help!! so skint struggling with expenses

pixienix

babymoo wrote: »

You say that you have 2 kids who live with their dad who you pay CSA to. Do you received money for the girls that are living with you? This is confusing me slightly. I don't know much about the issue don't have children so not sure how it works but I would have thought it would work both ways.

they are 2 sets of kids from 2 different relationships and the youngest 2's father doesnt pay csa because csa refuse to omit my address from the csa claim form. i fled that relationship due to domestic violence and have already had to move 300 miles away from family and friends and lost custody of my eldest 2, i'm not doing it again ! so i'm exempt from declaring who the father is, means he gets off scot free but keeps us safe!

babymoo

Ah fair enough. As others have said as sad as it is you would be better off not working the taxi job. Good luck whatever happens

pixienix

PasturesNew wrote: »

Taxi drivers I knew years ago would lend their car to car-less drivers to make more money. Is that an option for you? Of course there'd be more costs and a risk, but does anybody do that these days? Could you?

Or, is it possible to rent your plate out, or something?

Would it be possible to give up the taxi and work the radio, maybe not now, but next time the job's available?

a hackney carriage badge is costing new drivers in excess of £500 now so unsurprisingly there are no new drivers! only way i could reent my car out is if a driver had an accident and was off the road or a breakdown that would take a while to be fixed.
the plate is linked to the car, it has the make model and reg on the plate so can only be used on that car.

give up the taxi and work the radio? sorry, dont understand what you mean there. there are very few firms that work with a radio still and theres still a radio fee but i dont think thats what you meant as i'd still need a taxi!

Annisele

pixienix wrote: »

my takings on average working week 9.30am til 3pm mon-fri (27 1/2 hrs pw) before expenses is £370

Ah, OK, that makes far more sense. So your gross earnings from the taxi are £370 per week, or £1603 per month, and your expenses for the taxi are about £928. You're working 27.5 hours a week, or about 120 hours a month.

That means that your net gain from taxi driving is about £675 per month, which works out at about £5.60 per hour. That's slightly less than NMW, but given the flexibility you get from taxi driving it's probably worth it - if your figures are all accurate, and £370 really is an average figure taking into account sickness, school holidays, bad weeks and what-have-you.

Is there anything you can do about the car maintenance? I appreciate a taxi is going to cost more to maintain than a normal car, but £3,600 a year? :eek:

PasturesNew

pixienix wrote: »

a hackney carriage badge is costing new drivers in excess of £500 now so unsurprisingly there are no new drivers! only way i could reent my car out is if a driver had an accident and was off the road or a breakdown that would take a while to be fixed.
the plate is linked to the car, it has the make model and reg on the plate so can only be used on that car.

I'm sure 25 years ago they were £20-25k where I lived, but that was probably with the car included.

pixienix wrote: »

give up the taxi and work the radio? sorry, dont understand what you mean there. there are very few firms that work with a radio still and theres still a radio fee but i dont think thats what you meant as i'd still need a taxi!

I meant doing the job of sitting in the office, taking the calls and giving the jobs to the correct/nearest driver, keeping the "long distance jobs" log and keeping everybody informed what's going on. I saw this job advertised here 10 years ago for £2/hour, but then the minimum wage came in, so it'd be more now as it more than doubled when minimum wage started.

So, it's a job that's done, but is a taxi office job, not requiring any driving or a taxi.

pixienix

Annisele wrote: »

Ah, OK, that makes far more sense. So your gross earnings from the taxi are £370 per week, or £1603 per month, and your expenses for the taxi are about £928. You're working 27.5 hours a week, or about 120 hours a month.

That means that your net gain from taxi driving is about £675 per month, which works out at about £5.60 per hour. That's slightly less than NMW, but given the flexibility you get from taxi driving it's probably worth it - if your figures are all accurate, and £370 really is an average figure taking into account sickness, school holidays, bad weeks and what-have-you.

Is there anything you can do about the car maintenance? I appreciate a taxi is going to cost more to maintain than a normal car, but £3,600 a year? :eek:

unfortunatly no, tyres brakes and servicing needs doing every 2-3 months, i could probably stretch that to 4-5 months but would end up with more break downs and i'd be breaking my licencing conditions. my car seems to pop bulbs for a living and its one of them cars you need to be a qualified mechanic just to change a bulb, so end up paying for bulbs and fitting about once a fortnight! our mot's are done 6 monthly and engineer reports are done every march and plate tests are every april. i had added expenses this year as i got run off the road by white van man and he stoved in the whole drivers side of the car and was gone before i got chance to get so much as a registation number, so that cost me a fair bit to have repaired.

mum2one

pixienix wrote: »

they are 2 sets of kids from 2 different relationships and the youngest 2's father doesnt pay csa because csa refuse to omit my address from the csa claim form. i fled that relationship due to domestic violence and have already had to move 300 miles away from family and friends and lost custody of my eldest 2, i'm not doing it again ! so i'm exempt from declaring who the father is, means he gets off scot free but keeps us safe!

That isunbelievable, you've moved for your own safety, and yet urbeing punished. DDs dad was violent and abusive, I am on income support, they qst tried to claim from him when dd was 6mth, despite that I had a solicitor dealing with his solicitor to block access and get my life back, then last year another letter theyre moveing me to the new csa rules, where they want you to come to an arrangement mutually, don't they read the backdated info....

At least your safe, which in this day and age is a godsend xx

mum2one

Its unbelievable the expenses assosiated with it, but thats where they've got you. The other problem would be if you packed in work you could be sanctioned and not recieve IS or JSA for upto 26weeks, once you go down the benefits line its a minefield.
x

pixienix

mum2one wrote: »

Its unbelievable the expenses assosiated with it, but thats where they've got you. The other problem would be if you packed in work you could be sanctioned and not recieve IS or JSA for upto 26weeks, once you go down the benefits line its a minefield.
x

thats what i thought because im am making myself unemployed if leave. besides that it would drive me insane being at home all day and night, both the kids are at school all day and i wouldnt know what to do with myself!

pixienix

mum2one wrote: »

That isunbelievable, you've moved for your own safety, and yet urbeing punished. DDs dad was violent and abusive, I am on income support, they qst tried to claim from him when dd was 6mth, despite that I had a solicitor dealing with his solicitor to block access and get my life back, then last year another letter theyre moveing me to the new csa rules, where they want you to come to an arrangement mutually, don't they read the backdated info....

At least your safe, which in this day and age is a godsend xx

i know under new rules of csa they disclose your address to the absent parent and try to get u to sort it out between yourselves, people in our situation are exempt from filling in the form which means we get no financial support. on the old system, your address is also displayed along with the kids names and dob and they said they werent able to omit my address from the claim form even under my circumstances, so claimed exemption! dont think the csa give a stuff about the background of why the other parent is absent as long as they recieve money from somewhere! means no financial support but at least he isnt bashing our door down at 3am!