It's the work situation, or rather the lack of it. I haven't worked now in paid employment for coming up to a year, I have tried various options, the design thing, though that was never likely to make me a living income yet at least, employment agencies who generally didn't have suitable types of work (or the motivation to do their own job properly, I'm not sure which) and managed to find me the grand total of four placements and the obvious, job hunting by the usual routes. All to no avail.
If I am entirely honest, for some of my period of unemployment the hunt for a position has been a little more 'low key' than might be ideal, mostly for various personal reasons but with the new year a new stronger push for work was commenced.....and believe me, it's tough out there and getting tougher by the day, particularly when most of your life's work experience is in retail!
Fletch has supported me both financially and emotionally throughout and as I didn't claim a penny in benefit, our decisions regarding my work status, I felt were our business, but things have changed in that positions are very few and far between right now and I have a moral obligation to him also.
In the main the state expects him to support me although we are not married but if one applies the same principle to the taxation system, they don't allow us the same rights as a married couple!
So this is my dilemma....do I now 'sign on' or not?
The pro's are obvious, I get a little money, which whilst it might not be much, it is more than nothing, I will feel that I am contributing financially a little the running of our life, the systems will kick in and make efforts to help me find a job and I will be counted in the unemployment figures, something that is important to me.
The down side though, and the real crux of my dilemma, is that whilst we aren't exactly flush financially we aren't on the bread line either, we manage ok and are way better off than tens of thousands are right now. I feel guilty that I might be claiming monies that someone else needs much more than we do, families with children they can barely afford to feed, people living on the streets etc. etc.
But of course, as has been pointed out to me, it doesn't work like that, if it did it would be simple, but the reality is that anything I might be entitled to, if I forfeited it, wouldn't go to help someone in more need. It may be a better option and solution may be to claim any entitlement I have, use what I really need and donate the remainder to an appropriate charity.
I don't much relish the idea of being humiliated and degraded by the attitude of the benefits agency staff again....my last experience of that a few years ago was enough for one lifetime thankyouverymuch but the unfairness of the system, and my having relied solely on Fletch for a year, is beginning to make me consider that perhaps my morals should now lie elsewhere. At the very least, if I claim unemployment benefit, even if I don't qualify for payment, suddenly the system will show an interest and help me in my quest for work and in the meantime I will be counted in the unemployment figures.
I just don't know......
13 Comments:
The other consideration is that, if you sign on, your stamp will be paid, which is important eventually for your pension.
I think you should claim it. Although I admire your morals, think about all the low life who are cheating the system and getting their money out of it...and the people who never do, or bother to do a days work in their life. Your taxes (and Fletch's) go towards paying for those people to sit around and do nothing.
If you like, think of it as claiming some of Fletch's tax back!
I think that after carefully weighing up the pro's and the cons I would sign on. It's your entitlement and yes, the benefits of having other resources available to you to enhance the job search is a good idea.
I also think that you need to keep working in the direction you are now with your design business as ultimately, if it paid a little more, and if you could be available to a wider audience, it is something that you love, you can do, you feel confident with and it allows your artistic flow not to be stifled which is very important.
Yeah sign off your entitled to that money, I wish that I had signed on when I was out of work for 3 months in the summer, hold your head up high and take what youve been being in for ..
Laters
Nice
Dear Gemmak.
With a degree of interest I read your post as I do with all your postings ‘A moral dilemma’
with understanding and I think I know how you feel.
I have never been in the position where I could call myself unemployed, there have been small periods where I wasn’t in gainful employment but that was through choice other than no work available for me. I have never been in receipt of unemployed benefits because for no other reason I’ve never met the regulations that says I am unemployed.
I believe you have no reason to feel guilty or to reproach yourself to claim any benefit that you are entitle to, its your right to do so.
Any benefit I now claim is through necessity rather then ‘it’s there so claim it’. - [I dislike the word ‘Benefit: Definition. The government giving to the poor, ill or unemployed person], it’s the word, giving I dislike and don’t agree with, ‘they’ are not giving me anything they are paying me back some of the money I’ve paid in taxes, and believe me I’ve paid more than my share. I call them my entitlements.
I always treated paying taxes, what ever kind, paying into a compulsory savings account, there for me to draw on when the need arises.
I have no qualms about being paid my entitlements and to claim these there is no stigma attached to them.
There have been times when I have been requested to attend various interviews, meetings and other functions also there have been many forms I’ve had to fill out for my entitlement claim to be paid. I always tell the truth in the answers to the questions they ask, perhaps not the whole truth, that’s for them to find out and for me to know.
Being humiliated and degraded by the attitude of the benefits agency staff, yes I been through those. I soon learnt how to handle that type of intolerant person who adopt a superior attitude, play them at their own game. learn chapter and verse for the entitlement regulations you are entitle too and be able to quote them. If you can do that you soon learn that you know more than them and take charge of the interview or meetings, that way you are in fact interviewing them Believe me it works. [Always keep your cool - !!!].
You say the real crux of your dilemma, is that whilst you and Fletch aren't exactly flush financially your not on the bread line either, you manage OK and are way better off than tens of thousands are right now. [Well done Fletch]. Your entitlements are there to be claimed, demand them and ask for them to be back dated as well. If you have any apprehensions about the hard cash you get then have it paid into a Savings Account which you can draw on when the ocassion arises. [Dare I mention old age].
GO FOR IT GEMMAK. Mick. X
I am asupply teacher with next to no work and I am signing on. Mainly for the NI stamp to be paid. I have done it in th epast for the same reason and because you are entitled to. But I hate it. I hate the bureacracy of it. Supply teachers dont fit the form you have to fill in. I hate sitting in the place every two weeks waiting to sign although it has been improved over the last few years and the people you see don't seem so judgemental as in the past. You can work less than 16 hours and still claim. So all in all i would say yes do it
If you're owed the money you should go for it, but having signed on on two separate occasions myself, I know exactly how horrible it is to have to sit with all these people who are actively trying to get OUT of working, feeling out of place and having people working in the jobcentre talk to you like they're so much better than you and you're just a jobdodger. It's horrid!
"it becomes apparent that where it suits them we are counted as married but where being married might be beneficial to us, we are counted as individual people with no connection at all! "
Believe it or not this also applies to single people living in the same house, with the added annoyance that if someone's parents own the building, even if they are paying a proper rent, rent-book and all in order, they cannot claim housing benefit no matter HOW much money they don't have.
They do it to confuse, you know. B*strds.
Thank you guys...I think that's a 'yes' then for various reasons! ;o) Next stop the unemployment office, or as they prefer to call it, the 'employment service'! Ha!
I never used to apply for benefits, for the reasons you stated, but in more recent years I realized that I'd paid plenty into the system, whether I wanted to or not, and I was in actual need of the money, plus the fix I was in was through no fault of my own, but rather the government's fault for not properly managing the economy and corporate responsibility. So I agree with the other readers. Go for it.
That said... maybe you could tap the hive mind for ideas to develop income that allow you to work for yourself.
* Pet babysitter for those on holiday
* Travel writer
* Corporate blogger
* Motorcycle detailer
* Support group for those with a fear of flying
* Teach cursing as a second language
:)
Best of luck, my friend.
Oooh-oooh! Here's one more...
* Tweet filterer
Huh?
A New Kind of Newsroom
I've been where you are now and understand the reluctance to sign on. But, it is money you have paid in in the past just against the very situation you are now in. There is a bit of a plus - they will nag you about finding a job and that can help, you will not feel you are getting your hair cut or your teeth fixed on Mike's money and your are maintaining your pension situation. So - I'm with the majority - get thee down the 'bru!
To put it simply, my personal opinion on this: Yes, sign on. If you've paid tax in the past then you're a damn sight more entitled to it now than all those idle buggers who live off the state with no intention of ever doing a days work, and no shame about doing so.
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