Its tough, it will get better and guess what its freezing brrrrr!

kidcat

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I do a bit of benefit advice as part of my job, and unless you have lots of children, there are very few cases where you;re better of on benefit than in work. Honest

My uncle does some welfare advice and he says the same, but its a common feeling that people have.:)

Gintotmelinda

ceridwen wrote: »

Hope the house refurb. goes well.

Errr....with the interest rates on savings still being virtually non-existent - I think I might usefully spend my next bit of "money I want to save really" on replastering a room that is in dire need of it (ie instead of saving the money). Do you have any idea what your plasterer would charge to replaster a room thats about 16' x 12' and that would need replastering from scratch (ie "skimming" wouldnt be sufficient I'm afraid:(). The plaster is only being held on the walls by the wallpaper I've got covering it - so it all needs to come off and get replaced from scratch and then I can just paint the wall (as I planned to - when I bought the house many years ago now.....). Boy do the walls in that room look BAD...and I was going to wait and get a bit more savings first - but those interest rates dictate I spend the money instead if theres anything I need anyway (darn it!)...:mad:

hi Ceridwen I will ask the plasterer on Monday. I think that skimming is several hundred pounds per room-our hall and stairs was £500.:eek:
OH deals with the money and I try not to listen(puts hands over ears and sings loudly).

Gintot

kezlou

The security guards in our local job centre actually stand by the front door and WILL NOT let you in even if its to use the job centre points.
I peronally hated going on there.

But in the's of being better off on benefits. Well to be honest we defintely were, managed to pay some debts and a credit card in the six months we were on JSA.
Now i've had to reuse that credit and pay off one debt. Not good in the slightest.

But i will pay my debts off, this time next i will hopefully have paid off at two small credit cards.

Gailey hugs for you .
I wold personally would get your husband to kick at the school.I kbnow he's not on the birth certificate, but because he pays maintenance etc he should have a right to see an educational psychologist and speak to social workers about his son.

Penelope_Penguin

kezlou wrote: »

But in the's of being better off on benefits. Well to be honest we defintely were, managed to pay some debts and a credit card in the six months we were on JSA.
Now i've had to reuse that credit and pay off one debt. Not good in the slightest.

To be fair, prices have gone up a lot recently. You might not be able to afford to pay off your debts if you were on JSA now

kidcat wrote: »

My uncle does some welfare advice and he says the same, but its a common feeling that people have.:)

What a lot of people forget is that there are several benefits that you can get if you're working They calculate that someone out of work gets, for instance, JSA, child tax credit and child benefit and then equate that to an equivalent annual salary.

What they need to remember is that the salaried person will also get the child tax credit and the child benefit, and possibly be entitled to working tax credit too

maryb

I always thought it was unlikely that being on benefits would be a 'nice' life.

But I can see that if you have huge fares to pay to get to a minimum wage job it wouldn't be worth it especially if you can live more economically if you are time rich even if you are money poor.

I don't see why they don't add a transport subsidy to capping housing benefits then it wouldn't matter quite so much if people couldn't afford to live in the centre of cities. Let's face it most people have to live where it is cheap (enough) and still pay fares.

That would require joined up thinking, however. And I see that fares are going to go up massively for rail travellers soon

anguk

Just popped in to say congratulations to Sammy. I'm so pleased for you, that win couldn't have gone to a nicer person. It must be such a weight off your mind knowing you can start the New Year debt free. :j

sammy_kaye18

MORNING ALL:D

Surprisingly I've woken up after being up every hour with Holly May and I'm still in a good mood. Plus had a row over something stupid with Owen last night and he went to bed not talking to me and still is not talking to me but its not bothering me. Have left Holly in the bedroom asleep with him too so he'll soon be up ha ha!

I am just waiting on someone ringing me back now to finalise delivery etc of the items although the man on the phone took my details yesterday so shouldn't be too long until I hear from them I don't expect and my details are already on itv's winners web page too so I know tis all good.

Right replies

KATHOLICOS --- we sat and roughly figured out what we owe to who last night. Mine rounds at about £2030 and Owens is at about £2,000 so think I will put the £30 towards mine myself and put £1,000 into a savings account to gather some interest as I figure the credit union wont gain any but Owen suggested a joint bank account ---- like poop. Thats MY money. So I will set MY account up.

PARSONSWIFE --- I plan to spend it wisely and keep the £1,000 as a fall back. I Ideally don't want to touch that money at all and let it gather some moss. Plus I will be treating myself from the money I'd now be saving on debt paying as I was paying out £118 a month on debts. I told boyfriend though I don't want to live to my new means now though --- like I have an extra £118 there now a month that I could spend all of but I want to try and save some back to add to the savings. Even if I save £50 a month after Xmas - come next christmas I would have £600 to cover all my Xmas shopping but it will also act as a nice buffer for us.

CATKINS --- I am landed that Christmas is now sorted. Its a huge strain off us this year and typical as I have just worked myself up trying to afford my step sons Kinect that his mother told him we were buying so got left short for these next two weeks only to have this happen and then win one!!! We have decided though to keep the Kinect we had brought for our step son, and the new xbox and kinect I have won I will
give to Ben for Christmas but I am going to trade in our old XBOX at game station or cash generators and then use the money I get from that to get a few more games for Ben.

CERIDWEN ---

Okays.....and whoever is doing the positive thinking/lighting candles/whatever....on Sammy's behalf.....howzabout a final "burst" of positive energy/good wishes/whatever to do the giving her enough money to buy a "little house on the prairie" (well - in those Welsh valleys anyway) for her and her little family?

Yep...actually I'm serious...I think that would round it off nicely if Sammy could march into an estate agents and ask for details of a little 2/3 bedroomer for her and her family and know she had the money to pay upfront for it....

Get those positive vibes going now folks....

I would LOVE that. I think that is what my £1,000 bank savings will actually go towards. I'd love to manage to get a foot on the housing ladder as I've never had a family home and been brought up in RAF housing most my life. Although I have been watching 'Giles and Sue live the good life' and must say I quite fancy that! lol

SHEGAR --- I intend to make this money stretch like it has never stretched before! lol. I intend fully to keep to my OS ways but may treat myself to a breadmaker - have never had one and always made it by hand so think that might be my treat. Also I agree about the pot to p in - I was shopping yesterday and knew my funds were limited and Holly being a summer baby was inundated with dresses but no trousers and I stood in ethol austin for 20 minutes debating whether to buy her a little pair of reduced jeans that were £2.50! I think actually with my first lot of non debt budgetted money I will take a trip to primarki and suit them both out for winter with a few jumpers and trousers each plus I can treat myself then too.


For all concerned. Boyfriend is not getting a say with this little windfall. When I rang him I said he was not having bike bits/bikes/cars etc. I told him I would get him debt free - which will make us £200 better off from him too so it will still help us and I've told him nothing else on credit ever. If we want something we will save for it. The money is going to be put into my savings account and so I will be the one controlling it until I open a new savings account to home it once I've looked into interest rates etc.

Strange thing was we were thinking about getting a new TV once we were debt free and were looking at only getting a 32" :eek: and now we have a 37" coming!

Right best go, Grumpy has woken up and both kiddie-winks are awake now. Need to go and get Ben's football kit dried for his match today.

hugs to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pennywisepoundstupid

Sammy thats fantastic news, have an amazing christmas.

charlies-aunt

Kitcaboodle wrote: »

They tend to just linger in the background. At least, ours is fairly useless, I mistook him for an office junior when I first went to the jobcenter! Mainly he just asks people to leave if they start shouting and kicking off. We're lucky in that our jobcentre customers are more likely to attack each other than the staff, so the security guards are more like referrees at a boxing match!

Sounds familiar! our JCP entrance seems to have a group of dirty, scruffy people who seem to spend the day smoking, drinking, fighting, shouting and being lairy. Our security staff can't get rid of them as they are outside the premises and the police can't because they aren't commiting a crime (apart from being obnoxious) Not surprisingly many customers hate having to come in as they have to run the gauntlet of getting pass these people

Single parents are usually better off working 16hrs at minimum wage than being on benefit - they can claim Working Tax Credit (£73-ish) Child Tax Credit (£50-ish per child), still eligible for Housing/Council Tax benefit, plus wages, plus Child Benefit, plus any maintenance thats in pay....if actual earnings are under £100 - carers get to keep their £53-ish carers allowance. They can claim up to 80% of their child care costs back through working tax (to a maximum of £240.00 per week)and also get extra housing and council tax benefit if they are paying for child care so only end up paying between 3-10% of the childcare costs themselves. The majoe flaw to this is that jobs are scarce in general - and 16hrs per week jobs are like hens teeth!

ceridwen

kezlou wrote: »

The security guards in our local job centre actually stand by the front door and WILL NOT let you in even if its to use the job centre points.
I peronally hated going on there.

Then how the heck are you supposed to use the job centre points then?:mad: By Job Centre points - do you mean those machines I saw on a programme the other day where people get job vacancies printed off for them?

I might have come out with a choice word or two myself to effect of "I come here to get a job - not an insult" (trans: "deal with the people who look as if they might kick off and leave me alone") if I had had those security guards being awkward to me.