To be scared of getting a job in case I'm worse off?

[BenefitScrounger]

NC and prepared for a flaming.

I've been claiming JSA for over two years now and am on the Work Programme. I have no qualifications and all I could get (I think) is a minimum wage job. I have been lying about my attempts to get work because I think I am better off out of work.

At the moment I get full housing benefit plus council tax, free dental care/prescriptions (if I need them) and £71 a week to live on. My bills aren't covered obviously, but they're not huge, and I have lots of free time to indulge hobbies etc.. I don't feel the need to buy stuff very often as I'm not into fashion/beauty and I eat cheaply. I can afford to eat out once a week with a TasteCard. The only thing I miss is holidays abroad but I'm not sure I would be able to afford them if I got a job anyway.

If I got a full time minimum wage job, would I be worse off? Just thinking of travel expenses, student loan repayment and time lost - not sure if I would still get any council tax benefit?

Has anyone had experience of this? By the way, I'm childless and live alone.

I might try the blanket test with my 4 cats. The one who wins can have a tin of Sheba.

Why does it always have to be dogs?

I don't want to get into an anti dogs debate, but there are some of us that would like to discuss cats, you know.

Ah thank you GetOrf

"Ha, the weirdness has only coincided once with benefit signing. I lost money for two weeks."

Is that because it was a full moon and you ate your advisor? I gather they frown on that kind of thing.

I had a cat in my last house. She brought us apples.

i don't have a dog Proud, i pretend to like them

i was going to put a cloth over the hamster to see what happened

maybe it'll chew it's way out or more likely i'll get really fucked off with little shreds of paper all over the cloth so won't bother

You need to get Professor Snape to brew you a potion.

Let's start with a truth serum.

So you can't handle a rude remark from a jerk in a bar but you want to work in a rape crisis centre or similiar. I don't know anything about such places but I imagine you need to be made of pretty stern stuff to deal with what they do day in day out.

I love my cats. They are psychopaths though. They bring all sorts of things they kill - mice, voles, bats and once dragged a bloody crow through the catflap.

Has no one else experienced anything like this then? What are other reasons for not completing degrees/staying in work etc.?

Zalen, you're probably right. I don't know what to do.

seems no-one is interested in being in your paper taking the bait on that question, OP

I go weird as in I can't go out

Accept to go to Pizza Express once a week!

Except

Has anyone else got a Taste Card?

I had a trial for a month but didn't use it, oddly. It seems rather goo though.

GetOrfAKAMrsUsainBolt I had a cat that brought a crow in too....there was blood up the walls!

When we were growing up my uncle had a golden retriever. When he would come to our house at lunch time when he was working nearby the poor dog would hid behind his legs as he sat on the sofa. Poor thing was terrorised by our cats, they bullied her something rotten.

There you go, dogs, cats and work all in one post.

I think my friends irl are just being kind then. I thought it was because they liked my art so let me off, but I'm not sure they do now. Feel like waste of air.

Yes I can go out. I've already said I can. I just can't suddenly, sometimes. And no, you won't find me in Pizza Express at that time. I will be at home, unable to go to corner shop.

lol at working

I am glad someone else's terror cats dragged in a crow. The feathers were all over the bloody place. Because there are 4 cats they work in a tag team to harangue the poor creatures to death. It needs a commentary by David Attenborough.

Yes Tastecards are very worthwhile.

What about rabbits? I'm curious about house rabbits, does anyone have one?

I have a toy poodle x bichon friese.

I also have a ginger tom who likes to hide under the stairs and attack your feet as you walk past... I call him the Ginger Ninja.

i had a cat that brought in bats/moths and live mice

i only knew she'd brought a huge elephant hawk moth in because i could hear it flapping it's wings against her face!

t'was like the front cover of silence of the lambs

No they shit all over the floor.

I don't trust rabbits since Watership Down.