C'est la vie

I'll warn you first off that this is a rant. A blog
rant. A blant.

I've never given too much thought about so-called scroungers and benefit cheats, I just know that I want to do the best I can to pay my own way, but that I've been a taxpayer since I was 17 and so I'm entitled to some help if I need it. My prolonged period of 'unemployment' has, however, given me a new perspective. I now believe that scroungers and benefit cheats must be the cleverest people in the world - how they manage to get money to live on from such a complex and obstructive system has to be a work of genius.

Here's the thing: I'm currently working 15 hours per week. I'm still classed as a jobseeker, because you have to be working over 16 hours per week to be classed as having a job. I'm paid more than the benefits I'd receive, so I don't receive any (though my income is still low, so I qualify for help with Council Tax, and Thomas gets free school meals. Well, free school meals as long as he only wants something that costs £1.85 or less, but I'm not quibbling with that...). Every 2 weeks I go to sign on at the Job Centre (or, to be correct, Job Centre Plus. I don't think this is like a deluxe Job Centre or anything - I think they're all called that. I expect there was some expensive 'rebranding' a few years ago...). Now, even though I don't get benefit, I still sign on because it means my National Insurance is covered so I - in theory - won't have to worry if I'm unable to work in the future through ill health or disability. Though, as I'm self-employed, I pay some National Insurance to cover my pension, so part of it is being paid twice. Oh, and if I do go back to work (i.e. work one more hour per week) I get a Job Grant to help pay for my power suits, or something. (Incidentally, this used to be called the Back to Work Bonus, but it also got rebranded, apparently, some time during the last 6 months...) And I nearly forgot, I can also get half-price train travel. Which is nice. But I haven't claimed that because I don't need it, even though you don't have to need it to claim it.

So, anyhoo. Last week I took the half term off and Thomas and I went to France, to visit friends. As luck would have it, the trip coincided with a sign on day, so I had to tell them I couldn't sign on because I'd be away. (This has happened before when I went on holiday last year but, as I was staying in the country and was still looking for work while I was away [wink] I could just be excused from signing. The [wink] was not mine by the way, but the Job Centre Plus lady's.) This time round, because I was leaving the country, I had to sign off. I filled in a form to tell them I was only signing off because I was out of the country for a week, but apparently that doesn't filter through. The first working day I was back I had to sign on again - something called a 'rapid reclaim' - hah!

So, since I've been back I've had 5 separate (first class) letters from the Department of Work and Pensions relating to the fact that I've signed off, including a P45.

I've had to have a 15-minute telephone interview about the reason I'm signing on again and to check whether any of my circumstances have changed.

I've had to have a 45 minute interview at the Job Centre Plus to go over the same information from the telephone interview and to reschedule my fortnightly signing on. We also re-visited my 'Jobseeker Agreement' that I have to adhere to so that I qualify for Jobseeker benefit that I don't get because I'm earning. This, incidentally, is a Jobseeker Agreement that had been updated in another interview I'd had the week before I went away.

Now today I have received a letter from the council that my Council Tax benefit has been suspended because they have reason to believe I shouldn't be getting it. Presumably (and hopefully) this is because it's filtered through to them that I'd signed off and it hasn't yet filtered through that I'd signed on again. I admit that it didn't occur to me to phone the council and tell them my travel plans...

I totally understand that measures are needed to prevent cheating, but this seems so extreme. After all, I told them when I'd be away and I could have just gone and signed on again as soon as I was back. The week I was away would rightly not have qualified for Jobseeker benefit - but I don't get any anyway! And, my understanding is that if you go on holiday in the UK, you can have up to two weeks a year when you don't have to be actively jobseeking, i.e. a holiday! Considering I had milk in my fridge from before I went away that was still in date, it seems that the amount of paper, postage and time that has been used up is totally disproportionate.

However, I will look at it from the perspective that I am creating employment whilst still not getting benefit and paying tax and NI. I should go on holiday more often...

Blant over. End of blant. Thank you.