Money... Money... Money

It's been a strangely serine couple of weeks where one of the few things of note are several occurrences where people want to give us money...

Now before you all get too excited and start putting up the bunting and celebrating our financial freedom, I must point out that it hasn't been life changing amounts of money, but money none the less.

First to arrive was a letter from my motor insurance company explaining that I had more no claims bonus than I had originally declared and therefore my premium was less than quoted and they would like to refund £10.15 into my account. A welcome gesture as our evening meal that night was looking decidedly grim. There are only so many ways of cooking beans on toast afterall.

Next, but not without two weeks on continuing battles with the Benefits Agency, we received some Jobseekers Allowance. Not as much as I'd been led to believe we would be receiving, but it was a start. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, that despite informing HMRC on the day we became unemployed that we no longer wished to claim 'Working Tax Credit', we were entitled to something they call 'over run' and we would still be receiving working tax credit for a few more weeks. Clearly the benefits agency, as inept as they are, managed to get this information and subsequently deducted the amount from our JSA. So what's the problem, our JSA plus our tax credit over run should equal the total amount we're entitled to, shouldn't it? Unfortunately we weren't that lucky. Our working tax credit goes into the account of a bank with whom we have defaulted on a personal loan and they were quick to grab everything that went in there. So there's lesson one for today. If you claim JSA and cancel working tax credit, make sure you can still access any over run.

Finally, I contacted the local council to enquire about our council tax benefit claim and was informed that we were to receive FULL benefit and had nothing to pay for the rest of the year providing our circumstances didn't change of course. Whilst this was good news, the even better news was that we had already overpaid by £210 and where would I like the refund sending.

Woo Hoo! We're positively rich...

So what else is there to report? My battle with Virgin Mobile continues. They refuse to communicate with me in writing, whilst I refuse to communicate with them by phone because they suspended my service and therefore technically I have no phone with which to communicate with them. Just fired off yet another letter pointing this out and asking if they could find their way to responding to my requests in writing, but I hold little hope for this to happen and suspect it will be in the hands of a Debt Collection Agency before long.

My wife and I also made the decision last week to work with the local Citizens Advice Bureau in the first instance regarding our debt crisis. We have looked at all the alternative ways of tackling the debt issues and there may be some out there that raise an eyebrow at using CAB, so let me qualify our reasoning.

The internet generally is a wonderful thing as we all know. Having spent many, many hours during the past few months trawling a whole variety of resources, it came down to one of the following options.

1. Just go it alone with no help from anyone.
2. Use the experience and knowledge of one or more debt forums, getting help and advice from people who had been there, done it and bought the rather tacky t shirt.
3. Use one of the few respected debt charities that exist.
4. Use the Citizens Advice Bureau.

So why our decision to go with CAB? After all, I had read in many forums how useless CAB had been in certain areas. I had read real world experiences of others who had felt let down by CAB's knowledge and aptitude. Well there were two reasons to be honest. When I had to approach CAB about another issue a few weeks back, the service I received was impeccable. They were clearly knowledgeable on the subject at hand, they were professional in the way they dealt with it, they didn't judge either myself or my wife and they showed genuine interest and sympathy for our situation. But I hear you cry, that doesn't mean they're any use when it comes to dealing with debt matters. You're quite correct it doesn't except that by a strange coincidence I happened upon a friend who I hadn't seen in a while who has been using CAB as his preferred source of support for a couple of years now and genuinely believes they have changed his life after spending the previous seven years sinking deeper and deeper into the brown smelly stuff. He couldn't speak more highly of the service he has received, but he did have one caveat. It was important that we got hooked up with the right debt counsellor. It turns out there are three counsellors in our local bureau and one in particular has a bit of a reputation, and I mean a GOOD reputation, for tackling creditors. I thought this may cause a problem if I asked for a specific person to deal with our case, but not at all. They were more than happy to team us up. Maybe we've made the wrong decision, maybe we haven't, only time will tell. I feel safe in the knowledge that if it doesn't work out with CAB I have other options to fall back on and hopefully not too much damage will have been done. Our first meeting with our debt counsellor is on 19th June and I'll let you all know how we got on.

Things are still bleak on the job front. In the last two weeks I have applied for a job as a key cutter, a job on the parts counter for a motorbike shop, a job as a sessional worker for the local Youth Offending Team and a job as a driver moving new cars from ferries to compounds ready for distribution around the country. Net result so far? Nothing, not a letter, not a phone call, not a 'thank you for your application but you're to old as we only want to employ 16 year olds to whom we can pay £3.50 an hour'. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but after working continuously for 32 years you do tend to think you're maybe worth something to someone, alas it would seem not.

We are progressing with our application to become professional foster carers and had our first assessment session yesterday. Despite my being professionally involved with fostering agencies for many years, actually being assessed to be a carer is quite a daunting prospect. The assessment at times gets very personal, though what the size of my 'manhood' has got to do with anything I don't exactly know. It's a slow old process though and realistically I can't see it becoming an income stream for at least another six months.

Generally speaking we're both fairly contented at the moment. Closing the shop, as sad as it was, lifted a huge weight off our shoulders and we've only just come to realise how much of a stress it was causing us. Of course we have a whole bunch of new stresses to contend with now, but they say change is as good as a rest. My biggest enemy at the moment is the mind numbing boredom I suffer everyday from being unemployed. I try to keep busy, but when you get up at 5am every day, you soon run out of things to keep you occupied. On a positive note, I clearly still have all my sensibilities as I have yet to succumb to the banality and cringworthy SHITE that is 'Jeremy Kyle'


Well that's all folks! 

Let's see what the coming days bring in the rather mundane lives of a couple on their 'Journey to Financial Freedom'