27 days unemployed

I receive a text message from DWP  

“Universal credit payments include your rent. We need to see your tenancy agreement which MUST show your landlords signature to confirm rent costs”

My blood runs cold, i have already used my savings to pay last months rent, my next rent is due in less than 26 days and now they are saying they don’t have the information to pay my rent??

I call the 0330 number

28mins on the phone

I explain fully my situation, the periodic contract the fact that my claiming benefits could well jeopodise ,my home as well as my landlords mortgage.... 

i receive no empathy or sympathy, just the simple question “have you been served notice” no i reply  “then we would need the contract dated within 3 months”  

i hang up the phone and for the first time since all this happened i cry...

I wont explain what happened next, but DWP now have a shiny new ‘signed’ AST

My job search continues and I am worried how i am going to pay my credit cards and loan.

I only have 7 more weeks of applying for jobs specific to my knowledge, skills and experience, after which i will be expected to apply for any job paying £7.50ph which is upto 90mins travelling time away.. if achieved this will leave me in deficit each month as travelling cost will most likely out weight my take home pay...

This is my first experience of claiming benefits and i have found it soul destroying and upsetting

I really feel for those who are claiming long term and who’s skills find them only able to apply for minimum wage jobs.

I am very aware that society as a whole ar struggling to make ends meet, living pay packet to pay packet, i was the same, i was just lucky that my wage was good, however now i am limited to £317 per month my outgoings seriously out weigh my income, this will effect my credit rating which was good and improving monthly with every on time payment

I do not know how long I will be unemployed for, I have been shocked just how many employers and agencies don’t even send an acknowledgment email for your application, I have gone past taking it all personally and just try to have faith in myself that i will find a job eventually.

24 days unemployed

2 weeks since the Group information session - No contact from the tutor.

My second meeting with my Work coach.

I am told she is on holiday so i see a different lady, this meeting lasts less than 5 minutes and i am asked to send my covering letter to my work coach for the next meeting.

17 Days unemployed

I have made the decision to purchase a NetBook £179,

I can now search for work and fulfill my DWP search for work contract spending 7 hrs a day in local coffee shops around town.   

Coffee is almost a expensive as internet access at the library.

Group information session

As part of my Job search commitment that i signed under duress, i must attend any courses or sessions my job coach wishes to send me on, so today i am at a Group information session

There are 12 of us here all unsure why or what to expect.

The session starts late

This information session is run by the National Careers service, it is designed to help us all get back into work.

In typical AA meeting style the tutor goes round the room asking us our names and our situation ( what was our industry)

There is a huge variety, some of us are unemployed for the first time and looking to get back on the horse
Others are looking for a complete change of career
Some Uni & college graduates with no work experience
and 2 people who are employed but not full time so DWP dont think that's sufficient.

Most f the course is teaching us seasoned workers to suck eggs
How to write a CV
How to write covering letter

All a little pointless as most jobs these days require you to complete their own application forms and CV aren't accepted

At the end of the session we are told to email our CVs to the tutor and he will be calling us once a week to follow up on our progress as "our success equals his success"  (KPIs i am assuming)

So i go straight to the library and dutifully email my CV

Job Centre meeting

So i arrive for my 2 appointments at the job centre, I have been advised they will both take about 45mins.

I am called 15mins early.....

This first meeting takes 10mins, I am asked for bank statements, i explain i was not informed to bring these, but i have online banking so i can show the person my account through my app... 

“No it has to be paper statements, because we don’t know the phone you are using or the app is for your bank account it could be anyones”  

this stateement in itself is contradictory, as i think, what is stopping me taking my mates bank statements into the job centre... my app will show my account name (my name) I leave this thought alone as i have enough to concern myself with

I am ushered across the room to my second meeting which is much more brutal, the ‘work couch’ is condescending and speaks to me like i am something she just trod in. 

“ Do you have a CV” she snaps, i pass my CV to her, 

she sighs.. 

“You have to email it to me”  

ok i say, i will do that at the library tomorrow 

  “Task incomplete” she mutters to herself.  

She then robotically speeds through my job search commitment and like a dodgy saleman, turns straight to the signature box  “sign here to accept this agreement, if you fail to do anything your money will be stopped” 

i asked for time to read through the document,

 “ I have just explained it all if you don’t understand anything call the centre number (thats the 0330 number) and they can explain it” “sign”  so ii sign...  

Thats it 20 mins of a supposed 45min appointment and i feel deflated.

So having now read the document in detail, i MUST complete 35hrs per week of job searching, thats 7 hrs per day on a 5 day week.  

I don’t have internet at home, I don’t have a laptop, so i calculate that 6hrs of internet use in the library ( i get the 1^st hour free don’t forget) works out at £14.40 per day which is £72 per week, I already know i will only be able to afford this for one maybe 2 weeks at a push... then what???

14 days unemployed

A week since my new claim call to DWP..... i haven’t received a call as promised.

I call the 0330 number again, better prepared this time, i have a fresh cup of tea and cake as i anticipate the long wait.

11mins on the phone,  

I explain to the lady whose name i didn’t catch as she had a very strong Scottish accent, that i hadn’t received a call and i was beginning to get a bit concerned.

She placed me on hold to read the notes. 

She confirms i have not had a call, but then questions me as to why i have left it so long to call to chase this up, “really you should have called us on the third day if you hadn’t heard from us” suddenly i feel that their error is somehow my fault and i find myself apologising ...

She tries to book me in an appointment but the computer system seems to have been designed by NASA and she needs to put me on hold while she gets her supervisor.

56mins on the phone

I am reliably informed that i have 2 appointments booked for the day after tomorrow, she runs through the ID i need to take and a copy of my tenancy, i quickly explain my dilemma and that my AST is periodic, she repeats the pervious information that it must be within 3 months.  

I ask what would happen if a fixed term 12 month tenancy had been signed 5 months ago, this is a contract that cannot be changed as its a fixed term... her reply floored me. “ it wouldn’t be valid for us to make a payment, you would need to get a new tenancy for the last few months so that its less than 3 months old”   

So both Housing law and Contract law have no standing in the world of DWP, i fear for social tenants who are on secure tenancies which have been in place since the 80s, this could open a can of worms that could give housing associations and councils the opportunity to reduce a tenants security of tenure if a new contract needs to be issued..... I make a mental note to research this later.

1hr 19minns on the phone 

7 Days unemployed

As i had worked in the third sector for a number of years i was well aware of the benefit system and what i needed to do to apply for housing benefit (HB) and job seekers allowance (JSA)

So with no internet at home i took myself off to the local library...joining the library is completely another story and the most ridiculous rigmarole i have experienced for sometime.... but lets jump to post membership.

I log into the computer and a big clock appears on the screen “59 mins remaining” yep... for all those who cant afford broadband, your local library only provides 60mins of free internet access, the cost after that, a staggering £2.40ph.

So i search the Gov site for JSA and answer the questions to check my eligibility..... 

The result is, i am not eligible as i live in a universal credit area, so i “click here” and get transferred to the UC website 

“49 mins remaining”

I again work my way through a set of eligibility questions... to my surprise the answer comes back... 

“you are not eligible for UC apply for JSA”  

so i answer the questions again, slowly reading them fully this time, the resounding result is still the same.... and i’m given an 0330 number to call if i am having problems.... i’m guessing this isn’t going to be the Samaritains, who i am sure would be more sympathetic.

“29 mins remaining”     

I log off and call the number, press my keypad in answer to the number of automated questions, then comes the final question which requires a verbal response.. “NEW CLAIM” i say in my best pronounced English accent worthy of any Catherine Cookson TV adaptation... “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that” comes the disembodied AI voice, I repeat myself... same response, after the third attempt the automated service gives up and responds with “ I am unable to direct your call, please try again later” and it hangs up on me

29 mins on the phone

I call again... this time at the final question i reply “housing benefit” YES i’m in.. i am now on hold..........

39mins 28 secs on the phone   

          

My call is picked up by Alice, I explain the entire story of the online applications and the lack of eligibility etc, Alice takes me through the eligibility questions again, BINGO, i am eligible, so we complete the new claim over the phone and i am told i will receive a call within 2 days with an appointment to my local job center where i need to bring, ID and my tenancy agreement, which must be no more than 3 months old!  

I explain that i have lived in my flat since 2013 that after the first year my tenancy migrated on to a periodic and its been month by month ever since i can bring a bank statement to show the rent going to my landlord every month... “No a tenancy dated within 3 months is required and must be signed by my landlord... ok i say and we end the call.

1hr 17mins on the phone

I haven’t had contact with my landlord for over 2yrs and that was only because the shower  needed replacing, I am uneasy about calling him to ask for a new contract, firstly because i know this will envoke questions of “why”  and as i live in a flat, which is mortgaged and leasehold I am very aware that my benefit claim is very likely to breach my landlords mortgage terms and quite possibly the terms of his lease, this in turn will mean he will have no choice but the serve me notice

Not only that but to issue me with a new Assured shorthold tenancy (AST) after 2015 will mean my landlord will have to provide me with a new copy of the deposit information, an EPC and a copy of the How to rent handbook, a bunch of admin he has never had to bother with before and will probably annoy him so he’ll now be thinking I'm trouble and will evict me anyway (this is all just that little voice getting a bit louder in my head)

Lost my job

1991 and i got my first job sweeping up and making tea in the local hairdressers, £15 for a whole days work, i was excited, proud and the world was my oyster.

Although I sampled a myriad of jobs in my teens and 20s i was never without work.

So you can imagine my feelings when at 40 i found myself out of work, a shock to the system as it was so sudden and out of the blue, i wont bore you with the details as that's not the point of this blog

I wasn’t too concerned at first as i recalled how easy it had been all those years ago to walk out of a job on a Friday and have a new one by Monday....

Well after a week of casual job searching which really consisted of messaging previous colleagues on Linkedin and calling competitors to see if there was any work going and zero response, i began to get a little concerned. 

I live alone so i am the only person who brings the wage into the house, the little voice in my head starts to whisper 

“how are you going to pay the rent?” 

  “how are you going to pay the credit cards?” 

“you’ll be evicted” 

“the bailiffs will take everything”

Extreme thoughts know but extremely realistic.