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.

Bucking the trend here...

In answer to your original question, "AIBU to be scared of getting a job in case I'm worse off"... no, I don't think you are unreasonable to be scared. As things stand now, you know you can survive on what you have coming in. Taking a job would be a risk and I can see how that worries you, especially if you're not sure how your finances would work.

But are you really going to be happy bumping along like this for the rest of your life? How old are you? Do you want kids ever, maybe?

And have you spoken to your GP about your 'weirdness'? I think you can get medication for panic attacks, if that's the problem... and if you could get this under control a bit, wouldn't your life be improved considerably?

orright darlin?

i'll see you 'you know where' later

You sound like my dbs gf. She has never worked and claims incapity benefit and gets her rent and ct paid. She was on dla but that was stopped. She got herself into
A state because she lost £160 a month. But she smokes 20 a day so I told my DB that she will have to quit but she refuses.
She would be better off working but she is scared of working.

Sweet baby cheezus

I come home from a hard daybeing useless in my job to this.

OP, I'd have your money off you so fast you'd be begging for a job in Wotherspoons.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep

Thank you. That's exactly it. I am fairly comfortable as I am and not at all sure that if I take a job I won't lose my home. I don't want to move away from my friends and vol work and be isolated.

I don't know if I'll be happy long term like this. I don't have plans for any family though. I'd have children in a society that wasn't like this one!

I have tried various meds through my GP; none seem to work. And as I said upthread somewhere, i was referred to a psych unit but did not make it there! It's not panic attacks as such. I don't know what it is.

Ok, sigh

Depending on your wages you may still get some HB
Since you have done feck all for a few years and I assume you are over 25, you will probably get WTC
Google Benefits Advisor for actual figures

This was my brother's attitude in his 20s. He'd dropped out of graduate school but still had a BSc so should have been employable but he had too easy a life at home with my parents. He was getting a nice cheque in the post every week (benefits are higher in my country) and had his mother to do (more fool her) his laundry and cook his favourite meals.

And he was also an undiscovered genius, dontchaknow, who was simply living on too high a plane of existence to consort with mere mortals who worked in exchange for monetary gain. The horror.

According to him, every job was corrupt or a lie or beneath him.

So now, he's in his 40s, sleeping on a camp bed in my parents' living room, practically agoraphobic because everyone has given up on him. He has no girlfriend, no friends as they've all moved on years ago and have families, jobs etc and most likely when my parents pass on, he'll have to live in council housing and end up in dire poverty. That's where you're headed, OP. Think of the long-term, not just the here and now.

I don't have a dog but there was a mouse in our bedroom wall last night the size of a Doberman. I thought it was coming through the plaster to eat me. If I hadn't had to WORK today, I would have stayed in bed to recover from the shock and think about my hobbies which include drawing pictures and dreaming about getting paid for it.

How many days a month are you unable to work due to not being able to leave the house?

Have you thought of working as a freelance illustrator? You would be able to work from home. It involves a bit of work to get people interested in you and what you can do and you'd need to circulate samples to publishing companies, agents etc.

You need to an honest with yourself about why you are not working as you said it was because you wouldn't have time for your art. Working full time would still allow you evenings and weekends, so either do that or combine your art with your job.

And what's this rubbish about wanting to work in a rape centre when you can't even handle a bloke saying tits!

You mentioned earning money as a decorater. Why not do that self employed?

I would hope not to encounter men in rape crisis centres. I have no problem listening to women's experiences.

I have sent things off to publishers but only had sparse work. It isn't worth signing off JSA for.

Man who in his forties thought jobs were beneath him... Well, maybe he was right and the world is a bit shit?

If I decorated - self-employed - it wouldn't be reliable work, and I'd still be getting benefits from the tax payers wouldn't I? But less time to myself. And unstable housing benefit.

168 hours in a week. Say you're working 45 of them, travelling to/from work 10, sleeping 56, showering/washing/dressing etc 7, cooking and eating 14 - that's still 36 hours per week for hobbies. Which is quite a lot.

(only getting involved because if I walk away from the computer as I want to, the dog will demand dinner and he can't have it for another 8 minutes)

i don't geddit.
Just get a job ffs..or go back to Uni...or something. If you can work/study..it's what people do. yes you will have more money,yes you will feel better about getting up and doing something. You're not ill,disabled,have dcs or anything that can be explained. And I am one of the wooliest lefties' on this frigging planet...just do something and stop rotting away scribbling with your paintbrush.

Do you really think that? That jobs are beneath you so why bother? What if benefits end? There is no guarantee that the government will always supply them or that there will be enough tax payers to pay for them. What then? What if you had no home no food no warmth? Now that world is shit. Being expected to buy your own food and pay your own rent is not shit, that is life.

Napa, my forties are not exactly far off, and I'd rather be in my one-bed than in a house-share/w parents. That's what I'm scared of losing. I know it seems ridiculous but it can happen when people start work.

Scribbling with my paintbrush is doing something! I don't get having to work because it's what other people do. Need rational explanations behind the work. Otherwise I get weirded out.

Re. Samples to publishers . . . Try harder. It won't come handed on a plate. Its a competitive business.

Re. Decorator business . . . If you put time and effort in (which it doesn't sound like you've ever done with anything in your life) then it may well be regular work. Im talking about advertising in your local area and making a proper attempt at setting up a business.

Re. Less time to your self . . . You've had 24 hours a day for years. How much more do you need? What makes you so special that you think you should be entitled to all day every day to yourself?

Yes OP, with the changes that going through you could find yourself with no benefits at all, or working for them by stacking shelves. They are cracking down on people they perceive to be not trying hard enough.

Like crazynanna I'm not some bigot who thinks all benefit claimants are scum - people who know me irl would say I'm somewhere to the left of Tony Benn - but if your posts are genuine, then you really are the kind of person who gives the unemployed a bad name. For every problem you've posted here someone has come up with a solution, but instead of taking their advice, you just throw up more problems.

Then make a living out of the scribbling. Give art lessons or something.

Poor you misunderstood artist who doesn't want to conform. You know what? I was good at art too so i turned it into a profession. I now have many years experience, am self employed and earn many times minimum wage.

It can be done you are just choosing not to.

So what if you're working at a rape crisis centre and you decide to have a weird day? Or are you expecting to world to revolve around you?

Anyway what about labradoodles?

Ok, I get that I MIGHT not lose my flat if I get a bar job. Still don't want a bar job over no job though.

I realise I might get thrown off benefits. In which case, I will get a bar job.