Nice People 12: Nice in Nice

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

There's also plenty of people that struggle because they made choices which seemed reasonable at the time but then they had their circumstances change.

Of course. As in all things, your investment can go down as well as up!

It needs to be there certainly, one of the things I like about uk is that people are relatively safe here, but safety needs to be supported with aspiration.

lostinrates

lemonjelly wrote: »

Very much agree with this. Some of the stuff I have, I'm lucky to have/own possess. There is a lot of deferred gratification too. & occasionally things might be a bit tight, but I'm definitely not struggling, despite not being a big cheese.




Years ago, when I started work, I'd have agreed with you. Massive debts & financial difficulties tended to be as a result of death, divorce, disability, dismissal/redundancy & 1 other also starting with d that I cannot recall.
That was 15 years ago. When I first started doing debt work there generally were (in the case of 75% plus of cases) a genuine reason for it.
As time progressed, I think less so. Peoples poor personal budgeting, ridiculous ease of access to large credit, lack of consideration for the consequences, & also downright greed took over.
I'm now in a situation where people are coming to me for help, saying they're struggling, yet park on the same car park as I in a much better car than mine, a newer car, with 2 or 3 of the latest phones, more expensive clothes and so on, & they sit telling me how they're struggling!


Agree with a great deal of this.
Whilst not necessarily the case, the perception seems to be that a lot of the welfare state is taken up by very few people (mainly people with kids, lone parents, those not working).
The system needs a drastic overhaul.

In reality, half the welfare budget goes on pensioners/the over 60's (cynic alert - their benefits have been protected for years, because they vote).
Jobseekers Allowance covers around 3% of the welfare budget. Tax Credits covers 35% of the budget.

The actions of the government in recent years, & their comments on benefits & benefit claimants has been disgusting, & imo hasn't been a debate, it has been more about demonising benefit claimants.

This reliance did not start with this government, nor the last I think? though certainly things seemed to change a lot over the last governments time?

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe I could/should just go and doss at a Uni for 3 years ..... that's a financial option.... just pick the "least offensive" course at the closest Uni

I'd get about £7200/year and a degree at the end.

£3,862 Maintenance Loan and £3,387 Maintenance Grant

£600/month (over 12 months) coming in.

Would you qualify for all that whilst living in your own house? What happens with fees?

DO you know what? I say why not go for it if you are happy to live on that level of income, are there any local courses you fancy the sound of?

mystic_trev

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe I could/should just go and doss at a Uni for 3 years ..... that's a financial option.... just pick the "least offensive" course at the closest Uni

I'd get about £7200/year and a degree at the end.

£3,862 Maintenance Loan and £3,387 Maintenance Grant

£600/month (over 12 months) coming in.

Go for it PN!

Britain’s baby-boomer generation is claiming up to £67 million a year in student loans that they are never likely to repay, the Telegraph has learnt.

Figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that more than 5,000 over-50s – including some pensioners in their 60s, 70s and 80s – have taken advantage of taxpayer-backed loans to take university degrees.

The number of over-50s taking out loans to cover tuition fees and living expenses has increased by 11.5 per cent in just 12 months.
The disclosure suggests rising numbers of older people are choosing to return to higher education later in life to improve their qualifications or pursue their love of a particular subject.

But many of those claiming loans are unlikely to ever repay because of rules that mean payments only kick in when graduates earn more than £21,000. The average retirement income is £11,000 and loans are written off after 30 years or when the borrower dies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10947400/Rising-numbers-of-over-50s-taking-out-student-loans.html

lemonjelly

lostinrates wrote: »

This reliance did not start with this government, nor the last I think? though certainly things seemed to change a lot over the last governments time?

I don't think it was a government/political change. I think it was a social change. We moved so much to a consumer society and peoples expectations completely changed.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe I could/should just go and doss at a Uni for 3 years ..... that's a financial option.... just pick the "least offensive" course at the closest Uni

I'd get about £7200/year and a degree at the end.

£3,862 Maintenance Loan and £3,387 Maintenance Grant

£600/month (over 12 months) coming in.

You'd get slightly more than that PN.
Payments are lump sums 3 times a year.
Universities have additional funds & bursaries too.
The funds are designed to support you across 10 months, giving 2 months where you could agency work or similar & bank the £££££

Don't forget you'd also get council tax full exemption as a f-t student. Any part time/weekend/evening work etc in the academic year is also moolah on top of the student support.

michaels wrote: »

Would you qualify for all that whilst living in your own house? What happens with fees?

DO you know what? I say why not go for it if you are happy to live on that level of income, are there any local courses you fancy the sound of?

Fees are paid direct to the HEI. Non means tested.
Living costs support is 65% non meanstested. Your own home is ignored.

PN would get the full whack, plus c tax exemption, & likely a £1000 bursary from the university too.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe I could/should just go and doss at a Uni for 3 years ..... that's a financial option.... just pick the "least offensive" course at the closest Uni

I'd get about £7200/year and a degree at the end.

£3,862 Maintenance Loan and £3,387 Maintenance Grant

£600/month (over 12 months) coming in.

So £140/wk plus whatever you can make on the side. And a few bob saved on council tax too. Sounds like a winner to me.

£140/wk after housing costs sounds alright to me. £200 would be pretty good money I think.

GDB2222

The CT saving would probably be another £20 a week, on top of the £140. Pastures would be in clover. Pasty and chips every night.

lemonjelly

PasturesNew wrote: »

Completely forgot about CT
And yes, I could temp 2 months of the year (fully qualified/experienced (including shorthand) PA that's fully IT/web literate, so highly placeable).


I should look into this shouldn't I .... of course, "the course I'd like" might be 200 miles away

Question is ..... how would I get into a Uni ..... is it too late for 14/15?

I have got 150 CAT points from the OU, which should enable me to avoid any "mickey mouse foundation year that just checks you can read/write"..... so straight onto a 3 year thingy.

I'd like to do marketing. Always liked marketing. Lots of marketing experience...... don't want to do "IT", done as much as can be useful in the past. There's nothing a Uni could offer me that I could realistically use post-degree, which is what it's really about isn't it.... can you USE the bit of paper to impress people who might give you a job in the location/area you think you'll be living.

Marketing or organising ..... they're my "wish list".

Yes, you'd be too late for this year.
Start planning for september 2015. Do your research now. Check the UCAS website - essential.
You'll be able to apply through UCAS from september sometime. Closing date for applications is 15 January next year for a september 2015 start.
I'll have a holiday & come visit you to do your student finance application (takes 40 minutes, or if you know it like I do, 20:) )
Also worth speaking with the national careers service to establish where might do your kinda course.

Seriously PN, start planning now. Will make it so much easier.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

For the record: Yes, I could do WTC/S-E..... although under UC it'd change and there'd be an "assumed" income of NMW x 30 hours, so without knowing how much I earn now and how that might change, is it worth the form filling for a few quid, that might be reclaimed as an overcharge in a year's time ... when all I'd really need to do is "earn a few bob more" an achievable "few bob".

JSA = not an option. ISAs exceed the capital limit by a bit. I could, say, cash one in to buy the conservatory, but that's not an instant spend as house has covenant that I'd need full PP to do anything (none of this new permitted development rights allowed).

This is why my preferred route is "get a regular job" .... aiming as high as I can with my past skills/experience and going for full-time. Aim high at first, see what happens.... then react to the results. But that's the quickest/best way to achieve more money.

I hope your preferred route works out. But since you don't know how long it may take you to get a full time job, it might be worth applying for WTC/SE in the meantime. If you qualify under the WTC rules you can claim it, and although you likely won't get any when it switches to UC, you shouldn't have to pay back the WTC. I think the transfer to UC has been put back anyway.

michaels wrote: »

I think lots of people would struggle to live on 75% of their income whatever that income was, it is more psychological than physical. However we 'do without' things like Sky, new cars, a second car, iphones, bling, huge wardrobes of designer stuff etc that means by St Albans standards we are pretty hard up.

That I understand. Perhaps you need to spend more time hanging out with people who don't have those things either!

michaels wrote: »

On the plus side I wouldn't want any of those anyway. More/better holidays would be nice but are far from essential. It would be nice to have more money to spend on activities/opportunites for the kids. DWs solution is for me to get a 60 hour per week city/consultancy job and double my slary, not surprisingly that doesn't get my vote. I would rather get a 40k 9-5 job locally and have some free time to enjoy life. Have the day off today (DS class assembly this morning then DDs recorder concert this afternoon) and walking home from school it is amazing how many people work locally, when you commute every day it is easy to imagine most people just work 8/9/10 hours a day in an office with a commute at either end but then walking around in the day time you see that this is not the case at all.

That also I understand, especially the bit I've bolded.

Hope you can find a compromise solution that both you and DW are happy with, that allows you to have a life while being able to afford the things that are important to you.

A hypothetical question for you... Suppose WTC/CTC & CB were at a lower level but not means tested. Suppose putting money in a pension or having it now made no difference tax-wise. So, if the decision about how much to put in your pension was just about the trade off between money now and money in the future, how much of what you're earning would you be choosing to set aside for your retirement and how much would you keep to live on?

I'm not asking because I want to know the answer - I don't need to know that. I'm asking because I think if you start from that position and then make some tweaks to it that improve your benefits/tax position without making too much difference to your quality of life, then you may find that's a better route to deciding what's optimal for you and your family than starting from maximising your tax/benefits position and only then considering what lifestyle you want and how to fund it.

GDB2222

Talking of giving up, I'm happy to have given up foreign holidays. This country is perfect for the sort of holiday DW and I enjoy. We have wonderful countryside and beaches. I'm fed up with cities, so doing the sights in some foreign city is not of interest. I'm happy to have a total journey time, door to door, of say three hours. Three hours will just about get you on the plane, if going to foreign.

I'll make an exception for Eurostar, though.