Benefits Advice Please go easy!

BeGentle

Hello I am new on here, am full of a head cold/flu (unsure which) so go easy on me please. I feel crap and my head is banging, not to mention brain confused:o

Right my problem is I was made redundant last August 2010 after minding my own business and working hard eleven years the goverment got rid of me to save money to bail out the bankers.

My contribution based Jsa has come to a end and I can not claim income based Jsa as I have more then £6,000 in shaving and Redundancy. I own my own house, mortgage paid off. But I pay Council Tax (I can not claim for this as my total savings & redundancy are over £16,000). I have my water, Electric. Gas, Car. Insurance to pay. I qualify for nothing (but they will pay my stamp)

Yes I am one of those nasty people who as worked hard all his life spent many long years being a working carer with very little help. I now find myself in the situation that they are making me sign on every week again (something I only recently did while claiming contribution based Jsa). Yet the cost of travel to and from the job centre per week is probably more than the cost of paying my stamp!

Any body out there got any helpful advice and not just going to attack me for being such a bad person for always having looked after myself and having savings instead of living in debt.

I am single , unmarried, no children or dependants and live alone.

vicxzy

Hi begentle, im sorry to hear abt ur situation, i found myself in a similar situation a few years back.
Unfortunately all u can do is spend ur redundancy money on ur bills until u have found work, that is after all why you are paid it.
I know its an awful thought, i had to spend almost 20k (all my redundancy cheque) on mgt & council tax etc before i found work.
good luck x

dmg24

Have you looked into paying your own stamp?

sardine

Do you actually need a stamp? How many years contributions do you have already? If it is towards the max, I would be inclined to tell them where to go and take life easy for a while until something dropped in your lap so to speak.

You will have to support yourself out of your savings in any event, so do you really need the extra agravation of signing on?

krisskross

The rainy day you have been saving for has arrived.

Like all of us you save in order that you can still survive if times of lesser income come.

If you don't manage to find another job then benefits will be payable again once your savings are below the required level.

viktory

BeGentle wrote: »

Hello I am new on here, am full of a head cold/flu (unsure which) so go easy on me please. I feel crap and my head is banging, not to mention brain confused:o

Right my problem is I was made redundant last August 2010 after minding my own business and working hard eleven years the goverment got rid of me to save money to bail out the bankers.

My contribution based Jsa has come to a end and I can not claim income based Jsa as I have more then £6,000 in shaving and Redundancy. I own my own house, mortgage paid off. But I pay Council Tax (I can not claim for this as my total savings & redundancy are over £16,000). I have my water, Electric. Gas, Car. Insurance to pay. I qualify for nothing (but they will pay my stamp)

Yes I am one of those nasty people who as worked hard all his life spent many long years being a working carer with very little help. I now find myself in the situation that they are making me sign on every week again (something I only recently did while claiming contribution based Jsa). Yet the cost of travel to and from the job centre per week is probably more than the cost of paying my stamp!

Any body out there got any helpful advice and not just going to attack me for being such a bad person for always having looked after myself and having savings instead of living in debt.

I am single , unmarried, no children or dependants and live alone.

How about go away and come back when you are feeling less self pitying and miserable?

There are so many in a much, much worse position than you. You have lots of lovely money in the bank, no worries regarding rent or a mortgage and you can comfortably afford to pay your utilities, water rates etc.

Jowo_2

My only advice to you is to make sure that you enjoy your downtime and have a good separation between job searching time and social activities, otherwise you'll feel miserable if you conflate your professional and domestic spheres. For example, look and apply for jobs on a Mon to Fri 9 to 3pm basis and then switch off the PC.

First time I was made redundant, I couldn't relax. After the second time I was made redundant, and now I'm self employed and get void periods between contracts, I've learned much better not to take it personally and just to chill out, catch up with friends, take a trip, treat myself to a night class, learn a new skill, do all the DIY and decorating that's been building up.

Now you are coming up to the 6th month mark of unemployment, this is where the confidence is greatly eroded and the self pitying can kick in, neither of which help with finding employment. Have you considered undertaking voluntary work to boost your CV and esteem, get out of the house a bit more, get a taster of a different type of job or indulge a personal interest?

Sixer

OP: you are claiming the single person discount for Council Tax?

I tend to sympathise with those who say why not sign off. What sort of job did you used to do? Have you considered investigating some of the self-employed work on the Up Your Income board? JSA for a single person with no rent is only £65 per week and you may well find it easy to make this via mystery shopping or similar to tide you over without completely spunking your savings while you look for a full-time job on your own terms not the DWP's. You'd also be paying Class 2 NICs, so that would all tick along nicely.

Good luck.

BeGentle

A "Thank you" to those trying to help and to the troll "Eat the silence"

This damn flu as a firm hold so not on much, cya soon.