Being unemployed is shite

[Salka]

Fuck being unemployed, holy shit.

Not only was it a nause to sign up for unemployment benefits in the first place, which is only to be expected, but I kept getting told false or confused information by government people throughout... my partner can claim, my partner can't claim. I'm not elligible for benefit, no wait, I am. Whoops we accidentally forgot to pay you any benefit at all for the past six weeks. etc.

Besides that, even though I informed them ages ago that my partner got a new job, they kept paying me rent money which, naturally, I kept paying the rent with. Now the council just slapped me with a £700 bill for money they "overpaid" me. Not only was the amount of money they thought they'd paid me incorrect - the actual sum overpaid was £450 - but they announced that if I don't pay it by the end of the month they'll take legal action against me. As though I am purposely attempting to swindle them or something, when in fact I told them about my change of circumstances, they kept paying me, and I kept using the fucking money they gave me to pay the rent because that's what the money is fucking for.

They informed me of this all by sending me an envelope about half an inch thick, full of meaningless bits of paper with random numbers added and subtracted with the end conclusion being:

£21.50 - £0.00 = minus £1124.

Meanwhile the jobseekers people still haven't paid me any jobseekers allowance in about six weeks. So what with the council demanding £700 back, only £450 of which they ever gave me, and Jobseekers accidentally forgetting to give me any money at all, what the fuck. What are these people doing?!??

[syntheticgerbil]

You could just not pay them back. It's worth a shot. Maybe even create a ruckus and you'll be off the hook. I don't know anything about the law over there.

[SignorSuperdouche]

Sounds pretty goddamned awful

The best suggestion I can give is get down to your local CAB and see what they say. They might be able to get a letter sent to the council from a law firm, which is often enough to get things sorted on its own.

[Erkki]

Argh.. that sucks.

[Nachimir]

:(

Like Signor says, Citizen's Advice Bureau is probably your best call.

[ThunderPeel2001]

If you can prove you informed them of your change in status, I don't see how they can demand anything from you.

[brkl]

They can, and they will. These things are fucking nasty. Of course, they can't demand more from you than they actually gave you. But yeah, get advice.

[Ginger]

Shouldn't the title of this be "Being on benefits is shite", if u are not too proud to mooch off your folks/partner (and fortunate enough to be in the position) being unemployed can be awesome.

[SignorSuperdouche]

If you can prove you informed them of your change in status, I don't see how they can demand anything from you.

Whilst I agree that that would be reasonable, it is sadly not the case.

being unemployed can be awesome.

It can be for a bit, but I've been unemployed for nigh on a year now and it gets pretty soul destroying after a while.

[Nachimir]

It can be for a bit, but I've been unemployed for nigh on a year now and it gets pretty soul destroying after a while.

I can add to this chorus, having once spent a couple of years unemployed and basically feeling worthless. Don't let the bastards get you down Rusalka, you're capable and smart whether the job market sucks or not.

[James]

Yeah, I was "between jobs" for over eighteen months before my current one, and whilst I'm lazy enough to enjoy that in theory, I always felt too guilty to take full advantage of it, so I ended up wasting a whole load of time (more so than usual). When things started getting really dire I settled for a fine-but-less-than-stellar job, which is where I am now (right now). I feel like I need to move on to something with more prospects, but I hate looking for work and I have no idea what I want or am able to do. Hooray for inertia!

Anyway, the best of luck with your respective searches.