Wherediditallgo’s ‘path to enlightenment’ bankruptcy diary

wherediditallgo

He definitely seemed to be making a big effort to clue me up on what figures would result in my IPA going away for the foreseeable future, or maybe for ever. He's been told my income's going to drop because I'll be doing less hours, but he hasn't been told to what level - even I've only done a rough estimate on that myself as I haven't had my first pay yet since the change took effect. He asked me if my outgoings were going to be the same as I submitted last year, & I said some things might be but some will have gone up, but I didn't give him any amounts whatsoever on which to do even a rough calculation. He then told me a specific figure for what my income needs to be in order for an IPA not to be levied, & it came across as him telling me what figures not to go over rather than if you earn more than this, you'll still have to pay your IPA.

I've spoken to the man before (last year), & he was much more officious then, though I wouldn't call him rude. It felt really odd. It's hard to explain here (you can't record calls at work ), but it really didn't come across like the conversations I had with CCCS, which went along the lines of "These are the thresholds, let's work out what you've got coming in & going out & see where we stand". It definitely came across as a "!!!!!!, I wish I'd never got your case, you ask too many f***ing questions & I can't file everything, !!!!!!. This is what you need to do to be rid of us, & us rid of you" kind of call. :rotfl: I shouldn't be laughing, but I don't actually know what else to do. He's left me stumped, & that doesn't happen often.

fermi

wherediditallgo wrote: »

It definitely came across as a "!!!!!!, I wish I'd never got your case, you ask too many f***ing questions & I can't file everything, !!!!!!. This is what you need to do to be rid of us, & us rid of you" kind of call. :rotfl: I shouldn't be laughing, but I don't actually know what else to do. He's left me stumped, & that doesn't happen often.

I can't really comment any more either, apart from to say that the above sounds about right. Or maybe he is leaving the job soon and just doesn't care now?

dalip

Or mabe he has that much workload that WDIAL on at him all the time is just not worth the £50 a mth.:D I think you may well be right:rotfl: £1,800 is just not worth having you on his back for:p

wherediditallgo

Whichever reason it is (it might be both of yours ), for once I'm going to do as I'm told, & work with his figures in mind like a good girl.

I spoke to another advisory service this afternoon about it, & they said he might have given me the inside info because if they can't find my signed agreement to the IPA they can't prove on what basis it was agreed, & it wouldn't be worth their while to keep pushing me to pay it when (a) it's only £50pm, (b) they'll be lucky to get that now my income's going down, & (c) I'm already discharged so there's nothing they can do to me to make me pay if I decide I can't afford it. After all, if they were to try to take me to court, they'd be stuffed because they'd have to prove their case & they either genuinely can't because the paperwork has been lost or they can't because the paperwork's just been mis-filed & they can't be bothered to look harder for it. They don't want the hassle of re-assessing my case knowing that they've got no way of seeing what they went along with before, & it would be a lot of work for little gain if I then kept contesting it. All in all, it's therefore much better for him to tip me the wink on how to get out of it, then they're happy & so am I.

dalip

Yes i agree. Now you have been discharged you want closure so lets hope this is the end of it for you. Good luck

wherediditallgo

1 May - In a very good mood today after the first decent night's sleep I've had in nearly a week. I've had to put together a 30-minute radio show for my broadcasting course & doing the planning has been a nightmare - I've had to do all the production research, make my own jingles, sort out the music & all the features etc & basically plan the show almost to the second. We had the final night of the course last night where we had to do the show, & I nearly died when I found out that the assessor would be sitting in the studio with you virtually the whole time with a clipboard making notes as you worked, marking off what you'd done (or not done as the case may be). :eek: For some reason, I'd just assumed that they'd listen to the show from another room, but no - the man sat less than 3 feet from me & I just wanted him to leave so that I could breathe again. I had that much paper with me (it must take less than I used to print a daily newspaper ) & so many cds, that I felt I was making a real mess, & my voice felt like it was going to crack any second, but in the end I just thought "Stuff it, what will be will be". He left after about 10 minutes, then came back in the second half of the show for about 10 minutes then came back for the last few minutes. When I'd finished, he told me it had sounded great! He liked the way I linked different parts of the show, said my material was very original rather than just trotting out the same stuff you could hear on loads of radio stations, said he could see & hear that I'd done loads of prep for it & he said I sounded very personable. The only criticism he had was that I need to be more careful with my sound levels, because in some places it seemed a bit low. Other than that, he was pleased with what I'd put together. I had to then answer loads of questions on broadcasting, the equipment & the show itself, but he was very happy with my answers, so I was finally able to breathe easily.

I was speaking to some of the other students afterwards, & so far it seems like I'm the only one who thought to make up their own jingles. I just assumed that everyone would do that, but I supposed I'm so used to having a computer & music-related software that it wouldn't have occurred to me to put together a show without doing that.

Anyway, it looks like I've passed my broadcasting course. :j It's 6 weeks of intense study that gives me a qualification equivalent to a GCSE (we'll get proper certificates), which would normally take a year. So even if everyone else thinks the show's rubbish, I'm very pleased with myself - I only started it mid-March, & to have gone from knowing nothing about radio & broadcasting to putting a whole show together in such a short time wasn't easy. I'm going to see if I can upload it to my website at the weekend, & if it works I'll let you all have the link so you can hear my dulcet tones & gabbling.

Tonight I'm going to sit & watch absolute rubbish on tv, & do nothing whatsoever connected with studying.

Waspeze

That's great news about the course WDIAG :)

dalip

I am assuming you are a person of ummmm age shall we say:p . I went back to school at a later stage and found it soo much harder. So well done you on passing your exam and all the hard work.Good luck. Whats the next plan of action?.DX

wherediditallgo

Yes, I'm of the age that earns someone a sharp glare if they ask what it is.

On one hand, I found it harder because I work as well, plus I've been doing my OU studies on top of this course. On the other hand, if I'd been doing it when I was younger, I probably wouldn't have stuck at it - I know that in my younger days the choice between studying & going out would have been very easy to make - coat on in 5 seconds flat, & out the door I'd go.

However, I really wanted to get this right, because I want to set up my own internet radio station, to promote my own music & poetry as well as unsigned artists. The next radio-related course is in the summer, on production specifically, so I'd really like to have the station up & running by then. I've been saving most of my clothing budget for several months, plus I took a sub from my clothing budget to September to buy rather a lot of equipment in April (so no new clothes for me unless I win some money on the lottery or Primark/Matalan start doing BOGOF ). My course was run by a community radio station, but I'd like some experience of a commercial one, so I'm going to ring some stations (there's another one not far from me) & see if they'll let me go in voluntarily on a Friday (I don't work that day) to observe & maybe help on some shows. Even if I only get to go in a couple of times, that will really help in terms of seeing the pace of the shows behind the scenes.

dalip

Like you i found it hard as i had 3 young children and i worked p/t but also i was at uni doing a degree and found the younger ones(sorry)just messed about and that did not help much:mad: .

I live behind a recording studio and the chap that ownes it runs/owns "sunshine radio" not sure if you have heard of it down there:D . Good luck again for the nxt course.