So, so unhappy and peed off - advice please!

PasturesNew

Get registered with agencies, they pay about £7/hour for qualified legal execs in my area. Perfect timing - with all those people about to go off on holidays.

melly1980

ahrimaniac wrote: »

Thank you - but it's not so much the 'being able to manage' but rather the fact I can't claim much from something I pay into!

eh...its not a bank account you know. You dont pay your taxes to withdraw them when you fancy.

The facts are that you have no dependants and you do claim what you are entightled to. You admit that you can manage yet you want more. Are you seriously suggesting that the system should be providing more than peoples needs?

CouponWoman

ahrimaniac wrote: »

Hello there, I hope this is the right place :S

A little bit of history. I've been working all my life since I moved out at 16, and I'm 26 now. I used to work for an Regional Development Agency until last year when the Government decided it would shut everything down. I was told I was going to be made redundant and that my redundancy package would equate to a tiny sum of money. I was on £21K a year there as a legal secretary. So, deciding that the best course of action would be to secure another job ASAP, I left there ahead of facing the shop for a role in a well-known large charity.

The DAY after I started, they announced that my new role was unsafe, and sure enough, seven months down the line, I've been made redundant. Super. The payoff was slight - £1800 - and now I have no wage.

As soon as I lost my job, I went to the jobcentre and signed up for contributions based JSA, which I've been awarded. I'm looking for work and I don't in all honesty see it taking too long to get something (I hope).

However, I've also applied for housing benefit and told that we were ineligible, and also that as a household, we earn too much to qualify for any working tax credit.

Our finances are as follows: I get £270 a month in JSA, and my partner earns £16500 working in social care. That leaves us with about £1300 a month takehome. Minus the rent of £450, council tax of £110, bills of about £100, it's not a great amount and I can really see us struggling

That aside, I can't understand how we earn too much, especially to qualify for WTC. Is this right? Can anyone explain this to me?

And I have to say, so far nearly every single person I have spoken to regarding this at the JSA/HMRC have been bloody awful. Either they speak to you like you're a child or don't explain things at all.

I hate it. I hate the fact that I've always worked, and worked hard, and just feel like I've been shafted from all sides. Government took my job, charity messed me about something chronic, and now the system I've paid into all my life won't help me in return.

If you have transport you can consider becoming a self employed legal secretary. Prepare a cv and send it to all solicitors etc offering holiday or temporary cover. I know someone who charges around £12-14 per hour and always has plenty of work, covering mostly holidays, and sickness etc. She gets lots of repeat employment too. In fact, I am aware that she has had to turn down work as she already had a job booked.

good luck

real1314

ahrimaniac wrote: »

Thank you - but it's not so much the 'being able to manage' but rather the fact I can't claim much from something I pay into!

You've worked from 16 to 26, and ended up on £21k

At the end you were probably paying about £2k a year in national Insurance, at the start what were you on? Half the final wage? If so you were paying maybe £1k back then.

Over the 10 years you might have paid about £15k in National Insurance.

You're getting about £65 a week back now, and would for 6 months, totalling £1690. However your £15k (if right) has also gone towards your state pension, which you will be paid from retirement for life, and for invalidity benefits too. Nominally some is supposed to go to the NHS, but there's never enough for that.

Did you expect to get every penny back? :cool:

[Deleted User]

ahrimaniac wrote: »

Sorry, I should add - we're a CP couple, no kids, no disabilities, not carers or the like.

then you arent entirely unlucky are you?:beer:

[Deleted User]

real1314 wrote: »

You've worked from 16 to 26, and ended up on £21k

At the end you were probably paying about £2k a year in national Insurance, at the start what were you on? Half the final wage? If so you were paying maybe £1k back then.

Over the 10 years you might have paid about £15k in National Insurance.

You're getting about £65 a week back now, and would for 6 months, totalling £1690. However your £15k (if right) has also gone towards your state pension, which you will be paid from retirement for life, and for invalidity benefits too. Nominally some is supposed to go to the NHS, but there's never enough for that.

Did you expect to get every penny back? :cool:

you see this is a trap many people fall into,NO ONES cont.are saved in a pot for their rainy day or srp,they are used to pay for current claims and srp
the sooner they do away with NI and combine it with income tax the better !