Well, there I was looking for an article on the theme of something for the weekend, when I try to provide a bit of free or at least cheap distraction from the strains and financial limitations of being a job seeker with no spare money for entertainment.. I had been going to write about as many of my readers know , my great love of tennis and Queens Club, where the final is being played out as I write after many periods of rain stopped play , and I was going to write on the theme of tennis and social exclusion, with the games air of being for toffs, well that will be for another day, as I was prompted by the thought of writing an article about a broader sense of exclusion.
Being unemployed is literally a wysiwyg existence, where we have to put up with what we have got, that's even if you can still afford the TV license and many a job hunter has decided that they cannot. I have kept my TV and daily newspaper because I cannot afford to go out and the strains of the past years have taken a huge toll on my looks, stamina and health in any case, I can certainly no longer dance the night away even if I could afford it and so consider it is the only entertainment I do have and it helps to keep me current. The newspaper is also providing some ideas and material for writing prompts.However, it is a close shave. Job seekers allowance does not cover living costs. It is supposed to, worked out on the following budget but I and I am sure many others in my position frequently have to choose between heating, eating or the TV license, with its very real threat of prosecution if you don't pay.
Food £25
Electric £15
Travel £10
Gas £10
Water £5
TV License £5
TOTAL £70pw
Note that there is no allowance for a telephone, Internet and certainly not a mobile phone. This is because these are not considered to be essentials and yet for the job seeker, they certainly help. Regarding Internet access to apply for jobs...and now for benefit claims, it is considered that you can find free access to the Internet at eg the local library, but many councils have started to charge and in any case the amount of time you can have on line is often limited to as low as half an hour, hardly time to look for and apply for jobs.
A strange thought is that the official definition of poverty, although articles describing it do vary, often includes the absence of Internet access, it is not considered an essential by the powers that be who control the living standards of the unemployed, yet the United Nations consider it a human right. I think it is accepted that although may claimants of job seekers allowance may not be living in absolute poverty, they are certainly below the breadline in relative poverty.
The irony is that poverty actually makes living costs higher, at a time when you can least afford it.Once you have difficulty paying gas and electricity companies will often force a customer onto pre-pay meters. On pre-pay meters, you cannot say 'well, this week I will pay another bill and the gas and electricity I will pay out of my next lot of money' because if the meters need money in them and you have none, then you have no gas and no electricity. Also, the rate at which you pay on these meters is often higher than that charged to direct debit customers. Very often people are stuck on poor value deals because their credit rating is damaged my missed payments and payment agreements. An example of this is that I am with BT for telephone and Internet access, certainly not one of the better deals, but I cannot get a cheaper one as I would not pass a credit check. Also mobile phones are another example, if I was not job hunting it might actually be easier to manage without a mobile than it is, so many businesses appear to operate solely on con tact by mobile, but a decent smart phone on a contract is cheaper than my very basic pre pay phone
This coming week, I as I have so often had to do before, will have to make choices.. My last Job seekers allowance and some very careful saving beforehand meant that I managed to restore my mortgage payment to its full amount for the first time in many months. Just as well since the arrangement to pay less, which the lenders gave me when they increased the mortgage rate last October and I was unable to meet it, with the hope that I might manage to get a self employed income or job had come to an end and there is already a suspended possession order on the property, which the lender can go to court and activate at any time I cannot meet a mortgage agreement. I had cleared the arrears I had on my gas and electricity bills, which forced me on to pre-pay meters as EDF energy refused to let me pay them off any other way , and had even managed to be accepted on to a better deal with another company Scottish Power. When I explained that I had been forced by EDF energy to have pre pay meters but I live alone and in icy weather am housebound, Scottish Power changed the meters back to ordinary ones on direct debit. The first direct debit for gas and electricity is due to come out of this fortnights Job Seekers allowance and will take all of it except for £2....TV license payments are due, and in two weeks time comes the next mortgage payment...somethings got to give.....perhaps I qualify for the food bank ....
Of course just about the very first thing that had to go when my circumstances changed was cable television....as I say, something has to give and you know immediately that some things will have to go, but don't immediately think of giving up the TV altogether.
Its no good, indeed it won't help and would be foolish to think that life on benefits can carry on as it may have done when you had a salary , but there can be some compromises. Some time ago when I first got a cheap reconditioned laptop meaning I was no longer chained to the spare bedroom and my desk top PC, I imagined myself watching free Internet TV, as if as they say because of course I didn't have the time, job hunting is a job in itself.Quite a few of the links I saved no longer seemed to be there when I came to write this article. or they had changed to paying sites. I suspect this is a sign of the times, for those who can afford it, Sky and other cable, satellite TV systems have become so easily available on every device including portable ones such as tablets and smart phones, that free sites which may have got their revenue from advertising may now not be seeing the traffic and having to charge. However, here are a few which seem to offer at least free videos of previously aired programmes...Youtube of course being at the top of the list and still very popular. but here are a few others
http://www.alluc.to/
http://wwitv.com/
http://www.channelking.com/
If you are perhaps looking for a cheap laptop these sites are well worth a look :
http://www.ijtdirect.co.uk/c/404/Laptops-Netbooks/
http://www.cheaplaptopcompany.co.uk/
http://www.thelaptopcentre.co.uk/
Valerie
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