No furniture, no food, no money

seven-day-weekend

Thanks very much to everybody who has replied. All the replies have been informative, especially the one about the plumber and his family who had to live on the parents' drive.

I will ask to accompany the counsellor on some visits if I can, so I can see some situations first hand. However it is good to know that my input for Benefits advice will help those families/individuals who are not claiming things they are entitled to.

TBH, it has shocked me that there is such deprivation in the UK in the 21st Century. I realise that Benefits help out the poorest. But they don't pay off your debts, do they? And if as like one poster has mentioned ALL your income is paid out to service debts, then there is going to be nothing left and you any have to get rid of all your furniture to buy food or pay your Council Tax.

Thanks all once again and if anyone has anything to add I will be glad to hear it.

gemini12

Even getting benefits in the first place can be a long hard road. I have a friend whose husband died at the end of Sept and is still waiting for her widowed mothers allowance to be paid.

She very recently received the small amount of help with her mortgage which was applied for over a year ago by her and her husband as a couple. Since he died she has been sent 5 forms to apply in her own right as they will not transfer the claim to her alone.

She has just received her documents back from claiming a funeral grant but as yet not money, letter or anything else.

I should add that until her husbands cancer was diagnosed they both worked but she gave her job up to care for him (as they knew it was terminal from the start) to the day he died.

Wellyboots6

Substance misuse can lead to all of these things.
People have to sell what they can to fund their addiction, either that or their belongings get stolen.
Benefits should help people, but often the forms and the process are so complicated that people give up struggling with it and make ends meet as best they can.

bored_at_home

i may be naive in thinking this, but surely there is a cut off point where if you dont have it debtors just cant take it.
i got myself in serious debt a few years ago, business folded, health took a downturn, everything started piling on top , i got to the point where i couldnt pay my creditors, if i did i couldnt eat, stay warm etc and tbh knowing what i know now i should have drawn the line sooner and defaulted on them rather than doing what someone else mentioned, using every line of credit i had to its max to keep up with repayments. all i kept getting drummed into me by them all was that if i didnt keep up my credit rating would affect me for years .
i was glad when it couldnt go on, because cab took everything, contacted them all, got the interest stopped and the payments put down to a pound a month for each one. it let me get myself sorted out and stopped the spiral.

rising_from_the_ashes

For me, it started with getting my 1st house ... and having never budgeted:o I needed appliances / furniture etc so took out credit - much of it was free credit for a year etc which is great until you've got to start paying for it & realise you don't have enough money to do this & buy food etc. So, food and fuel had to go onto a credit card .... which mounted up .... couldn't make min payments & afford to live without getting more and using the new ones for food etc..... and it got worse and worse!

Like many, there really wasn't anything "physical" such as clothes, cars etc to show for the debts - it was all down to the cost of trying to survive.

Good luck with your new venture:T

seven-day-weekend

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

For me, it started with getting my 1st house ... and having never budgeted:o I needed appliances / furniture etc so took out credit - much of it was free credit for a year etc which is great until you've got to start paying for it & realise you don't have enough money to do this & buy food etc. So, food and fuel had to go onto a credit card .... which mounted up .... couldn't make min payments & afford to live without getting more and using the new ones for food etc..... and it got worse and worse!

Like many, there really wasn't anything "physical" such as clothes, cars etc to show for the debts - it was all down to the cost of trying to survive.

Good luck with your new venture:T

Thanks for your good wishes.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Lots of cases to read here!! It is quite alarming what people are going through! best of luck matexx

seven-day-weekend

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver wrote: »

Lots of cases to read here!! It is quite alarming what people are going through! best of luck matexx

It is an eye-opener for me.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Read Benefits Claimants Blocks like Broken of Britain, Bendy Girl etc follow links.
This will put paid to any ideas that is the life of riley on benefits though in order to survive ONE MUST ENJOY ONESELF!
I live with mentally ill people so lots of fun and laughter with runaway neighbours, suicidal alcoholic neighbours, fun with attention seeking neighbours, destructive neighbours. Hence my retreat indoors to my honest lifestyle with the right mix of compassion and friendship to right people.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Good luck @sevendayweekend and keep spirits up. It is essential to know how to recover after reading and encountering people peoples lives without the risk of contagious depression. I would get books on how to avoid Contagious depression.