constructive dismissal earned me a JSA sanction now im jobless and pennyless

tomitma

mitch161 wrote: »

in the good old days of employment i had the luxury of sky world. what made it more lucky for me is that when i first contracted in i asked for the minimum. and then upgraded 2 weeks later. so i have already got sky to reduce back down to the initial minimum of £20 a month.

i had £2,500 month before unemployment. all bills came at once car tax, insurance, mot. which i paid a years worth as i always do of car insurance and tax, i dont like monthly payments. never did.. and then BAM unemployed.

housing rent/council tax is taken care of. but there are un avoidable expenses right now.

TV licence, water rates, gas electricity, home insurance, and food.
with sky i was slowly withdrawing maybe £5 a week from my at the time £250 left in bank while under JSA. but now while appeal is going on im withdrawing up £20 a week. which if the sanction appeal does not work in my favour and worse case i denied hardship payment i have 10 weeks of food gas and electric (already budgetted to the minimum e.g meals under £1.10, gas on for just 20 minutes per 4 hour period just to top up a little heat)

or if this winter weather continues may turn into just 5 weeks or less of money if i have to have heating on longer to stop the shaky bone syndrome lol.

yes its not starvation yet as im organised to prepare and stretch my money. but if i ate like i did just 6 months ago that money would have been gone in 3 days. so im doing well.

the sanction, just reading off the letter suggests it applies for 6 months from just over a week ago. basically till may 2011.

i have read somewhere that the benefits department works on a 3 strike process where they meant to sanction for 1 week, then more for second offence etc.

they suggest its because if i voluntarilly resigned i not entitled to JSA.. but 6months with nothing is rediculous after soo many years of paying tax and national insurance!!!!

the other stressful part is the contructive dismissal talks/interviews with my previous employer whom dont want to admit such occured, yet JSA need proof.

head gonna explode soon i thinks LOL

the timing of my water rates and sky this week (with no benefit of any kind) have brought me to this site seeking support as £40 water rates and £20 sky brought me below the £200 in bank and putting £10 on electric and £10 on gas each week/fortnight if lucky is getting tougher and tougher to budget, if the appeals and hardship payments dont reply to me positively. hense why i trying to seek support to further reduce out goings now before the bank account shows a big fat zero

Dont worry about the water rates, as they can be paid later, if there is only you in the house, then it might be worth you getting a meter put in, I have a 3 bedroom bungalow, and my water rates were £69.00 a month, we asked for a meter they are now charging us £24.50 one heck of a saving.
Phone SKY and tell them YOU CAN NOT pay.

Fridge3

mitch161 wrote: »

in the good old days of employment i had the luxury of sky world. what made it more lucky for me is that when i first contracted in i asked for the minimum. and then upgraded 2 weeks later. so i have already got sky to reduce back down to the initial minimum of £20 a month.

i had £2,500 month before unemployment. all bills came at once car tax, insurance, mot. which i paid a years worth as i always do of car insurance and tax, i dont like monthly payments. never did.. and then BAM unemployed.

housing rent/council tax is taken care of. but there are un avoidable expenses right now.

TV licence, water rates, gas electricity, home insurance, and food.
with sky i was slowly withdrawing maybe £5 a week from my at the time £250 left in bank while under JSA. but now while appeal is going on im withdrawing up £20 a week. which if the sanction appeal does not work in my favour and worse case i denied hardship payment i have 10 weeks of food gas and electric (already budgetted to the minimum e.g meals under £1.10, gas on for just 20 minutes per 4 hour period just to top up a little heat)

or if this winter weather continues may turn into just 5 weeks or less of money if i have to have heating on longer to stop the shaky bone syndrome lol.

yes its not starvation yet as im organised to prepare and stretch my money. but if i ate like i did just 6 months ago that money would have been gone in 3 days. so im doing well.

the sanction, just reading off the letter suggests it applies for 6 months from just over a week ago. basically till may 2011.

i have read somewhere that the benefits department works on a 3 strike process where they meant to sanction for 1 week, then more for second offence etc.

they suggest its because if i voluntarilly resigned i not entitled to JSA.. but 6months with nothing is rediculous after soo many years of paying tax and national insurance!!!!

the other stressful part is the contructive dismissal talks/interviews with my previous employer whom dont want to admit such occured, yet JSA need proof.

head gonna explode soon i thinks LOL

the timing of my water rates and sky this week (with no benefit of any kind) have brought me to this site seeking support as £40 water rates and £20 sky brought me below the £200 in bank and putting £10 on electric and £10 on gas each week/fortnight if lucky is getting tougher and tougher to budget, if the appeals and hardship payments dont reply to me positively. hense why i trying to seek support to further reduce out goings now before the bank account shows a big fat zero

£2500pm was a reasonable income and you are well organised. So, as you have not allowed contingency for more than 4 months from this income, presumably some of it must have been spent on items that you could sell?

PS, I'm not sure if I've read right. Were you were expecting the former employer to admit constructive dismissal so DWP would lift sanctions?

mitch161

sky now sorted. how i worded it was as such (truncatated version to avoid my usual telephone waffle

"Hi sky, i am calling as i am concerned that due to unfor-seeable unemployment i am unable to pay for next months sky. i do not have sufficient funds available or income to get funds intime for nextmonth and thought it only fair to inform you giving you notice of this. i dont seek a release out of contract but i do seek to temperarily suspend my service until my situation changes, and i beleive your company has a due responsibilty policy when it comes to matters of hardship"

not much chit chatter in the form of arguing, they seemed to be all positive and allowed me a few months without service, without any charges.
:j
happy days, now my money can stretch abit further. now i can use these extra pennys i left in bank for sky towards visits to Jobcentre and possible interviews..

still got a nice suit in the wardrobe, so employment.. bring it on.

one hurdle over, but now tempted to reduce my water rates now :rotfl:although the sky thing brings my outgoings inline with the limited income.

cheers folks, just needed to know it was possible before trying, didnt want to be arguing to a call centre department that would be trained to say no, cheers for the confidence boost with regards to sky tomitma and the general help from everyone else.

Loopy_Girl

Great news....I would have been surprised if they would have refused you.

It's all about how you speak to people, tell the truth and already have a solution in mind.

Have they cut all your channels with immediate effect? Remember you will still get all the Freeview channels and they seem pretty good to me

Well done

tomitma

You can even get free sat, I bought a free sat box from Argos for 24.99, and I attached it to my sky dish, really easy to do, I can now get over 140 channels, I get more than my husband, and he is using virgin for his tv.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

People constructively dismissed/bullied often have MH issues and, if they have never received benefits before, may not be aware of the different benefits. However, to say this outright would be more like encouraging fraud whilst if the OP were to say 'well, yes, I have. Why?' would enable a new course of action. And set off an explosion within the MSE ranks. I wasn't trolling either, but I knew the question could cause - debate - whilst potentially being helpful to the OP. Hence only asking the question without guiding towards one answer or another.

I hope that was clear as I think it sounded!

dmg24

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

People constructively dismissed/bullied often have MH issues and, if they have never received benefits before, may not be aware of the different benefits. However, to say this outright would be more like encouraging fraud whilst if the OP were to say 'well, yes, I have. Why?' would enable a new course of action. And set off an explosion within the MSE ranks. I wasn't trolling either, but I knew the question could cause - debate - whilst potentially being helpful to the OP. Hence only asking the question without guiding towards one answer or another.

I hope that was clear as I think it sounded!

Yep, we knew exactly what you were getting at.

computersaysnoagain

It is sad after reading the helpful advice and support given to mitch during this time that he has chosen to post on threads where a disabled issue is raised and asking for advice and attack them and lecture them, whilst at the same time saying he is disabled and chooses not to claim any disability benefits.

Mitch I hope your tough time does resolve, you get the job you want and flourish in that, but when you post on a thread of another possibly vulneralbe poster asking for the same courtesy as you, could you please stop lecturing them of your view of right and wrong, when it only comes accross that your anger is as you posted here the only benefit you could get was jsa due to not being disabled in you eyes at that time.

I dont see anywhere on your thread where someone has attacked you, judged you or lectured you because they truly wanted to help you and were concerned for you obvious desperation hence the suggestions.

Please think again before posting horrible remarks on other threads, how would you have felt a few months ago if you were attacked for being in the position you had no control over it seemed

computersaysnoagain

Mitch your thread is waiting for you:beer:

DX2

computersaysnoagain wrote: »

Mitch your thread is waiting for you:beer:

Maybe you would be better taking this to PM, rather than doing what you are doing just now It's frowned upon from the towers.