Alternative title...the price of a loaf when you are on Job seekers Allowance !!!
Well, my elation imagining that I
was on my way to coming off benefits may be a bit premature. True, I was
awarded a bid for some freelance work and got paid...£15.00. However,
£15.00 won't replace my Job seekers allowance. I have, I assure my
readers , lived on far less than £15.00 a week, but the problem when
coming off benefits and starting work, employed or self employed, but
perhaps just at the start not earning much, is not so much replacing
the amount you are allowed for living expenses, it doesn't take much
work to replace that, but rather the other things such as Council tax
benefit and help with mortgage or rent and free prescriptions for the
considerable list of medication I take.
What
ideally I would like to do is come off benefits, claim working tax
credit as being on a low income to start off working for myself and then
build up my work. However, Working tax credits will not entitle me to
claim mortgage interest relief, it doesn't pay all of my mortgage, in
the same way as rent would be paid if I was renting, but it is the
difference between keeping my home or losing it.I admit I am becoming
increasingly tempted by the possibility of selling up and moving to a
cheaper part of the country, where I could buy a cheap flat outright and
fulfil my dream and potential as a writer. I know that I accepted being
cast as the guilty party in a divorce from an abusive marriage , in
order to keep the home I had owned before meeting my husband who was
threatening to take it , should I try to get the annulment I was
entitled to, but selling up in these new circumstances will protect me
from feeling that he took my home from me in the same way as he took my
health, wealth, employment and many friends who felt they had to side
with him and protect him because he was mentally vulnerable....and that I
should have suffered in silence to protect him... ....
Last
weeks snow and ice had a big impact on my heart condition, ( a legacy
along with high blood pressure of the divorce and resulting events ),
both indoors as well as out, since with pre payment gas and electricity
meters I not only have to limit what I put in them, but couldn't get out
to get more money, or to top them up at the pay point.. Since being
forced on to Job seekers allowance and therefore classed as fit, I have
noticed a drop in the number of calls I get to enquire if I am OK and
coping in such weather.....I guess it is no longer necessary..like by
magic this coalition government cures people like Jesus with Lazarus
!!!.
The
effect of the weather on my health and ability to get out, resulted
in my being unable to get to the Jobcentre to sign on....the result of
course was an ominous zero balance when I rang telephone banking on
Monday morning, when my JSA should have gone in. I had telephoned the
Jobcentre, Department of work and pensions to advise them of my
situation , that I couldn't get to the Jobcentre, and also that although
it was still in holding and not in my bank account, I had done a job
and earned £15.00, which I had to declare.The DWP, insisted that I had
to speak to my local jobcentre. Most attempts to get through to them
resulted in the engaged tone, or if I got as far as the music....I then
got cut off. If I did get as far as an adviser answering the phone, they
said I had to speak to a manager, who would call me back....of course
the Jobcentre insist the return calls were made, that they tried to call
me more than once. There is no sign of such a call on my land line
phone or mobile....and because the Jobcentres opinion is that they could
not get in touch with me, and I could not get to speak to the manager
who wanted to talk to me..I got no money.....
Yet
again I tried the main DWP number and this time was given two more
numbers for the jobcentre. Eventually I got through and at the
appointment with an adviser yesterday afternoon, I had to show my job
search declaration, and yes, apart from trying to build up the
freelance work that my health can cope with, I am fulfilling my JSA
agreement, by applying for local jobs if physically it is one I might be
able to sustain...bearing in mind that last week I couldn't leave the
house. ....and not many employers will want someone who can't come to
work when its icy...Bad winters have been a regular pattern in the UK
for the past years....
Next
I had to complete a form called an Ill on JSA form....to say why I
wasn't well and couldn't go out and how the weather affects my
disabilities, THEN next came a declaration for the £15 I earned saying
how much I earned and how many hours work it was...only to be advised
that I stay on JSA !!! They might , probably will deduct it from my next
benefits, but if you work under 16 hours, you can stay on JSA. This is
probably for me just as well since I need the mortgage relief and
council tax benefit. However, it is odd that the government want people
off benefits, but won't give people like myself who can see a means to
be able to eventually support herself ,help to do so.
Meanwhile
it was going to be cornflakes for lunch !! I didn't even have the price
of a value loaf. I was however, promised that the payment would be
released for immediate clearance and would be in my bank account this
morning.....On anxiously calling telephone banking this morning, no
payment had been received in my account. I managed this time, on one of
the other numbers I had been given, to get through to the Jobcentre. The
jobcentre explained that they were very sorry but had realised this
morning that the payment had been put through in the normal system,
which would take five days to clear, and this was because I hadn't come
to sign on as I should have. This suggests that what happened to me is a
policy of punishing those like myself with disabilities, forced to
claim JSA, for any occasions when they cannot due to their health or the
effect weather has on them and their health, get to the jobcentre to
sign on.I was very unsure about the wisdom of believing any assurances, b
ut I was told that the payment which had not arrived had been recalled
and another one issued which would clear as soon as it got to my
bank.....the payment eventually after much anxiety on my part arrived
and I was able to buy bread !!
By
the way...an interesting contrast to the recent reports of the drop in
the number of people unemployed...the Jobcentre was packed....
No comments:
Post a Comment