Stoozing Warning: From self-employed to unemployed & very annoyed

Typo

A warning about stoozing & benefits.

I've been self-employed for just over 2 years following continuous permanent employment for 13 years. A contract ended recently, another fell through & similar work in the near future didn't seem likely, so I decided to sign on for benefits while going for a permanent job again. I don't expect it to take too long before I land a job but money's really tight (all borrowed!) & I wanted was I was elligble for.

In short, we get diddly squat....

(1) No contribution-based benefit allowed because I've not paid any class 1 NI contributions over the last 2 years, even though I've paid a considerable amount of class 2 and class 4 which you pay when self-employed, and certainly plenty of class 1 contributions in the 13 years preceding. MY OH has also paid class 1 for nearly 2 decades. But hers don't count (however her savings do; read on...)

(2) No means-tested benefit because as a couple we have savings totalling 16k or more, even though 13k+ is what I've stoozed from 4 credit cards (minus transfer fees, and due to be repaid fully early next year) to make a few quid in interest from ISAs and other savings, and the rest is what I have to set aside anyway to pay my tax bills when due. OH has a few k in an ISA. Also no housing benefit allowed because owning not renting anyway. (Ok, whatever).

I should add, myself & OH have v. cheap 4k and 1.5k overdrafts respectively, which we tend to use up to the limit at various times throughout the month. The benefits agency do NOT count overdrafts - it is taken as 0 balance. E.g if you have a nice cheap 16k overdraft, and 16k in nice high-interest savings, then as far as the Benefits Agency are concerned you have 16k and are not allowed any non-contribution based benefits. Simple as that. Now, I'm not going to mess around paying off all our credit cards & ODs just to make a successful benefits claim because I genuinely believe I will (& want) to be working again soon.

(3) No help with travel expenses for interviews attended because not elligible for any benefits as described above. I've clocked up 665 miles for just 4 interviews, with a 2nd intrerview due tomorrow (100m each way). With today's petrol costs, it's a killer. At least, while I'm still 'registered' as self-employed, the receipts can go through accounts as pre-tax business expenses.

This results in having to USE those stoozed savings until you run low enough to qualify for means-tested benefits, by which time you have much smaller funds to repay the credit cards & might not even make enough interest to cover the transfer fees.

Next time I'll know better... put more funds into a pension instead of ISAs, never stooze or borrow anything to put into savings, sell the house & hide the stash in an off-shore account.

So right now we're living off money we don't really have, I'm spending not insignificant amounts on job hunting, my OH has just finished maternity leave & started a new part-time job on lower wages but leaving us needing regular childcare, we have a 1 year-old baby and the state is not going to help. So I have to get another job asap. We do, of course, receive Child Benefit & Child Tax Credit, FWIW.

It seems that playing the system to make a bit of extra cash is just counter-productive in the grand scheme of things. It also seems that being completely honest to the benefits agency about your financial situation and presenting all evidence of savings & borrowings is useless when the system is way too time consuming & complicated to take your *real* situation into account.

To close, I should add that the 2 benefits staff involved in my assessment & interview were deeply apologetic and admitted just how much extra paperwork was now having to be generated & real lack of suitable time to spend on new claims. The fact that all your evidence is simply photocopied & passed on to another department just adds to the backlog.

I'm angry. Let's put it mildly. If I'd not gone the extra mile with stoozing to help my family, I would now be way better off.

Typo

Wazoc

So 2 yrs have passed since the above message - and things can be no better.

In my case. 18 yrs as an employee, 10 yrs as self-employed. Taxed to the hilt, NI contributions paid and so on. The only outage I had was a while back when an ex-copper hit me this his car and then beat me up in the middle of a crowded street. The court told him to wise up, and I suffered 4 months on incapacity benefits. So far so good (if you can call that good).

Today I find the economy has beaten me, so I sign on to look for work. God did I get a surprise. As Typo says I was told I am entitled to NOTHING - no money to live on, no money to get to interviews, no housing benefits.. absolutely nothing!!! And I have NO SAVINGS left at all. After 28 yrs (minus four months) of contributiong to this country; I am told to get lost. Thinking back I should not have been surprised. Soon after I went self-employed I was dragged into the 'Family' Court system (almost ended up bankrupt paying legal fees). Anyway, the magistrate (my first time in any court) described me as "a one time pillar of the community who has now descended into the self-employed", same day I was later described as "self-employed scum". It was a contact case - no violence so I can only read the comments in that our elite see the self-employed as some category of low-life. So why should the Govenment and benefits system be any different.

So, I have no money. My partner brings in just over £400 a month. This I am told is more than the Law says we need to live (and I was told that was for ALL our needs). Pity then the rent is like £600 pm. So the Law, it seems says that because I was self-employed I only need £408 pm to feed, cloth, heat, transport myself, oh yeh, and have a place to live.

The most annoying aspect of the whole experience has been to sit there and be told I was (remember after 28 yrs of contributions and no drain on our society) entitled to no help at all; while next to a teenage girl with a baby whom I could clearly hear being told what she WAS entitled to (£100+pw, a paid for place to live (3 bedroom), clothing allowance, medical costs covered, and a credit for each baby); on the other side were two recent arrivals to the country who were offered pretty much the same. Both groups having made little or no contributions to the nation... yet entitled to everything.

I will get my business back on its feet. My country has given me the drive to do that, and even better than before - once I manage that I, my family, my extensive education and skills, my money and my taxes will be leaving this country on the first available transport.

In short. If you are self-mployed in the UK BEWARE. You are viewed as worthless other than for what you can be squeezed for in taxes etc.. If you can produce babies (even on your 16th birthday) you are on a career path with benefits to you retire if you plan it right; if you are a non-UK national and just arrived... here, stick both hands in this money bag and see how much you can pull out - again we will look after you forever, and if the country goes bust just take as much as we have given you and return to where you came so much better off - no tax or NI necessary.

It is the imbalance, the unfairness, the screw you attitude toward long term self-employed taxpayers that really gets me. But then again, out MPs are still looking after themselves, still noses in the trough, why whould they look out for anyone otherthan themselves and those (eg banks) that might give them a well paid post as director when they leave parliament???

End of rant... and still disgusted to call myself British.

jetplane

You are so right on all accounts, however even if you had been an employee for twenty years or more you would only receive the contribution based jobseekers allowance for 6 months and then after that you're back to the means test and on your own again. BUT your self employed contributions can entitle you to sick money AND sick money can be paid for more than 6 months, they will examine you and knock you off but you can appeal. How bad is that when the government are telling everyone to get off the sick yet they actually make it more rewarding than signing on? And whats even more annoying is when people who have never paid a penny in Tax or NI tell you that its their right to receive benefits. Dont get me started. :mad: