I need £1k per year in savings

aurongrande_2

OK folks, I'm new to the forums. I've been reading the site for months and made use of every possible means to save money that I could find and is relevant to me. However, I need more.

I need to save up roughly £1k per year.

The thing is, because I cannot get a job in the UK, not including delivering morning papers each day which provides enough income to run my Scooter with a little change, I decided to try abroad.

However, for me to work abroad, I need 2 things, 1) relevant qualifications, 2) £5k to get me their and to see me through the first month as the income is paid at the end of each month.

I'm not going to say where this work is, as it's already difficult to get a job their, I don't want to make it any harder by spreading the word

The thing is, the £5k is basically roughly £2k to get me their, and roughly £2,600 to see me through the first month (rent, utility bills, food etc.)

I'm saying £1k per year, because that's basically the time I need for saving up. 1 year in College and 4 years in University, before I can start applying for jobs abroad. Because things can change a lot in 5 years (exchange rates, travel expenses, etc, I rounded up to the £5k mark.)

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get some more income? To save messing, I will tell you my income and what I've done to save money.

I currently have 3 forms of income. Incapacity, DLA and delivering papers. Incapacity brings in just over £100 a week, DLA is low rate on both Care and Mobility, and paper round brings in about £200 a month.

I've got the cheapest gas and electricity, best phone and broadband package for my area, I do my shopping carefully, but due to living in a town, half our high street shops are closed, and not having an Asda store, I do my main shopping at Tesco, but if I can get anything cheaper at Argos, Wilkos, B&M or 1 of the 2 Pound shops that we got, then I'll go to them.

Also, because I run a Scooter and not a car, my fuel, tax and insurance costs are low. I'm also finishing paying off a single credit card (my only dept) which is down to about £770 left to pay, so will be finished off in 11 months due to me paying £70 each month.

So, that's the gist of it. Any suggestions on upping my income without loosing my benefits?

p.s. I don't like being on benefits, but I might as well use to as a means to an end to get try and get a job.

lorriellah

Why can't you get a job in UK?

I work two jobs and after I've paid all my tax, insurance, pension, studentloan and childcare fees i'm left with less than £100 a week which is what you're getting in DLA alone! The system doesn't seem fair...

aurongrande_2

The reasons why I can't get a job in the UK are too numerous to list, but it's the usual reasons that you tend to hear.

Lack of experience, no previous jobs, no qualifications, medical reasons that limit the types of jobs you can go for, that sort of thing.

I've never been able to hold down jobs, mainly because of the Jobcentre forcing me into jobs that I cannot do in the first place. For example, the Jobcentre forcing you into a job working on a food production line, despite having arthritis which prevents you from moving quickly enough to keep pace. (Oh wait, that happened to me twice.)

I've tried various jobs ranging from Bus Driving for Stagecoach to sandwich making. I even worked as a cleaner for 2 weeks cleaning offices.

I lost the Bus Driving job because it took DVLA 7 weeks to process my driving licence so that I can learn to drive buses. It was a 8 week training course, which left me 1 week to do an 8 week course. I lasted 8 weeks on a food production line making sandwiches, but because I couldn't keep pace, I got the sack. I lost the office cleaning job due to sexual discrimination. Despite the fact I worked hard and did a darn good job cleaning 2 small office buildings on my own whilst 6 women cleaned the same amount of space and mainly stood around drinking coffee, I lost the job.

I've spent years applying for jobs, going to college, self studying, until finally the Jobcentre basically told me that it's impossible for me to get a job within a 50 mile radius. That includes the nearby cities which consist of Nottingham, Sheffield and Doncaster.

I must have been sending out over 100 applications a month. I'll never work through employment agencies, also known as slave labour agencies because they force you to work overkill. The first and last agency I got a job through did the following. Offered me a job which started at 3am until 4pm. So I went and did that job. I just arrived at home when they rang up offering me a job at 5pm that very same day, which finished at 2am at the same company.

I told them that I just finished a shift at that company. Next thing I knew, they terminated my employment contract and will no longer offer me work because I turned down a job.

I just cannot get a job, no matter how hard I try, but I will never give up.

lorriellah

have you not looked at another cleaning job? If you lost yourjob for sexual discrimination then can't you manage to do it in another place too? Not all recuitment agencies ofer just slave labour type jobs! You should join more and see what they give you. My husband got a very good job through there and has been taken on permanently now. It sounds like you have a lot of excuses, just keep looking for work! Go for cleaning jobs or easy office work which doesn't require qualifications.

lincroft1710

How will you fund your 5 years of higher education?

Also 5 years is a long time, the job market "abroad" may have contracted.

Smallfries

sorry if i am missing something here.

I currently have 3 forms of income. Incapacity, DLA and delivering papers. Incapacity brings in just over £100 a week, DLA is low rate on both Care and Mobility, and paper round brings in about £200 a month.

so your probably better off than me and i work for civil service full time. if you can claim DLA then how can you deliver papers?? surely the mobility aspect is as your mobility is limited?

lorriellah

I too was wondering how a person is capable of delivering papers, riding a scooter, typing a message on here and understanding money etc and still claim... a friend of mine can't even walk and they turned down her application for DLA. And also you've listed many jobs you've done- if you are on DLA how can you have been able to clean? You lost your cleaning job because of sexual discrimination not because of ill health... The government are mugs!

Indie_Kid

Low mobility doesn't prevent you from riding a scooter - I have a friend who is on low mobility and drives.

aurongrande_2

lorriellah - I tried finding other cleaning jobs, but sexual discrimination kept getting in the way. They all kept wanting women. It's discrimination against both women and men. They picture women as the housewife type, and thus suitable for cleaning jobs, and thus, men don't get a chance. It may not be like that round your area, but our town is a forgotten town.

I tried searching for other types of jobs, and our employment agencies prefer to employ immigrants because they know they can rip off the immigrants and get away with it. Heck they've even been known to employ illegal immigrants and being allowed to get away with it.

Sadly, it does sound like I have excuses, but even worse, I wish they were excuses. Have you heard of the girl who killed herself because she couldn't get a job? It was in the papers not so long ago. Along with many others, I'm in the same boat.

lincroft1710 - sadly, I won't have to fund the 5 years of education. I'll just have to pay so much up front, the education system will pay the rest. that's something I don't like doing, but it's the only route I got.

as sh1305 says, having low rate mobility doesn't prevent you from riding a scooter. no, I get the low rate for 2 reasons, 1st because my mobility is sluggish but not stopped, 2nd, because I get lost easily. (I know, the second one sounds stupid, but it's on my DLA listing.

also, I use my scooter for delivering the papers. I mainly carry the papers on the scooter.

p.s. I may be better off than if I had a job, but I'd rather earn the money.

p.p.s. I only got DLA after I lost the jobs. Same with IB. I started out with JSA, then it moved to NewDeal, then it automatically switched to IB. Been like that since. Then a few years ago I was told to try applying for DLA, so I did, not expecting to get on it, but I did. Then it came to renewal last year, they turned me down despite my condition not changing, so I was told to go through Tribunal. Tribunal awarded me DLA.

p.p.s.s. Our town centre isn't very big, but half the shops have closed down, with 2 more stores showing closing down signs. The only real jobs round here are production line works and warehousing, but they mainly contract out too slave labour agencies.

thor

The overriding sentiment with DLA is that it is very easy to qualify but i don't think it is as simple as that.
The op appears to have gained all these benefits despite being fit enough to work. He may use his scooter to lug around his papers but surely there must be some houses where he will have to make his way up stairs to deliver and the fact that he has come on here looking for work ideas suggests he thinks so too.
OTOH I know a lot of people who really have problems which you would think would prevent them from working; yet they get blown out of the water when they apply.
If you look at the form, the criteria required to satisfy a succesful application must surely rule out any type of delivery job.

aurongrande_2

thor wrote: »

The overriding sentiment with DLA is that it is very easy to qualify but i don't think it is as simple as that.
The op appears to have gained all these benefits despite being fit enough to work. He may use his scooter to lug around his papers but surely there must be some houses where he will have to make his way up stairs to deliver and the fact that he has come on here looking for work ideas suggests he thinks so too.
OTOH I know a lot of people who really have problems which you would think would prevent them from working; yet they get blown out of the water when they apply.
If you look at the form, the criteria required to satisfy a succesful application must surely rule out any type of delivery job.

Yes, I agree. It's far too easy to get certain benefits. When it comes to DLA, it's easy to get the basic wages from it, but to get the higher rates, it's not so easy. Even my dad who is practically a cripple can only get low rate care and high rate mobility.

You read in the papers on an almost daily basis people living off benefits rather than working, and although I may fit in that criteria, I've been brought up with higher morals. I'd rather be financially worse off in a job, than living comfortably on benefits.

Delivering papers in a morning which is basically 1 hour each morning at no more than national minimum wage, is a job and wages paid straight into bank accounts, the Jobcentre and Department of Work and Pensions don't class it as a job, so it doesn't affect your benefits.

p.s. I don't deliver to any place that requires going up a flight of stairs. The most would probably be 3 steps to drop off a few papers to a hotel.