To think that if working full time still equal grinding humiliating poverty then crime is not only to be expected, it is to be welcomed as a sensible career choice.

[scaryclown]

I.e. when conforming perfectly to the system gets you nothing at all, then it is your duty to take things from the system..
?

I agree; there has to be some hope, some sense that a person can affect their outcome otherwise the rules fall apart -why stick to the rules if you see people around you better off, there leads anarchy - all people need to feel invested in a society for it to be functional

I hope things get better for you

Ok, so that fairytales post is interesting, but it does rely on lot of assumptions about what i mean if it is designed to talk about what my situation relates to.

My issue is that i would like to do, even for a few years, something that reflects my ability AND i would like a family, o have desperately wanted one for years, but haven't yet had enough even to eat properly let alone date, yet i am always described as highly able, highly intelligent etc etc etc.

I do have 11 pairs of shoes. organised thus...Two suede boots and one leather in same style brown, black, sand.and the same again as spare (to last for five years or more at least) three pairs of boots black, brown and safety (not flattering but necessary for low wage crap), three smart two black and one brown.

I have three pairs of trainers, one old £9 pair, two court ones, one old one newish but < £20 each.

No TV, most work clothes over 4 years old, two suits, 20 tops, some going back to school 20+years ago.

No dvd player, one cheap

Do you have outstanding debts (separate to general cost of living)?

Fairytales interesting I've just read an article about a young mother who had gone horribly into debt whilst on benefits by using Brighthouse etc to buy an American fridge freezer. She said she wants to feel like a footballers wife and blames celeb culture.
To some extent I agree, our children are seeing people get filthy rich for doing fuck all and yes doing a bit of foot stamping at the 'unfairness' of it all.
Not here I must add Scary

So OP from that last post, you are single and have no children?

Your outgoings must be very very high for you to be living on 9p bread. Because 30 hours a week at minimum wage is just under £1000 a month after tax I think, and wouldn't you get working tax credits with being on a low wage?

So, if school was 20+ years ago, you're at least 38. Are you saying that you've been earning low wages all that time, and that every single employer has not recognised your intelligence and great ability you tell us you have, and that the system and every employer you've been with is at fault?

Why are your expenses so high? Are you paying debt to one agency or are you paying off each company individually?

Superb post, fairytales

homeless folk ask for £1 or 50p and it's more than i have had for the last week..Whilst doing 30 hours a week for major brand... That's awful no?

While on the face of it this sounds pretty dire, it's impossible to draw any conclusions without knowing a lot more about your own choices, decisions, etc - most of which are probably nobody else's business

It's interesting, though, that you've said your DF - who might be expected to empathize, having been through difficult times himself - believes that you're "making up your version" instead. It may be, of course, that he simply lacks understanding ... or then again, perhaps his view is based on seeing something which we obviously can't?

I'm sorry things are so tough.

There are some things you could consider to improve things.... With regard to job applications, quality is much more important than quantity... 5 diligently prepared applications is far better than 50 hastily written ones. Also if you're single with no dependents, and working 30 hours, you'll have plenty of spare time on your hands, so you could expand your attractiveness to employers with suitably focussed voluntary work.

Also, I appreciate you're a low earner, but where is your money going to be so out of pocket at the end of the month?

Most insanely rich people do things that are morally, legally and ethically questionable. So why not everyone else as well. Let the government lead by example

People in the UK do live difficult lives in poverty and it does make everything harder for them. I'm not sure why people want to pretend that's ok because 'africa'.

In your case however OP, I have seen several similar threads from you and I suspect you have a massive fucking attitude problem which people are continually picking up in job after job. Just after I graduated I worked in a shop and I was better educated and cleverer than my managers. But we were all decent people, I didn't consider myself superior because of my IQ and they were always encouraging. They didn't make up disciplinaries, they encouraged me to apply for the graduate training scheme. That's what happens to people without a massive chip on their shoulder. Honestly, you need to ask a colleague to tell you honestly how you come over at work.

And stop kidding yourself that you have a) found 500 jobs for which you are appropriately qualified and b) submitted 500 quality applications within 5 weeks.

Why do people who have been lucky with good encouraging employers always assume that for them it was because they are inherently encouragable and lovely, and everyone who has shit employers brought it on themselves because of an inherent character flaw?

Is nobody actually reading the thread?
Th Ops finances are totally fucked because her employers keep dicking around with wages. It's late or doesn't tally with the hours worked, or doesn't cover the type of work worked (I assume higher rate for night over day).
If bills are timed to come out when wages are paid in then either they bounce and incur bank charges or are paid and incur even more charges. If this pattern continues then both bank and organisation wanting to be paid get increasingly less willing to be flexible over payments.
A spotty payment history leads to suggestions of prepayment meters which cost more as you are not eligible for the same deals and tariffs as others are. Recurrent bank charges mean your bank is unwilling to give you an overdraft to cover any potential delays. This in turn messes up your credit history and you are no longer eligible for the credit cards with the good terms or even credit facilities at all. This becomes a never ending spiral of never quite having enough.
This doesn't just happen over wages, benefits can be just as bad if not worse.

I have found myself in a situation time and again with regards to benefits where I know they have made an incorrect decision. I have tried to sort the problem so many times that I am more aware of the legislation that should be followed than the person I am seeking help from. I know I am being given incorrect information and incorrect procedures are being followed, yet the computer says no attitude prevails. Even if the issue was sorted out the resulting delays in access to money can put one into a spiral such as this.

I have been so fucked over by an ill-informed or incompetent decision that I have contemplated stealing. I have been 100% honest and truthful and been completely shafted with consequences similar to those I would have experienced had I been dishonest. In those situations, you really do start to think what the fuck is the point.

I have also been in a toxic working atmosphere within a small business where ability did not matter. Everyone was paid a different rate and told to keep quiet about it. I have been told socialising with colleagues outside of work is forbidden. A very dog eat dog atmosphere was fostered. With decreasing employment rights and tribunals costing so much these days, it is not hard to believe people will just put up with it in some cases. Where the boss and HR are both as bad and inept as the other. Where egos rule rather than business acumen, it is easy to see this kind of situation arise. You may think these businesses would soon go bust but they don't. They don't perform anywhere near to their potential and instead just limp along. I have seen employers put the word out on the grapevine in a niche industry to not employ such and such, even though that is against all regulations. In truth, you can only trust businesses to do what they can get away with. Some go by the book, others, once they have found they can get away with certain things push the limits time and again to see what else they can get away with. If they didn't, we wouldn't need the HSE, environmental health and employment tribunals.
I don't blame someone who is totally ground down by an inefficient system where they have fallen through the cracks but nobody believes them to be thinking along the lines of the OP. They see the very organisations they are employed by flouting regulations and laws all the time and are directly affected as a result.

I know how I come across at work, quiet and like everyone else, but then I work harder than everyone else almost by accident, and then the vipers come out and try and fuck it up for me. I have had someone make up complaints about me and fake signatures before, because they couldn't find a way to attack me on results, and everyone liked me which they hated even more.

Starting to think OP has a martyr complex. Everyone else is always at fault. Agree with PP that some other threads of yours, like this, suggest you have a serious attitude problem

Wow Delores, thanks for posting that, and thanks for putting it so well - I was starting to think I was the only one, (though the undercover reporter book links clearly showed I wasn't thanks for that too).

Yes that is exactly what has been happening, and I have totally resisted any payday loans etc. My bank won't even give me £10 grace, if I get an interview outside my town in the last weeks of the month, I can't go, I am happy to work until I'm fucked, if the rewards come in at the end of the month, but they don't, and I live so grindingly cheaply, but then look at the supposed spare cash, and there still isn't any. If I do build up tiny amounts, there is always a horror bill waiting somewhere that seems to evaporate it, and I'm facing yet another spring and summer in the same miserable hole as all the other years, and yes, I do get shit wherever I work because as soon as I relax, I say something that reveals education, experience, ability or a wider viewpoint than a small-minded colleague, and then I get the made up mistakes, the nasty comments etc etc. Its not new, and its not because I'm nasty to them, its just what small-time people are like. Its odd because its a well-known phenomenon, but everyone still makes out I'm completely bizarre for experiencing it.

When I was in school I did a temp job in an NHS place, and the chef (female) in the kitchen where I was an assistant said that the domestics were cliquey and weird and nasty to her, and I didn't believe it, then I went to break with them and all they did was bitch about her. I saw a manager bring in a half onion in cling film in and put it in the kitchen fridge, and then the domestics went and 'found' it and were dancing around with it saying 'look at what 'she' did, how weird' half an onion in the fridge, why would anyone do that etc etc etc. Do you know why? She was a bloody efficient chef and they were all fat lazy useless bitches.

Fat lazy useless bitches
Ok, you clearly needed a vent, you don't want practical help. Hope you feel better soon.

huh?

I have seen several similar threads from you and I suspect you have a massive attitude problem which people are continually picking up in job after job

Sadly, I agree

If you keep having the same set of negative experiences at jobs repeatedly, you really need to consider the possibility that you're the problem. You certainly seem to feel superior to your colleagues, when in reality there are loads of graduates doing the type of job you're doing and not having the problems you're having. Your negative, superior attitude is obvious online, it must be insufferable in real life.

yes, I do get shit wherever I work because as soon as I relax, I say something that reveals education, experience, ability or a wider viewpoint than a small-minded colleague, and then I get the made up mistakes, the nasty comments etc etc. Its not new, and its not because I'm nasty to them, its just what small-time people are like. Its odd because its a well-known phenomenon, but everyone still makes out I'm completely bizarre for experiencing it.

I've worked in several jobs for which I was - still am - overqualified and often better educated than other people of my level or more senior. Bizarrely, no one has ever made up mistakes I have supposedly made, or made nasty comments. Probably because I don't have a shitty attitude to the world and everyone in it.

Either you've been incredibly unlucky or the common thread is you, OP. The latter seems most likely.

Shatners, wind your neck in.

society has very very sophisticated ways to prevent poor people from making money quickly. Incredibly aggressive and shaoe-shifting ways

I am not poor but I have no idea how to make money (do you mean on the scale of £20,000?) quickly.

I have never asked a utility company to put off a bill for me, something you seem to feel that was completely normal when you were earning £24,000. I don't really understand your point about this to be honest. Why did you see utilitity bills as flexible? I have always paid the bills first and lived on what was left, it's a fairly standard approach on most income levels.

I don't much understand your shoe inventory point either. I don't think I own more, certainly not many more, pairs of shoes than you. Some of them are over ten years old, plenty are around the five year mark, lots were bought in sales. Some of my clothes can be aged in decades instead of years. I rarely buy clothes now and I tend to shop for clothes in supermarkets these days. How I'm dressed is lower down the list of financial priorities at the moment but I've never considered shoplifting the type of clothes I'd like to buy!

I suspect that from the outside I might be at the lower end of people you are justifying stealing from but I don't see why I would deserve it.

I sort of know what you mean. There are people living in poverty - genuine, awful poverty - in this country. I wouldn't advocate crime, but my heart always breaks when I see someone up in court in the paper for stealing £10 of shopping.

It just seems a waste to prosecute them. Nobody is stealing that kind of food to sell on. They're stealing it because they're hungry.