Are they savings?

Pixelat0r

marliepanda wrote: »

However you will really get a lot more sympathy and help if you stop complaining about druggies and alkies. Seriously. You have made a poor financial decision at some point, whether advised to or not, and now you have to deal with it. The same way the druggies made poor health choices and now have to deal with it.

Not really looking for sympathy, I made the decisions so I must deal with it. I'm here asking for advice or suggestions not sympathy. And if you're suggesting my deciding to try and make something of my life is comparable to some clown who decides to use or sell drugs or who gets extra benefits to get smashed and stagger round the town centre every day then I take offence at that.
And not being a financial advisor myself, the poor decision you say I took was based on several weeks consulting with people who assured me they knew what they were doing so despite you saying the decision was mine it was taken using all the safeguards I had at my disposal at the time.
Anyway, I'm not complaining about what happened then, there's no point, it's done with. All I was asking was advice as to whether I had any viable way to get out of the predicament I find myself in.

Pixelat0r

patman99 wrote: »

The thing is, had you withdrawn the money to replace a 'broken' washing machine, but instead, stuffed the money inside your mattress, they would not have batted an eyelid as that would be an allowable expense.

The general rules allow you to use your capital for general living expenses, so whilst reducing your credit card by overpaying by £50 a month would not be allowed, withdrawing £50 a week for food would (even if you only spent £20 a week on food and hid the rest).

That seems to be the general opinion but none of the people I went to came up with that idea unfortunately. If that had really happened to someone though and somebody had genuinely used their mortgage money to pay daily living expenses wouldn't that be seen as a bit reckless if they didn't have the capital left to pay off their mortgage when it ended?

GirlFromMars_2

Pixelat0r wrote: »

Not really looking for sympathy, I made the decisions so I must deal with it. I'm here asking for advice or suggestions not sympathy. And if you're suggesting my deciding to try and make something of my life is comparable to some clown who decides to use or sell drugs or who gets extra benefits to get smashed and stagger round the town centre every day then I take offence at that.

You may not think you're looking for sympathy, but you're seeking advice from strangers, and ultimately unless we're sympathetic to your cause we're unlikely to bother ourselves engaging with it.

I've already warned you that there is a persistent troll on this forum who likes to use this issue to stir trouble. Either you personaly have a problem, or you don't. If you have a problem, then stick to that problem, and quit blaming those in a worse position than yourself for your own problems. If you don't have a problem, and are trolling, then kudos for starting another argument!

Dividing people into deserving & undeserving is divisive. As a benefits claimant I have enough trouble with the media and government trying to make us all blame one another, so why should I bother myself trying to assist someone doing the same?

And not being a financial advisor myself, the poor decision you say I took was based on several weeks consulting with people who assured me they knew what they were doing so despite you saying the decision was mine it was taken using all the safeguards I had at my disposal at the time.
Anyway, I'm not complaining about what happened then, there's no point, it's done with. All I was asking was advice as to whether I had any viable way to get out of the predicament I find myself in.

I'd be surprised if financial advisers knew very much about benefits. Your problem is not with them.

NeilCr

To be clear

You say you had advice from three different parties (CAB, MAS, and the BS) - was any of it in writing? And you had several weeks of "consulting" yet nobody put their views down on paper.

I am genuinely surprised because, certainly CAB don't advise - and, in general, they are not financial advisers. If I had taken your phone call I might have said "these are your possible options" and then suggested that you took financial advice. I might have steered you towards MAS as they would be in a better position to point you in the right direction to find this advice - again my understanding is that MAS don't specifically give advice

Pixelat0r

GirlFromMars wrote: »

I'd be surprised if financial advisers knew very much about benefits. Your problem is not with them.

I'm not trying to blame them, simply stating that the bad decision was not entirely based on ignorance or rushing in to things and was taken in good faith. The suggestion that I somehow screwed up when I took out an endowment mortgage is more to do with what I was told than out and out ignorance. It's certainly not the kind of bad choice a drunk or drug user would make.
And I'm sorry if my lack of sympathy for people who have consciously and physically chosen to live the way they do rubs people up the wrong way but as the son of a violent drunk who was helped every step of his miserable life while my mother, after leaving him got nothing from the state and had to work three jobs may have left me with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I am neither a troll not a sympathy seeker and was not here to do either.
I really appreciate all the help and advice I've received, genuinely it has been incredibly useful, but it seems there are a few slightly too righteous folk on here who are poised to criticise you for holding an opinion and as such I will do the honourable thing and toddle off before I get more kudos for starting another argument.
Thanks again.

Pixelat0r

NeilCr wrote: »

To be clear

You say you had advice from three different parties (CAB, MAS, and the BS) - was any of it in writing? And you had several weeks of "consulting" yet nobody put their views down on paper.

I am genuinely surprised because, certainly CAB don't advise - and, in general, they are not financial advisers. If I had taken your phone call I might have said "these are your possible options" and then suggested that you took financial advice. I might have steered you towards MAS as they would be in a better position to point you in the right direction to find this advice - again my understanding is that MAS don't specifically give advice

Well, I can only tell you what they said. I had called the MAS first and they had said that the CAB were a better first call before asking had I explored what would happen if I paid the ISA's to the building society. The guy said in my situation that's what he would do on the basis that if it didn't restore my right to benefits it would at least lower the monthly interest charge and make things a little easier to cope with. This is essentially what the guy at CAB said though he then suggested I call the MAS. I explain I'd already done this and they's said something similar. It was never "do this" or "do that". It was more a head-scratching exercise followed by statements like "your best option might be" or "could you not" type of interaction. In a nutshell I don't think they quite knew what the best option was which is a shame because the slow removal of capital for things like a fictitious washing machine or car repair, which seems like it would have worked, came from this forum :T Whether they have insisted on receipts I'm not sure. The BS just out and out said "pay us the cash then problem solved".
Anyway, thanks again for the help, really very grateful. I guess I'll concentrate my efforts on finding a new job then hopefully none of this will matter.

Ames

Yes, they would have wanted receipts. Saying you bought x but hiding the money under the mattress would be fraud - you have to declare what savings you have including cash.