Relative almost proud to "have to" claim benefits

lots of luck with the move and thebaby end everythgin else.
make sure you get your internet connectins set up asap

Well i still do at the moment but moving to Felixstowe in a few weeks.

jarm didnt you used to live in essex?

Unless you are in deepest darkest suffolk, no hope!

Stick an advert in the local shop window - bet you get loads of replies!

never really thought about it that way before.
there used to be loads of au pairs at dc school. they were the girls i had before my current one. but there dont seem to be anymore there now.

In some areas ts easy to find cleaners- it depends what else is there. MIL used to run an agency (she cleaned herself as well mind, she wasnt one fo thsoe professional agency amangers, she was just a good cleaner with vision) and found that in areas where there wereen't lots of alternatives- factories, supermarkets etc- like where she was cleaners were quite easy to source; however if you are an area with alternatives obviously its a supply and demand thing. There was a lot of service industries in the way of banks etc where she was, and she found that as she expanded they contracted her, and as such it was harder to fit in small jobs with the big regulars, iyswim.

I suspect if it was Uni term time it would be easier to find cleaners if you're near one, but most have gone home and will be trying to do fullt ime work, likewise mums who woudl aprpeciate the pinmoney wont have childcare set up so near the holidays

five pounds was a couple of years ago. i didnt think it was under minimum wage at the time. i'd pay more if we could afford it. but cant.
jarm, you could gladly have the job. i'd even be happy for you to do it with your baby once she was six weeks old, [cylon has visions of sitting cooing at beautiful baby whilst house is miraculously becoming clean
it's a bit of extra pin money is the way the girls have though t about it. so why is it so hard to find someone who wants some extra money?
agencies charge anywhere from 8 up to 16 quid an hour. one i cant afford that, and two, id rather the money i was paying went directly to the person doing th job, rather than the person running the agency iyswim

Agree with lazyemma, £5 a week below minimum wage

if its just for cover, epak to an agency.

if you were anywhere near me i would do it for you!

£6 an hour is ok i think, but depends where you live.

I could do with £24 a week!

five quid is below minimum wage, cylonbabe, so I'm glad you were persuaded to up it to six.

Have you tried advertising via the job centre?

Yes, you are being unreasonable. What's it got to do with you, whether she claims benefits or works or what? It is not for you to decide whether people's reasons for claiming benefits are valid or otherwise. She made her choices, you made yours. Get over it.

i have a question to ask. not looking for an argument.
i have a lovely girl who does cleaning for me. two hours, twice a week. stuff like vacuuming, mopping, kithcen toilet etc. i pay £6 an hour. am flexible with days and times etc. she is happy etc.
however she keeps going off to poland to visit her mummy. fair enough, but i want someone to fill in. but i cant find anyone. the problem doesnt seem to be the casual ness of the work but the pay. they all want at least 10 pounds an hour. i cant afford to pay that.
why doesnt anyone want to work for 6 quid? (i used to pay 5 till last year, but this girl is lovely and managed to convince dh we could pay a bit more?)
any ideas?

I think it ok to out myself now btw!! Am sure i cant be recognised by anyone anyway lol

thanks for that x

think it was less about you OP and more about some other people's responses. so don't take it as an assault!

Tellme, I should have been clearer - my post was not really in response to your OP, more to the comments that followed and some posters very unrealistic ideas of what life on benefits is like. It's just so depressing coming across these attitudes all the time. Don't take it (well my post) personally - it wasn't aimed at you.

I've read all this thread (having put it off for a couple of days) and now I am almost too depressed to post.

I'll just point out that I and my family are on benefits atm. Dh suffers from depression and has not worked for over a year. We are currently on JSA as dh has been looking for work, but tbh I really don't think he would cope with working. Of course, if he takes a job and then resigns we will lose all benefits. I am expecting a baby any time now, yet the Job Centre have been calling me and asking why I am not looking for a job (dh had to call them and ask them to stop bullying me).

Dh has now decided that he will set up as self-employed - that way, when he is too depressed to work, he won't get sacked. We will be significantly worse off as we will lose our free prescriptions (dh's ADs, for eg) and free school meals (over £60 per month). Obviously, when he is too depressed to work we will get nothing. We will still get WTC which, as has already been pointed out, is often incorrectly worked out, then you get a huge bill for overpayment which you then have to pay back. We were overpaid for 8 months, despite calling WTC and asking them to reduce our payment it continued. We have been overpaid several hundred pounds and at some point will get a bailiff landing on the doorstep threatening us to get it back (it has happened before). Great. But we have no choice.

Oh, yes, it's a fab life on benefits. Fucking brilliant.

Oh, yes, JARM, you can always do temp office work.

They love taking on pregnant women, especially those in their 3rd trimester who have to go for lots of appointments and who may fall ill at work and then cause all kinds of problems.

Gimme a break, mother2b, those agencies won't touch a woman that pregnant with a ten-foot barge pole because heaven knows I tried when I fell pregnant and DH was earning min wage.

Oh, and, as you didn't read the post, JARM also has the added joy of coordinating a house move after her spouse's discharge from the military.

'So given the choice of making life bloody hard and remaining dependent on the state, I know which one I would choose. '

No doubt!

JARM, try signing up with an office agency if your willing to do that sort of work, you only have to do it for a few weeks because you can stop when YOU like and they are usually really good, the one im with have been paying for the appts when i need to go for scans etc.

i understnad that this post might sound like im say 'well you can get work' but thats not how i mean it im just saying that if you wanted to it would mean you could save some money up so you can buy your DC some little things for when hes born

and plus i know that JC's do a rapid reclaim thing where you can get signing on quickly after you dont work any more

and plus it might help the time that you're have to wait to meet you DC ticks away quicker (im so impatient)

good luck

there are, of course, economic theories about the necessity of a "reserve army of labour" on benefits. Bascially the idea is that having a certain number of people on benefits is a cheap way to maintain a pool of people prepared to do casual, low paid work for businesses at short notice.

I think looking after 6 children is more than a full time job anyway. Even the thought of working AND doing all the housework/washing/shopping etc for a household that size brings me out in a rash.

Besides, although you may take home slightly more working than on benefits, I suspect you also lose out on a lot of 'hidden' benefits like prescription charges for example.

So given the choice of making life bloody hard and remaining dependent on the state, I know which one I would choose.

People make decisions based on the set of choices they have. None of us can know exactly what we would do in that situation, unless we were in it.

We are going on benefits in August when we move. My DH is being medically discharged from the Army, cannot work, and will be claiming Incapacity Benefit as well as waiting for a decision on DLA.

We will have to claim Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit to be able to afford to live somewhere.

I am currently 20+ weeks pregnant, someone tell me where I can get a job who will take me on knowing I will be taking 6mnths off in a matter of weeks.

We have no choice but to live off beenfits until the baby is at least 4mnths old (I cant face leaving a baby before that point) yet I know we will probably be "looked down" on for claiming.

We will probably be better off than we are now with a one-wage family because when DH is discharged, we are getting a payout that will clear all our debts and leave us with about £500 if we are lucky, but it will mean in the long-run we dont have to find in excess of £350 a month.

So if you want to judge, go ahead, but agree with those who say "walk a mile int heir shoes" - i wouldnt put my worst enemy through what we have been through in the last 18 months.

oops

actually f-it its absolutely NOT my morality and makes my blood boil just as much as the "people on the dole are spongers" argument trotted out here.

I'm sure everyone would rather have limited income than earn pots of cash and be lovely and middle class.