help needed .....penniless advice plzzzzz

iammumtoone

danz09x wrote: »

I have four children. ...dont get free meals yet as sent them off last week....the three yr old twins haven't seen a health visitor for last yr n half? Noone has bothered after that....

thats right the heath visitor wont contact you any more at this age, but they are still responsible if any problems, you need to contact them and tell them of the problems, hopefully they can see you before ss, even if its only to drop in a voucher. Do they have a drop in weighing session, go there, I know your children don't need weighing at this age but it will guarantee you getting to speak to them.

I would also speak to the school and explain, your JSA claim will be backdated so you should be able to claim school dinners now. If they get a school dinner they will only need a sandwich for tea, this wont hurt them for a couple of days.

I would also speak to the electricity company again and reiterate you have children under 5, ask to speak to the manager and don't get off the phone until they have given you some credit, you wont need much just £5 worth, once you get it be careful with the use and it should last until you have some money. Tomorrow stay out of the house as much as you can, library/park etc all offer free places to be without you using your own electric.

elsien

Phone the duty team again and tell them you an emergency and your children can't wait till Thursday. There is an out of hours team if you want to speed things up today. I know it's difficult when you're battling the system, so you really need to stress how bad your temporary situation is and tell it like it is.

TrustyOven

I'm interested to learn how all this came about. Usually one has savings that insulate them from immediate emergency situations like these.

danz09x wrote: »

I have just run out of electric and only have a bag of potatoes to feed four children until Tuesday!

Don't you usually get letters for several months or weeks after your electricity is late before you get cut off? This suggests you've had a long-term problem.

danz09x wrote: »

My family dont want to know

Why not? Is this a recurring issue for you? Are you constantly mis-managing finances or is this some other family feud?

Usually families try to help you out as much as they can, unless there's been a massive falling out for example they are getting sick and tired of relatives wasting money and then begging for help (this sort of thing happens in my family from time to time ).


You're on the suffolk-nortfolk border. I'm in norfolk and a bit bored. All I could do is bring some food round, but it'd have to be non-cookable (fruit and veg, bread, canned things) at least to keep you going till monday/tuesday. It wouldn't be much, and I could live with losing that and never seeing it again.

But... I'm unsure of the ethical perspective of offering food to someone I've never met and have no way to verify their actual need for help, nor the precedence it may cause on this board for offering food or money for anyone else that is begging. Hmmmm.

danz09x

TrustyOven wrote: »

I'm interested to learn how all this came about. Usually one has savings that insulate them from immediate emergency situations like these.



Don't you usually get letters for several months or weeks after your electricity is late before you get cut off? This suggests you've had a long-term problem.



Why not? Is this a recurring issue for you? Are you constantly mis-managing finances or is this some other family feud?

Usually families try to help you out as much as they can, unless there's been a massive falling out for example they are getting sick and tired of relatives wasting money and then begging for help (this sort of thing happens in my family from time to time ).


You're on the suffolk-nortfolk border. I'm in norfolk and a bit bored. All I could do is bring some food round, but it'd have to be non-cookable (fruit and veg, bread, canned things) at least to keep you going till monday/tuesday. It wouldn't be much, and I could live with losing that and never seeing it again.

But... I'm unsure of the ethical perspective of offering food to someone I've never met and have no way to verify their actual need for help, nor the precedence it may cause on this board for offering food or money for anyone else that is begging. Hmmmm.

.hi...just to say thanks for the offer but managed to sucure the help of the neighbour to cook my food....im on an electric metre so always needs topping up. ...as for family yhey kiked me out at 16 and never been interested since (now 31) my financial situation has never been great always been on minimum wage and never had enough to save unfortunately. So after my direct debits cleared me out ive been stuck....thank u so much for your offer tho I do appreciate it xx

PeacefulWaters

TrustyOven wrote: »

I'm interested to learn how all this came about. Usually one has savings that insulate them from immediate emergency situations like these.

Alas, I'd guess over 50% of the population make this basic mistake. Often through stupidity, occasional through being genuinely hard up.

Don't you usually get letters for several months or weeks after your electricity is late before you get cut off? This suggests you've had a long-term problem.

They don't just pull the plug with no warning. Unless it's a meter. If it's a meter the right coinage and no TV, one light in the evening, no heat etc can free up energy for cooking for a few days.

You're on the suffolk-nortfolk border. I'm in norfolk and a bit bored. All I could do is bring some food round, but it'd have to be non-cookable (fruit and veg, bread, canned things) at least to keep you going till monday/tuesday. It wouldn't be much, and I could live with losing that and never seeing it again.

But... I'm unsure of the ethical perspective of offering food to someone I've never met and have no way to verify their actual need for help, nor the precedence it may cause on this board for offering food or money for anyone else that is begging. Hmmmm.

I think you're great! As it's been volunteered and not asked for I don't see an ethical issue.

As a one-off, without giving away your real life identity, you'd probably feel good for doing it. I wouldn't publish your decision though.

There are three issues:

1. What's caused it (is it just unemployment or are there more significant underlying reasons)? Fix these reasons and we avoid a repeat in future.

2. Solving the short term need. Feeding the kids until the benefits coming through and perhaps getting the electricity back on. Your food parcel, a couple of coins if it is a meter (add a bag of rice to the food if you've helped get the leccy on).

3. Sorting out the benefits, the CSA and any other charitable support that's out there.

---
When working for a bank I once had the joy of declining a young heavily pregnant woman an overdraft. Her circumstances were dire and there was no way I could fix them. I went home that night and told Mrs PW the situation. Having a two year old we were able to put together a small pack of clean second hand baby clothes, bibs and feeding bottles. I took them into the young woman's workplace in a shoebox and asked the owner to pass them on anonymously for me.

The only thing I know for sure was that what I did felt good. Felt right. It won't have changed her life. It was something that cost me no more than a bit of time and thought. I hope it made a small difference to her, although I never saw her again. I hope in some way it gave that baby a marginally better life than it would have had because in some way it alleviated a tiny bit of the pressure on Mum to be.

Sooner or later the OP needs to solve point 1 and 3. Somebody assisting with point 2 might give her the lift to do it.

PlymouthMaid

Exactly PeacefulWaters - that was why I offered a wee food parcel if I were nearby. I hate to think of somebody in that position with children who do not understand why Mum can't feed them etc.

catwoman73

If you are still on good terms with your bank, could you get a small arranged overdraft to buy food?

Do you have anything that you can sell or pawn to raise short term funds?

Is your tax credit claim correct - with 4 children and minimum wage, you should have been getting quite a substantial amount that should certainly be enough to feed your children properly and build a good storecupboard, even if it doesn't leave much left over for luxuries.

Long term - have you asked to change your electric to a credit meter, is your rent affordable on your income/do you get any housing benefit that you are entitled to/are the kids father(s) paying the right amount of maintenance/do you get the best price for gas and electric?

Even if you have to stay on prepayment, you can usually get a better price than the main suppliers.