Bit of a pickle

littleweasel

Hi Fertiv

Sorry to hear about all this, it sounds difficult

I agree that the car should probably go - if you're in Central London I doubt you really need it that desperately, and you can buy another when things improve. Selling it would allow you to keep the wolf from the door for a little longer (maybe in time to find a new job?)

Virgin's package might be cheaper than the Sky is, also - I know they have a half price for 6 months deal on at the moment and I expect you'll be in a suitable area. Phone, broadband and cable TV should work out less than your current £62 per month, anyway.

PupPup

Fertiv wrote: »

BTW Rainbow Bridge - do we have to do weight as well??

Debts up 10,000, Weight up 2 stone
Ah well, such is life, if only it was as easy to lose weight as it was to spend money

Some pounds are much easier to get rid of than others

(Although I've lost quite a lot of weight due to not being able to afford to eat properly some months!)

PupPup

chevalier

It is more that often Fertiv we are trying to lose weight at the same time as money pounds as well! But no not compulsory!

Can I suggest that pupup's approach is a good one. Fill the forms in online and then take supporting evidence. Some benefits you can back date, some you can't so best to start the ball rolling asap.

Good luck
chev

beanielou

Good advice as always from chev.

daffodil

Hi Fertiv
I am sorry that life is so difficult to deal with - we all have to learn while we are here .
You say that you would be happy to get earnings in the region of £5K per month.
I live and pay a mortgage and support my family on £5K per YEAR so I am sure you will survive like we all do.
I send you my best wishes

Rainbow_Bridge

Fertiv wrote: »

BTW Rainbow Bridge - do we have to do weight as well??

Debts up 10,000, Weight up 2 stone
Ah well, such is life, if only it was as easy to lose weight as it was to spend money

Yes :rotfl:, it's compulsory and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise!

9000 reps before the new year. Check out Custardy's posts on Mr Bloater's thread.

I challenge you to the above, i'm doing my first 100 today, and i'm looking for some competition, Puppup you're not getting out of this either .

Seriously though getting back in shape will be great for your self esteem, which is bound to have taken a battering. Mine did anyway xx.

PupPup

Rainbow_Bridge wrote: »

Puppup you're not getting out of this either

O_O oh dear lol.
Well when I got back from uni in 2008 I was pretty much 14 stone. In the last year I've gone from 13.5 to 11.5 stone (did get down to 11, but been doing some comfort eating while I had the money). I'm not actively trying to lose weight, but I would like to be a bit more toned. Just not had the motivation. . .
PupPup

*Robin*

Rainbow_Bridge wrote: »

Yes :rotfl:, it's compulsory and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise!

9000 reps before the new year. Check out Custardy's posts on Mr Bloater's thread.

I challenge you to the above, i'm doing my first 100 today, and i'm looking for some competition, Puppup you're not getting out of this either .

Seriously though getting back in shape will be great for your self esteem, which is bound to have taken a battering. Mine did anyway xx.

Ok, so what's a "rep"?

Fertiv_2

daffodil wrote: »

Hi Fertiv
I am sorry that life is so difficult to deal with - we all have to learn while we are here .
You say that you would be happy to get earnings in the region of £5K per month.
I live and pay a mortgage and support my family on £5K per YEAR so I am sure you will survive like we all do.
I send you my best wishes

Hi Daffodil,
Just to clarify, I didn't actually say I'd be happy to earn 5k a month, there is no connection between money and happiness, although you can be much more comfortable in your unhappiness if you have plenty of money.
I am quite fascinated though by how you manage to have and pay a mortgage and support your family on £5,000 a year, it seems a very small amount so I'd be grateful if you could share some tips on the frugal life?
Fx

Fertiv_2

Ups and downs again this week,
No money in for starters. But managed to set up the new bank account. I also got a cheque for £13 in the post!! Need to wait for the account paperwork to get through to me, can be tricky as I'm in a high security risk area so post is usually via courier which tends to take a while, plus means more waiting in.
Share selling proving difficult, I have the stock in paper form unfortunately and I can't sell them over the counter until I have the bank details to make the transfer to. Otherwise I have tried to open a secondary account for them at my brokers where I have my trading ISA account (balance 112.92) I can't transfer them into the ISA account under HMRC rules so I will have to have a cash account. I completed the online application OK but I failed the AML check somehow, so I will need to chase that up next week, seems strange as my details haven't changed since I opened the account as a member of staff about 10 years ago but still I shall await to speak to them.
What else? had letter from housing benefit people, asking proof of my income and sending a form for the landlord to complete (a page taken out of the claim form and photocopied!!) asking for the information that i have already given them (from the actual form...) I have given them my last three months of bank statements, my unemployment benefit claim details, my tenancy agreement my P45, plus they have visited me here, so I'm lost as to what I can possibly add to their knowledge? What is also frustrating is that there is no one to contact barring a phone line, which can only tell me what the letter says or a general enquiry email box. I have sent a response via the email so I shall see if anything come of that over the next few days.
Re the unemployment benefit. This is a tricky one, my problem really stems from me failing to agree to a Job Seekers Agreement (JSA). This is basically a contract that you have to sign with the jobcentre that sets out the steps you agree to undertake to look for a new job. Now then having read through the guidance that I eventually found online it is very clear that this agreement should be tailored to each claimant and should reflect the steps that are appropriate for their circumstances and particular employment practices.
The JSA that was printed out by my adviser (prior to any discussion) said that each week I should:
Write to 2 employers
Phone 2 employers
Visit 1 employer
Now, I am extremely keen to get a new job and really the unemployment benefit is of negligible value (70 per week) compared to the income I would have if I found a job, so I am and can prove I am taking a great number of steps each week in my job search, however, none of these involve (as a rule writing to, phoning or visiting prospective employers. In my industry around 90% of roles are recruited through agencies, about 9% through word of mouth and roughly 1% are recruited by direct advertising. Therefore, performing the tasks required would not be in anyway useful or productive.
Instead, I suggested that I could replace the tasks in the agreement with ones more suitable to my situation. The adviser said that this could not be done as he had already printed the agreement and its the same for everyone. When I queried that, he said it didn't really matter what the agreement said so long as I showed that I was trying to find a job in a sensible manner that would probably be fine. I reiterated that I wouldn't sign an agreement saying that I would do something that I had no intention of doing, as this could constitute a fraud and be punishable in law. He said again that it didn't really matter what was on the form and he refused to change it in any way.
Now you may say I'm being petty and pedantic but its actually important to me to be honest and this has also been at the core of my working life for more than 20 years, I feel very strongly that when anyone enters into a contract they should make it their business to fully understand the terms and to stick by it. If the terms were not something I could reasonably be expected to do then I can't agree to it. Likewise, agencies should never accept agreements that have been signed where they know the terms will never be adhered to.
So anyhow, I wrote and suggested an alternative range of activities (actually a greater number of actions to be undertaken per week). The response I recieved from the "descision maker" merely said my proposed amendement to the JSA were "not reasonable" and arranged another appointment with the job centre to agree a new JSA. I went back and asked why, but was told the same as before (by the same adviser) and told I could appeal if i really wanted. So I sent in a written appeal (which ran to 10 pages!!) but have not had a reply. They stopped paying my benefit in mid july - interestingly I didn't find out they had stopped payment until a month later as the job centres basically closed for the olympic period.
anyhow, thats things here, whats new with anyone else?