A collection of odds and ends

[annwfyn]

I remember last night talking to someone (unless I was hallucinating) about Typhoid Mary.

Well, I've found the wikipedia entry about her, which also has quite a good explanation on disease carriers - those who can be infected with a disease without showing any symptoms.

I'm also pondering something I've read in various places, which is that most people in the UK are only two pay cheques away from being homeless. I've discussed this with pierot and ksirafai in the past, and they've disagreed with me. Jez, in particular, feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights for that to happen to you. While I can see the truth in this, going through my own current financial situation I think I can see that losing two pay cheques might not cause outright homelessness straight out, but it must make it so much easier in the long run to wind up homeless or in trouble, as you delay paying bills, maybe fall into arrears with your rent which you then can't afford to pay back even if you do get a new job/salary, mess about with your credit rating, which then makes it harder to get any loans or anything which could get you back on track.

I'm nowhere near that state - I'm just realising that in putting off bills, having to use my credit card due to lack of income etc, for the time period where pierot was starting a new job, I've now got a slighly uncomfortable backlog of bills that I didn't have before. Considering how comfortable I was at the start of July of this year, that's slightly scary, and it's made me feel rather more sympathetic to those who do get themselves into a real state.

Comments

Homeless? Not quite, but nearly...

[adze.livejournal.com]

I pay out over 70% of my income over a month, just on bills and living expenses, like rent. Note that this doesn't include eating. The rest, I spend over the course of the month, on stuff like food, getting places, and doing stuff. Leaving me nothing left at the end to save.

My credit rating doesn't allow me to get loans, credit cards, or even an overdraft.

If I'm out of work for two months, I'm in a very, very dire financial situation, and will be unable to catch up. Ever.

I might not be homeless after the first two months, but I'd be really, really close.

The idea of changing jobs, and the month without pay, scares the hell out of me.

[sea-cucumber.livejournal.com]

I would not be homeless, but that's because I live in my parents' house. Otherwise I would be homeless within 1 pay cheque I expect :)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I pay out almost 100% of my income every month in mortgage, bills, loan repayments and food.

Missing two pay cheques would take me right to the end of my overdraft.

Yeah, I have mortgage insurance to pay my mortgage, and I could get JSA, which would feed me and the cats.

Inability to pay my electric, gas, and water bills would at least mean the bailiffs were cold and uncomfortable when they came to take my car away, I suppose.

After I lost my car, of course, I'd be fucked.

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

The trick is to live with students, use public transport and not have a credit card. Once these criteria are met, you can fill your bathtub up with fivers and roll around in it singing Material Girl, or at the very least save six months worth of salary and stick it in a high interest savings account.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Public transport isn't necessarily cheaper.

The main expense of a car is the initial outlay. Me being a spoilt brat meant I got to buy a car outright a couple of years ago, and since then I've found that as long as I always car share, it's actually slightly cheaper for me + passengers to pay petrol costs as opposed to train fares. Having said that, that only really applies for long journeys - I use the tube to get around inner London.

Credit cards are evil. And I can't get rid of mine til I've paid the damn thing off. Having said that, it kept me + jez alive through most of December.

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

I'm in fairly dire financial straights which my goal of being out of this year will be missed, but should be done in the first 6 months of 2008. The reason for that was moving to Birmingham and the time i was out of work here for - wasn't able to get housing benefit and JSA doesn't go far enough for that AND bills AND...

If i were to be out of work now i might be able to survive for 1 month, because my creditor repayments SHOULD be dealt with by the insurance on it, but month 2 would see me having to move to Oxford and in with family (assuming they'd have me) and without any cash at all.

Jez, [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights for that to happen

[adze.livejournal.com]

Hang on. If I don't pay rent, I don't have the right to live where I do.

Theoretically, I can get by using up the security deposit for, I suppose, 3 months. But that would use up my housemates' deposits as well, so I'm not sure how that would work out.

After that, I'm out on my ear.

Re: Jez, [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights for that to happen

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

mybe he just means that if you are renting, and default on say, jan rent. the landlord may not realise/you blag until a few eeeks pass, then landlord says pay now or get out in one month.

ergo, roughly two months of still living somewhere, albeit in dire straits with your enraged landlord.

I have to say that If I missed even one month I would be a goner, and back home with the parentals. I have had too many spates of non-working in recent years to have any leeway at all. Moving also hurts the pocket alot, especially when followed by a few month non-work doom. I am just about coping now though, yay, and if I get my job on friday, will actually be solvent in a few months. (by solvent I mean my incoming will be different to my outgoing, currently they are sadly fairly similar amounts!) Eeee the glee!

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[ksirafai.livejournal.com]

Jez commented that this is one of the problems people have; they assume there's no help available. Check with the Citizens' Advice Bureau, banks and any financial advisors can offer a lot of other options.

Housing benefit (http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/help_with_your_rent_-_housing_benefit.htm), general benefits info (http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits.htm) and everything else on the tabs on the left are some of the resources available. It's not just you and your money; you pay NI and so forth and do deserve some privileges from it.

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

dudes, housing benefit is by no means extensive, nor is job seekers allowance, i know, i lived on it for ages and ages when i was 24/25.

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[ksirafai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fair dos. On the other hand, it's better than nothing... Both give a support network that, while not perfect, at least means you can stay housed and fed. Barely. There's also legal gumph about housing that, to be honest, I don't know - but Jez was ranting for half an hour about the options.

Ultimately, I'm not two months from homelessness. I'm two months from extreme discomfort and relying on handouts from the government, but I can get by for a while on bits and pieces. The fact that you managed for more than the two-paychecks suggests it can be so... :)

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

at that point i had some leeway and 'rents able to help and a non maxed credit card. That's how I managed :)

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[adze.livejournal.com]

Housing benefit plus JSA combined gave me just enough to pay my rent when I was last on both, 18 months to two years ago.

And my rent has gone up since. How I was supposed to survive was beyond me.

The theory is great, the reality is different.

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

i remember saying to myself " thank god i am 25 now, thats 55 quid a week! " lol

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[adze.livejournal.com]

CORRECTION:

That did include my loan repayment as well, actually, as my insurance wouldn't cover it, so it isn't as bad as I thought.

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

The thing jez has said today, when I mentioned this thread to him, is that he does agree that there are a lot of people in the world who would be completely screwed by losing two month's pay cheque. What he disagrees with is the premise that one can go from reasonable financial stability to homeless in two months. And, to be fair, in the time I've known him he's had his pay cheques stop suddenly twice - once when he got pneumonia and HSBC decided they would only pay him SSP and he wasn't elligible for housing benefit, and once when Person2Person went bust.

Both times he was with me, I guess, so had some financial back up from someone else, and what happened both times is that he mostly maxed out his credit card and ate up the savings he had, and was very poor for three-four months on both occasions.

So, I guess a better representation of jez's views is that the statement 'everyone is two pay cheques away from homeless' is wrong.

I think he is also of the opinion that there are more options available than people realise, which I won't cite examples of, coz I know he's dead and not thinking, and I don't really know enough about it.

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

i shall take this opportunity to express my sadness at your combined illage.

Re: Jez [...] feels that you'd have to be quite uninformed about your rights

[adze.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. But, I don't count myself as financially stable.

Maybe in the same way that spinning tops are stable...

[castorlion.livejournal.com]

Typhoid Mary conversation was with me and Tim, en route through Canary Wharf on the way to the restaurant. You weren't hallucinating, although the golden pathway of gleaming custard was quite surreal.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Gleaming custard?

Are you trying to take advantage of my sick and feeble state?

Snarfblat falls not for such trickery!

[castorlion.livejournal.com]

You mean you didn't see a pathway of gleaming custard?

Guess you must have been hallucinating then!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

You're saying I hallucinated an ordinary paved road and pavement?

Christ, my feverish subconscious is dull!

[castorlion.livejournal.com]

Well, my theory is that with most people their conscious is normal and their unconscious is wierd. Your conscious mind is totally bizarre and random, so therefore...

Now that I can think properly...

[adze.livejournal.com]

I have bad memories of February 2005, when I was fired from my job in Dunstable. At that point, I was in around the same amount of money trouble as I am now - not great, but coping.

Then, I lost my job. Because of the way I lost the job, I wasn't able to claim on my loan protection, and it took job seekers allowance and housing benefit to cover my loan payments, and my rent, leaving me with very little money to survive on. I just squeaked by for the next month or so, until I managed to get a shop job for a month or so, for enough hours a week that I could still keep my benefits, and get some money in to allow me to job hunt.

That's how bad it was. I could barely eat, and if I couldn've found a job, I couldn't have got to it anyway. Eventually, I started temping at County Hall, and from there got the job I have now.

If I hadn't got that first job, and I only got that thanks to nothingtoyou, who was manager there at the time, there was no way I could've carried on. Maybe then, Citizen's Advice could've helped, but I don't know, as it didn't come to that.

I realise that I'm an unusual case. I have more debt than anyone in my situation should have, really, and am lucky to have sorted myself out this well. But credit cards, bank loans, overdrafts - all these aren't options for me, and I've never really had any money to save, so I can't even build up a safety net that way.

As we all seem to have agreed above, I don't think I'd end up homeless in two months, but two months of being income-free would put me easily on the way to financial ruin, and some really dark times.