The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

nursemaggie

No Money The N stands for Northern. EDF are the ones with the nuclear power.

As far as I can tell since Npower were taken over by this German company nearly three years ago, they have not managed to get a correct bill to nearly half of there customers.

Just imagine you are a customer of theirs and you are on benefits. You have been saving up your money in a savings account for the last three years trying to pay your energy bills. You were drawing housing benefit but now they have taken it away because you have gone over the limit and you are now having to spend the money on paying the rent not gas and electric.

As far as I am concerned the council have already stopped my housing benefit because DS has got a job. I do not think it right that he should have to pay the rent now he has a job, because they will not let him be on the lease. He is only on 20p more than minimum wage and his contract is only for 10 hours.

Actually he worked 42 hours last week and he is working 43 this week but we can't count on it. At the moment he has two departments fighting over him.

srn

I think everyone's experience of efficient and inefficient companies will be very different, regardless of where they are based. If you are lucky enough to have no problems with a company, you will think them efficient and vice versa but not everyone's experiences are the same. Comments were made regarding German companies being efficient, I lived in Germany for quite a few years, speak the language fluently, so I was pretty confident dealing with utilities etc, but found that although they sounded pretty efficient they weren't. Just my experience and now I go by experience and not generalisations. There are good and bad everywhere.

Regarding the NHS, I agree with nursemaggie on the reasons for repetition and I can't imagine what it would cost for every nurse, doctor and other ancillary workers to have a tablet. I for one would rather put the money to wages to employ more doctors and nurses or for treatments. When I was nursing I couldn't do my job with a big bulky tablet in my pocket, I can't say it would last that long either with the bending, lifting, stretching etc, it would fall out of my pocket - if I had one big enough.

mumps

I've been with British Gas for 30 years I think. I've never had a problem with them.

nursemaggie

Took two hours in the council offices but I think I have sorted my housing benefit out for this month at least. DS is going to have to send in his payslips every month before they will pay my housing benefit because they decide how much he has to pay towards the rent and council tax.

I think it is a bit mean to make him pay rent and council tax out of his very first pay packet. I will have to charge him for food because bills have gone up quite a lot here due to the very expensive useless heating. We were hoping we could buy him some new cloths he has not had any for years and he is fast growing out of the one he has. They are of course worn out anyway.

mumps I would say if you have been with British Gas that long you would save a lot of money if you join the MSE energy club.

mumps

nursemaggie wrote: »

Took two hours in the council offices but I think I have sorted my housing benefit out for this month at least. DS is going to have to send in his payslips every month before they will pay my housing benefit because they decide how much he has to pay towards the rent and council tax.

I think it is a bit mean to make him pay rent and council tax out of his very first pay packet. I will have to charge him for food because bills have gone up quite a lot here due to the very expensive useless heating. We were hoping we could buy him some new cloths he has not had any for years and he is fast growing out of the one he has. They are of course worn out anyway.

mumps I would say if you have been with British Gas that long you would save a lot of money if you join the MSE energy club.

I probably would but my problem is we don't pool our money, DH pays some things and I pay others. I am always very proactive about getting the best deal but he doesn't like change, frustrating but that's how it is. Mind you I always switch to the best tariff with British Gas. Some years ago, maybe twelve? The fixed price deals didn't seem so common, I signed up for a five year fixed deal with British Gas which was a bit high but I decided it was a safe bet. What a fantastic deal that proved to be, it wasn't on offer for long and by the end of the five years the only problem was the shock of what we could get which was a massive hike in price. Sky is my other bugbear, I never watch it, he hardly watches it but because the grandchildren like it he insists we have everything on it and it costs a fortune. I've told him we could buy them box sets of all their favourite programmes and still save a fortune but will he listen :mad:

nursemaggie

Know what Mumps we don't even have a TV. DS has a small subscription from an American Company. It is a bit like Netflix only a lot cheaper. He gets all the really popular American TV stuff. He is also mad on Japanese Anime. Oh yes he watches baseball.

I just watch iPlayer a couple of hours a night and ITV hub about once a month and lots of educational stuff on YouTube. I mainly watch News, current affairs like Newsnight and Panorama, the odd drama. My only soaps are Holby City and Casualty. No need for a TV for any of that.

moneyistooshorttomention

nursemaggie wrote: »

You were drawing housing benefit but now they have taken it away because you have gone over the limit and you are now having to spend the money on paying the rent not gas and electric.

As far as I am concerned the council have already stopped my housing benefit because DS has got a job. I do not think it right that he should have to pay the rent now he has a job, because they will not let him be on the lease. He is only on 20p more than minimum wage and his contract is only for 10 hours.

Actually he worked 42 hours last week and he is working 43 this week but we can't count on it. At the moment he has two departments fighting over him.

Crikey!

your benefit stopped because someone else (ie your son) has got a job. I didnt realise that sort of thing could happen - and it's not as if it is a full-time one either.

What an odd system whereby adult offspring are expected by the Council to pay towards parental rent, etc! I've always felt it's reasonable for young adults living at home to pay their way (but by that I mean = pay the extra it's costing for their food and fuel usage and NOT a contribution to costs that are there anyway, such as rent).

Do you have a link to webpage saying the Council are actually allowed to charge some of the rent, in effect, to an adult "child" living in the house?

Sorry to hear that and hope this all gets resolved soon.

mumps

nursemaggie wrote: »

Know what Mumps we don't even have a TV. DS has a small subscription from an American Company. It is a bit like Netflix only a lot cheaper. He gets all the really popular American TV stuff. He is also mad on Japanese Anime. Oh yes he watches baseball.

I just watch iPlayer a couple of hours a night and ITV hub about once a month and lots of educational stuff on YouTube. I mainly watch News, current affairs like Newsnight and Panorama, the odd drama. My only soaps are Holby City and Casualty. No need for a TV for any of that.

I have tried to talk him into Netflix but he won't listen. His view is he is paying so its up to him. I have to switch off from it or it would drive me mad. My television watching is much like yours Holby City and Casualty, Panorama if it is something that interests me, breakfast news and that's about it. I prefer reading and I'm in the library at least once a week.

mumps

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Crikey!

your benefit stopped because someone else (ie your son) has got a job. I didnt realise that sort of thing could happen - and it's not as if it is a full-time one either.

What an odd system whereby adult offspring are expected by the Council to pay towards parental rent, etc! I've always felt it's reasonable for young adults living at home to pay their way (but by that I mean = pay the extra it's costing for their food and fuel usage and NOT a contribution to costs that are there anyway, such as rent).

Do you have a link to webpage saying the Council are actually allowed to charge some of the rent, in effect, to an adult "child" living in the house?

Sorry to hear that and hope this all gets resolved soon.

I thought it had always been like that, its the family income not just the parents. When I was a teenager I knew a family with about six adult kids living at home, dad was disabled and mum had never worked. It caused lots of arguments in the house as the kids didn't think they should have to pay the rent but they did.

moneyistooshorttomention

I can sympathise with those 6 kids personally - as in my thoughts would have been to wonder why I had so many brothers/sisters if I were one of the children. When you're one of two you might well think "Would much prefer not to have a brother/sister - but oh well...its one sibling so...it is what it is". Having 5 siblings though...and I can well understand the children rowing about this...

Add that many parents have mortgaged accommodation (not rented) and then paying towards accommodation would mean paying towards parents acquiring a possession iyswim. I could never understand why my parents charged me so much more than my friends were paying for the couple of years I lived with them after leaving school - as their home was their own and I feel the amount charged was probably rather more than my food and fuel (and I think they might have even paid the mortgage off by that point).