Is there anyway out ??

Chippydan

Sorry if this is long but a bit of background.

I suffer from Anti Social Personality Disorder and have done my whole life and this has made it very hard for me not only to get a job but to keep one. So I decided to do something about it as I do not want to be the type of person to sit on benefits blaming his illness for the hand he has been delt, so I retrained as a Carpenter & Joiner and went self employed but this has led to some relatively small issues that I need a bit of help getting past.

Basically as I am sure you can imagine I have to be selective in regards to who I accept work for and as I can only afford to use sites such as Rated People in order to help build my business being selective is costing me a lot of money.

I do one job in order to pay for the tools needed for the next job which means my business as it stands is loosing money and on average I buy 4 leads from Rated People at a cost of around £12 each in only secure 1 of those jobs because as I stated previously I have to be very selective about who I do work for because of my condition.

Now being a married man with 2 young children I work very hard to manage my condition and to try and build a business so I can not only provide a good example to my children but to also give them and my wife the life they deserve.

The problem I have is that I am having to buy the cheapest tools I can buy and to try my best to do the best job I can with them and because I will never do a bad job this is meaning the work takes me twice as long as it should and the tools I do buy do not last me long at all so it works out to be a complete waste of time, and I wind up loosing money in the long run.

And after 2 years of trying to push water up hill and living on as close to nothing as a family possibly can I just cant see a way forward, I can not see an end to this and to be perfectly honest would be way better off sat on benefits because I have a life long mental illness.

But I dont want to do that I do not want to be that guy sat on his sofa when I feel I am more then capable of working, I have tried to get help with buying the tools I need to push forward from the "Access to work" but as I self employed they wont help me, they did tell me to talk to Remploy, who again would not help me.

So at the complete end of my rope and not knowing if there is any help out there for people in my situation or not or if I just do not know where to turn, but right now I just can not keep putting my family through this uphill battle anymore.

So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

osdset

How long did you train for?
Buying cheap tools is a false economy, you would be better off buying a basic set of good quality tools and moderate the work you go for.
Leave sites like rated people alone, they exist to extort cash from tradespeople. It's hard but you need to build up a client base on recommendation from satisfied customers.

Chippydan

I did a 4 month intensive course then worked with another Chippy for as long as I could in order to get good site experience.

And that is what I am trying to do with the tools but I just cant get past that hump.

As for the customers recommendations are starting to come through but are not enough alone to keep me upright sadly, I want to join sites like trust a trader while membership fees are high it is all I have to pay rather then the lead costs of sites like rated people, but again raising that money is the big problem.

NYM

I can't help you I'm sorry to say I'm sure you could get support in the way of WTC/CTC/HB. I say 'support' because in your circumstances, that's what I believe it is.

You don't have to give up your dream of supporting your family, because you are still supporting them through your self employment.

Have you thought of hiring tools instead of purchasing the cheap ones ?

Chippydan

NYM wrote: »

I can't help you I'm sorry to say I'm sure you could get support in the way of WTC/CTC/HB. I say 'support' because in your circumstances, that's what I believe it is.

You don't have to give up your dream of supporting your family, because you are still supporting them through your self employment.

Have you thought of hiring tools instead of purchasing the cheap ones ?

Hiring tools is an issue as you need to lay down a large deposit and to be quite frank I cant afford it.

I am currently supporting them but I just cant see an end to the current issues, I have looked into grants that they do for people with disabilities because I am registered disabled but again they do not do anything for the self employed which is stupid because it is the self employed that pulled us out of the recession.

tomtontom

Does your partner work? I'm unsure what you mean about being selective about your work?

It costs money to set up as self employed, and as mentioned cheap tools are a false economy. You need to invest now for longer term rewards. In the meantime you may be eligible for WTC, HB and CTB.

Chippydan

blondebubbles wrote: »

So do you currently receive any benefits?

DLA?

Working or child tax credits?

Child benefit?

I get £52 a month from DLA, anda disability credit to working tax credits which is £83 a month.

I am not able to get any HB or CTB as my gross amount that comes into my bank account is too high, as they ignore my material costs and tool costs and all costs to running my business, which is why I would be so much better off not working which is the hardest part, it is like I am being forced onto benefits.

tomtontom

Chippydan wrote: »

I get £52 a month from DLA, anda disability credit to working tax credits which is £83 a month.

I am not able to get any HB or CTB as my gross amount that comes into my bank account is too high, as they ignore my material costs and tool costs and all costs to running my business, which is why I would be so much better off not working which is the hardest part, it is like I am being forced onto benefits.

If you have money in the bank, why not invest that in decent tools?

Chippydan

tomtontom wrote: »

Does your partner work? I'm unsure what you mean about being selective about your work?

It costs money to set up as self employed, and as mentioned cheap tools are a false economy. You need to invest now for longer term rewards. In the meantime you may be eligible for WTC, HB and CTB.

I have Anti Social Personality Disorder, basically I have no social skills no guilt no empathy and no conscience, I have a history in my past of violent behavior.

Now my issue is that I have been carefully managing my condition for over 10 years , and in that time I have never been violent in any way and never had any problems, however it is due to very careful management of myself, for example in public I will not speak unless I have to.

So during the quotation stage I am also checking out the customers to make sure they are either the kind of people who will leave me to work and not need constant contact or those that do not require me to talk much, because when I am asked my opinion I often offend and do not know I am doing it most of the time.

And that is why I am careful about who I work for.

Chippydan

tomtontom wrote: »

If you have money in the bank, why not invest that in decent tools?

I dont thats the point, if a customer pays me £1500 for materials and £200 labour lets say, the council take that as £1700 income, disregarding the fact I have to pay the £1500 out on materials.

Thats what I mean by taking the gross amout into my account and as such leaving me worse off.

tomtontom

Chippydan wrote: »

I dont thats the point, if a customer pays me £1500 for materials and £200 labour lets say, the council take that as £1700 income, disregarding the fact I have to pay the £1500 out on materials.

Thats what I mean by taking the gross amout into my account and as such leaving me worse off.

Then you need to get your accounts in order so you can show them your actual profit figures.