Jump to content

Signing on!


bells0
 Share

Recommended Posts

A few decades back I was made redundant having paid £3k+ ni for about 10 years ( remember that was 20 years ago) I had £20k life time savings and went to the dole.

Now if I'd only had £6k or so I'd have got a full fat claim, dole and (I think it was called) "supplementary benefit".

So I asked if I could spend £15k on a car for national job interviews and thus qualify for full fat. The response was that I should have bought the car before attending interview.

I would imagine there's something in the system about hiding assets, mostly with the words "will fully", so be careful about what you do with money, and if you do start playing hide hope they don't start playing seek:grin:

Buy some gold on the credit card, then tell them your savings will have a big hit because you have to clear the credit cards. Your savings drop down and you have something of cash value that is outside the system checks. Not that the very same actions explain why I did own gold coin once, or twice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • Replies 86
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Hey mate

Since finishing at the Family firm 31st March, i got married mid April and honeymooned in luxury in Tenerife.

So was back to Earth with a bump in May. Got 3 interviews in May for Finance/Accounting roles, no luck. 2 more in June, the last being a temp position at an educational software co.

Pay not great [scraping through, just, but i'm not hitting the savings] but it beats not being on the scrounge!! Still on the look out for a perm position, but this is for 3 months, possibly more. Is quite a change from the dirty manufacturing background of the family business. Clean offices, jeans and tee to work - is a cool environment, just a shame the pay is average - though it seems any accounting position aint great pay unless you are heading into a Director/top management position.

Redundancy pay was spent on a car - a Prius!! - actually ashamed to say i quite like driving an auto, and trying to get as much mpg as poss!!:o

Cheers for asking +++

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey mate

just a shame the pay is average - though it seems any accounting position aint great pay unless you are heading into a Director

Cheers for asking +++

Pick up good skills on Sage and there's plenty of firms that will pay £200-£300 a day, weekly or monthly. VAT, mgmt accts, reports.

With the way the banks and HMRC are trying to bite anyone that doesn't do things straight down the line on the book keeping and accounts side, there has never been a better time for the correct accounting skills.

Wifey has trained two young girls with basic booking keeping skills in various Sage products and they have doubled their hourly rates in the last year. She still overloads them, but as a ACCA partner she has bigger fees to make doing Corp accts, Co House stuff and fighting with HMRC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apologies, I didn't realise you weren't getting paid for the notice period then yes you will be able to claim immediately.

One thing I learned to do was bite my tongue as some of the people at the JCP treat you like a piece of sh*t as they are used to scroungers. The are unbelievably patrronising and don't care what you're experience is. They just want you to write a note in their stupid form to tell them what you are doing each day to find a job.

Good luck mate and I hope you find something soon.

I believe MrMe is looking for people but I've heard the holidays are not very good

This... I've never done it, fortunately, but Mrs TSpark has. It was a horrible experience for her - and we soon learned that the assistance runs out very quickly for anyone where there's a 2nd wage earner in the household.

The major frustration for us was that the money ran out whilst I was seriously ill in critical care, which just added to the stress.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hehehe - live between Leeds and Bradford. Have thought about doing the self employed book keeping thing. Sage Line 100 was my bread and butter for 15 years, and now getting good experience of how Line 50 and 200 works.

Twinspark - yeah, the whole jobseekers signing on was a pretty horrible experience. Especially as mine was the Bradford city centre office. Saw some real characters! TBH though, the staff were pretty good with me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nipped out of my temp job for an interview Wed morning. Got the job!

Now Financial Controller for a local engineering and construction company. Sounds like i'll have my work cut out as the boss doesnt seem to have a clue whats going on financially, but at least it's a full time job! Pay aint great but i've been promised a review after 6 months.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nipped out of my temp job for an interview Wed morning. Got the job!

Now Financial Controller for a local engineering and construction company. Sounds like i'll have my work cut out as the boss doesnt seem to have a clue whats going on financially, but at least it's a full time job! Pay aint great but i've been promised a review after 6 months.

Excellent news, really pleased for you.+++

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know this seems to be sorted now - but a tip on the old dole...

If your other half is working and can cover the main bills - house, heat, food... only 'sign up' for CONTRIBUTION based JSA.

Income based means they crawl all over your finances and savings and everything - the end result is usually a big fat nowt - unless you really are a bum with nowt, then you get everything - JSA, Housing, Crisis loans etc.

Be careful the way you go if you ever go down that route!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did piss me off, that, given that I put in a hell of a lot more than they were handing out when things were a bit dodgy for us.

That's government for you! It's not your money, it's theirs, they think you should be glad to get anything back out of the money they took from you.

Congrats to bells0, though, very good news.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hardly think that's some great secret!

The problem with contribution based is that it runs out pretty quickly.

Did piss me off, that, given that I put in a hell of a lot more than they were handing out when things were a bit dodgy for us.

Yip, only lasts for 26 weeks and is only based on your last 2 years NI contributions. So effectively, you could have paid NI for 30 years or 2 years, it makes no difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Embarrassed to say it's not looking good, and i think i'm going to have to rethink the job - which is annoying as i gave up a Temp job i was enjoying.

Company is in a mess. Boss, who hasn't even shown his face yet, sounds like he hasn't got a clue what's going on. Lady trying to teach me everything in a week has told me all sorts of stories of him flying off the handle.

Also, found out it has a big voluntary arrangement hanging over it, and i've overheard her desperately trying to fend off creditors as the cash flow is so bad.

I'm still pretty shook up by my Families business going into liquidation, and i don't want to put myself through that again - because i've been told that the MD wont support me, he is a salesman, that's it. A £4 mill turnover company relies on 1 person to sort the fiances and the payroll - if i were off sick, they wouldn't get paid.

And to top it off, apart from the current financial controller who is leaving, not 1 other person has spoken, or even smiled at me.

Feel ashamed that i' gonna walk out, but i'm not working for average pay, to be treated like crap and deal with angry suppliers. Sorry gang, back on the dole for me. Feel a lot more confident after the last month of bagging the temp and perm job that it shouldn't be too long before i'm working again...................:sauer:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...