I am expecting to be laid off any moment (I'm temping and have been doing so for the last two years) and I don't understand how your friend would only be entitled to JSA for six months and then nada, nothing. Surely some other benefit kicks in after six months? I'm about 100 times more frightened now than I was a minute ago.

get your savings out of cash. They only care about money in a bank account,6 grand is the limit, other assets are fine. but do it before you are unemployed.

fc123

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

"She was horrified to discover that she would only get Jobseekers Allowance for 6 months and after that she would be on her own."

Your friend's situation mirrors mine almost exactly, bar the mortgage. I am expecting to be laid off any moment (I'm temping and have been doing so for the last two years) and I don't understand how your friend would only be entitled to JSA for six months and then nada, nothing. Surely some other benefit kicks in after six months? I'm about 100 times more frightened now than I was a minute ago.

I am really out of the loop on benefits info, but, I believe you then get income support? It's a lesser ammount though.
Check out the benefits board, they'll know for sure.

PasturesNew

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

"She was horrified to discover that she would only get Jobseekers Allowance for 6 months and after that she would be on her own."

Your friend's situation mirrors mine almost exactly, bar the mortgage. I am expecting to be laid off any moment (I'm temping and have been doing so for the last two years) and I don't understand how your friend would only be entitled to JSA for six months and then nada, nothing. Surely some other benefit kicks in after six months? I'm about 100 times more frightened now than I was a minute ago.

Maybe she has some savings and when income based JSA finishes she's expected to live on that until her savings drop a bit more.

I thought if you have nothing then after JSA you get IS at the same rate ... same sum, different name. So then she'd just be on her own in how she was to pay the mortgage.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

It's a lesser ammount though.

I always thought that for a single person, living alone, JSA and IS were the same amount. Maybe it's less for those that claim more, but I think a single person's is the bottom line.

PasturesNew

chupov wrote: »

get your savings out of cash. They only care about money in a bank account,6 grand is the limit, other assets are fine. but do it before you are unemployed.

Define "other assets are fine".

There's no point taking £10k out of the bank to, say, buy a car - because that's a depreciating liability.

What assets could one buy and be able to benefit from if one were to become unemployed? A cellar of wine? A drawing room with fine paintings on the wall? A stash of gold hidden under the mattress?

It'd have to be an asset that could be relied upon and turned into cash on demand.

bo_drinker

PasturesNew wrote: »

Define "other assets are fine".

There's no point taking £10k out of the bank to, say, buy a car - because that's a depreciating liability.

What assets could one buy and be able to benefit from if one were to become unemployed? A cellar of wine? A drawing room with fine paintings on the wall? A stash of gold hidden under the mattress?

It'd have to be an asset that could be relied upon and turned into cash on demand.

Cash under the mattress.( It's earning nowt in the bank)