Is there any financial help for someone like me?

[bjygdrgd]

I ran a charity on a shoe string salary for the last 6 years. We have now ran out of cash to pay myself and theres nothing left for me at the end of each month. I have tried and failed to find work for the last four months. I do own a flat and a have a pot of savings above £15k but no income.

My savings have gone down from £30k to £17k in the last two years and it scares me to watch them decline more. What sort of help is there for me?

With 16k or more of savings, none.

Have you tried seeking work through an agency or asking in bars, cafes and restaurants?

If you’ve got £16k savings then none, you’re expected to live off your savings instead of using public money. You may get job seekers possibly.

What work are you looking for? There’s lots of openings in supermarkets, restaurants and care work at the moment.

Register with agencies and get some temp work. There are normally lots on offer if you’re open minded and willing to do anything. If you’re not being paid anything from the charity then anything is better than nothing. You won’t be able to claim benefits whilst you have money in the bank to live on though and JSA is very low.

Have you closed the charity down now?

Why can’t you get a job?

Op says "tried and failed to find a job for 4 months"

I would also echo sign up to agency/temp for employment

Have you been making NI contributions?
If so, 6 months of contribution based JSA won’t be impacted by savings. But you would need to be looking for work so I’m not sure how your employment status with your charity would impact that - if you’d need to be officially made redundant?

I have about £5k more invested in stocks so I assume that will be included in the £16k?

I have avoided cafe, supermarket and bar work as it's really not what I want to do I think I would only do it if I was desperate.

And you are not desperate now? There will be jobs working for other charities who might appreciate your experience and transferrable skills

https://www.charityjob.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAbieBhDSARIsADU4zLfOY5oCNEZCkusVy5HePdqWjqUQkFFl3eBggv81NJToFcI9oLpRw5UaAsiZEALwwcB

Surely you are desperate now if you’re looking for help? You’re not going to get benefit money when you have that amount of saving a plus extra in shares, and a property. You’re available for work so go and get a job even if it’s not what you want to do, or live of your good amount of savings.

You don’t get to claim JSA and/or UC just because there are jobs you don’t fancy.
Focus on why you’re not getting jobs in the sector you want. Are you looking in too narrow a field or area?

I have a leg injury that means I need to remain seated most of the day. It doesn't mean I can't work just that it would be very painful to do these jobs where I have to walk around a lot.

Ok then what about supermarket check outs, call centre work or delivery driver if you can drive?

Try charityjob website. All the jobs say if wfh etc and if you worked for a charity then ot might be a good place to start.

If you've paid NI contributions over the past 2-3 years then you can claim new style JSA. It is £77 a week and you are expected to look for work. Easy to apply for online at The Gov.uk site.

If you're looking for work, you'll be entitled to UC as a jobseeker. The amount you get will be reduced because you have savings of over £6k, but you should still be entitled to some money; if you pay rent, you definitely will.

Entitled To online calculator will be able to give you accurate figures.

This is crazy - OP has savings and doesn’t fancy the jobs available in her area but is still entitled to money?

Look at grants available for you personally and for your charity. There are all sorts of grants some like for being a parent of a teacher or going to a certain school or being from a specific community or religion.
There might be council grants going or community funds. Look at fundraising methods or advertising for volunteers.
I think you need to separate your personal finances from the charity otherwise it's not good for taxes.

If she applied for new style ( contributions based ESA ) which is all she can apply for with savings over 16k, then they would push her to look for work. She would need to show evidence of 35 hours of job searching a week.

There’s no such thing as just checkout work, from what I know, most supermarket staff are expected to do checkouts, shelf stack, loading/unloading. And many, many have fewer and fewer checkouts as they move to self service tills.

No, it's not crazy. Anyone who has paid enough national insurance contributions can get 6 months' worth of benefits if they lose their job. You pay into the system, you get something out. It's only 77 quid a week, hardly a King's ransom and will just about cover the gas and electric for a few months.

I don’t think anyone said that?