A Visit To The Job Center - Dear God !

[Guest มร หล&#3]

I was always neither. I am bearish on house prices short term, and bullish on house prices long term. Neither is the only appropriate setting.

I'll change it to Bull early next year.

Same as that. But early 2010 is way too soon. Don't forget it's land price not house price.

Edited June 15, 2009 by มร หลบเลี่ยง

[douggggy]

and another thing................

` because I was self-employed, I was entitled to nothing..........`

THEN YOU GET A JOB IN McDONALD`S (FOR A DAY) BEFORE YOU CLAIM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

What's so wrong with job centres? And with claiming benefits? Job centres advertise jobs don't they? And £60 a week is better than nothing if you're on the breadline.

And god only knows what you apply for when you're looking for a job, but a decent job can take many months to land from first interview to final offer.

Edited June 15, 2009 by gruffydd

[R K]

It barely seems worth the hassle for £60 a week.

On the positive side she has around 18 months savings, but given her age, over £30K in debts and £145k mortgage looks pretty unsustainable doesn't it?

Some difficult choices and hard pruning look to be in order. Those debts could very quickly run out of control and the interest will suck up her savings. She needs debt counselling pretty sharpish i would suggest, and possibly get the bulk of those savings "offline" just in case. Unless she's expecting quite a decent income it's difficult to see how the numbers stack up.

[Johnny Storm]

Go back again and say that she was so muddled by the stress of it, she said £29,000 when she meant £2,900.

[US Citizen]

How can paying off debts be disposal of savings?

Wasnt there a facinating suggestion on this forum about going self employed making no money and claiming tax credits to make up the difference? Do they take savings into account?

Though I would say she has a lot of debt for someone of her age, which is crazy that she has savings to pay off credit cards / loans. Why would someone take out a loan or have a massive credit card balance when they can pay it off?

It is annoying that we are forced to pay for insurance that wont pay out for us.

It does seem, that we may have been naive, in not wanting to commit benefits fraud by not disclosing savings, but to be honest, we didnt know if they could check it out or not. We have seen the adverts on TV regarding how they can find out information like this and she is 100% straight up honest. Its seems our honesty with them has led to our friend being led up the garden path.

She will no doubt get the correct information from Citizens Advice and go through the ordeal again.

[dubsie]

You should never admit having savings to any government body....they can't check and anyone who says differently is full of poop. Hide your money in savings accounts and have a general account with a float of just £500.00...the tax man won't find out believe me. I have several off shore accounts where I hold all my savings and I spread the risk so I'm covered by the EU scheme.

[Johnny Storm]

You should never admit having savings to any government body....they can't check and anyone who says differently is full of poop. Hide your money in savings accounts and have a general account with a float of just £500.00...the tax man won't find out believe me. I have several off shore accounts where I hold all my savings and I spread the risk so I'm covered by the EU scheme.

The trouble I have with this one, is all my savings accounts want to link to my current account. So i have large sums moving through them as I close one savings account and move to others.

This of course only matters if they ask to see bank statements? Is that likely?

Edited June 15, 2009 by Johnny Storm

[kzb]

I agree with most others on here: if her employment and national insurance record is as we are told, she should be able to get non-means tested unemployment benefit for 6 months, irrespective of savings.

She should get the interest on the mortgage paid after 9 months (not the capital part of the payment though), provided her savings are low enough by then.

Someone made a good point above: how can paying off debt be counted as disposing of assets? I'd seek (independent) advice on this point. I'd be interested in the answer.

[Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

Will they find your savings? I suspect not.

I remember the TV licensing neurosis back in the 80s - even remember a van in my friggin street. Now it's been divulged that they had no monitoring equipment in them whatsoever, just a fake 'scanner dish' glued on the outside. Sometimes a makeshift bed so the driver could have a rest if needs be.

Edited June 15, 2009 by gruffydd

[SNACR]

You should never admit having savings to any government body....they can't check and anyone who says differently is full of poop. Hide your money in savings accounts and have a general account with a float of just £500.00...the tax man won't find out believe me. I have several off shore accounts where I hold all my savings and I spread the risk so I'm covered by the EU scheme.

HMRC have been having a big fishing expedition on offshore accounts, I think.

____

General rule with public bodies, police etc. Is don't disclose anything, if you disclose it they have to act. If you don't disclose the person processing doesn't care, disclosure means they have to act and probably extra work.

[HouseDog]

Might be worth a look: http://benefits-adviser.direct.gov.uk/index.html

However, the best advise will come from those who know the system.

[athom]

Though I would say she has a lot of debt for someone of her age, which is crazy that she has savings to pay off credit cards / loans. Why would someone take out a loan or have a massive credit card balance when they can pay it off?

Yeah what the hell is that all about?

Are we so relaxed about debt we can forget it and still feel a warm glow from seeing a lesser amount in our savings account earning less interest than we're paying on the debt worlds gone mad

[US Citizen]

There have been some absolutely first class responses and post on this thread and you have my gratitude.

It seems, before you make the call or apply online for Benefits, some homework has to be done, some assets have to be moved and some white lies have to be told.

In addition, I would recommend this to anybody who finds themselves in this position to make photocopies of all the paperwork you submit. You need to keep your lies consistant.

I will update this thread as news comes in as to what is happening.

Thanks for all the very constructive replies. There some good people on here.

[US Citizen]

Yeah what the hell is that all about?

Are we so relaxed about debt we can forget it and still feel a warm glow from seeing a lesser amount in our savings account earning less interest than we're paying on the debt worlds gone mad

I can answer this for her. She always pays off the minimum balance each month and didnt want to pay off all of her debts with her savings before she was laid off, because she wanted a safety net.

I wouldnt do it myself, but people have some funny ways at looking a debt, like they think as long as it is being paid off, its not a problem you need to worry about.

[athom]

I wouldnt do it myself, but people have some funny ways at looking a debt, like they think as long as it is being paid off, its not a problem you need to worry about.

Yep, world gone mad. Who has 20-30k in account and buys a car on credit? Answer: Probably nearly everyone.

On the other issues i don't think telling "white lies" is possible to the government, it's a little more black and white than that to them.

The people who get away with it do it with studied planning, and then make it sound simple. The ones who follow in a more haphazard way are more likely to get caught and with so many new applicants they'll be looking for a few people to make examples of most likely.

I'm not a gold bug by any means and i don't think now's a good time to buy etc but i can't help thinking it would be unlikely the tax man would come and count the gold bars between your floorboards? Bought anonymously for cash in sub 5k quantities of course.

[R K]

I can answer this for her. She always pays off the minimum balance each month and didnt want to pay off all of her debts with her savings before she was laid off, because she wanted a safety net.

I wouldnt do it myself, but people have some funny ways at looking a debt, like they think as long as it is being paid off, its not a problem you need to worry about.

Well, depending what the debts are, she may be able to get the interest charges suspended and repay a nominal £1 a month for a period, perhaps until she finds another job or 6 months. The trouble with this is that it means notifying her creditors and she may not wish to do this. However it may buy her time. If things were not to work out well (let's hope they do!!) then in the unlikely event she may have to go bankrupt in the future (I'm thinking worst case here sorry, so bear with me) the official receiver is usually only interested in the last 2 years bank statements. So, keeping that £30k in savings away from her day to day bank statements, somewhere safe, and using cash as much as possible, helps avoid obvious paper trails. Bank statements are a dead giveaway because they show every direct debit payment, automated transfer, large purchases or transfer to other people etc. Use cash as far as possible and keep funds in different places.

http://www.cccs.co.uk for free practical debt advice.

[Guest redwine]

you did help a very upset 56 year old friend of your wife go to the jobcentre which is a good thing in its self well done

i am sure that he or her know that when your over 50 its going to be very hard to find a job

[Greg Bowman]

How do they know what savings you have got if you don't state them?

They get the figures from all mainstream institutions on a regular basis.

[grizzly bear]

1 House with mortgage (145,000 approx) outstanding.

£29,000 in savings

Car on finance £12,000

Credit card debts/Loans outstanding £20,000 approx

well how totally stupid can someone be, having "savings" of £29,000 but debt of £32,000???

she's been taxed on the savings income AND presumably paid a much worse rate on the credit cards etc that she got on the savings.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

I'd like to know if they can demand to see details of a claimants bank/current account.

Also if you declare your savings you can claim contributory JSA for 6 months, but does that also hold for Council Tax and Housing Benefit?

[Johnny Storm]

I can answer this for her. She always pays off the minimum balance each month and didnt want to pay off all of her debts with her savings before she was laid off, because she wanted a safety net.

Jesus, how much must she be paying in interest???

Oh well, Its probably gonna be good, use the savings to pay off the credit cards / loans. Which should take her below the amount of savings she is allowed.

[grizzly bear]

You should never admit having savings to any government body....they can't check and anyone who says differently is full of poop. Hide your money in savings accounts and have a general account with a float of just £500.00...the tax man won't find out believe me. I have several off shore accounts where I hold all my savings and I spread the risk so I'm covered by the EU scheme.

not necessariy out of reach - currently HMRC are writing to all banks with any of sort of UK presence asking them to disclose details of people with offshore accounts. they are often the tax of course.

[Pindar]

How can paying off debts be disposal of savings?

Wasnt there a facinating suggestion on this forum about going self employed making no money and claiming tax credits to make up the difference? Do they take savings into account?

Though I would say she has a lot of debt for someone of her age, which is crazy that she has savings to pay off credit cards / loans. Why would someone take out a loan or have a massive credit card balance when they can pay it off?

It is annoying that we are forced to pay for insurance that wont pay out for us.

It seems the system is rigged to ensure the bankers' interests are looked after, even if you find yourself without a job.

[Johnny Storm]

i am sure that he or her know that when your over 50 its going to be very hard to find a job

I think it depends on the person and the role. I sure wouldnt be employing a woman of breeding age, would be crazy. Unless of course I wanted a pretty dolly on the reception say.