Help
Posted on 2004-01-22
I don't know how the government came to the conclusion that an adult can live on approximately �50 a week!!!
When Mum first lost her job she saw a benefits advisor who explained what she could and couldn't claim for until she found employment, and so far she's been refused every single one - mainly because we own our home. In their eyes our house is an asset, meaning we could sell our home and live off the proceeds. What they seem to forget is that if we sell our home we'll have nowhere to live.
Duh!!!
She's not having much luck on the job front either. She's either 'too old', 'over qualified' or 'not suitable' for the position, and with every knock back she's getting more and more despondant. It would be an understatement if I merely said I was worried about her.
We currently have less than �200 between us and are surviving on roughly �100 a week - this has to cover all household bills and food, as well as transport to and from the hospital and anything else that we may need. I've offered to cancel my mobile phone and my internet connection to try and save a little money, but this just reduced Mum to tears.
'It's not fair!!! People like us have lived in the UK all our lives, paid our taxes and our NI contributions and still get treated like ****, but as soon as an asylum seeker sets foot in the UK they get a house, a job and �16,000 a year. How can the government justify that???'
Of course I don't mind helping out. I currently give Mum half of my Incapacity Benefit and DLA, and I've sent off an appeal in an attempt to get the higher rate. I want to do more but I'm running out of ideas.
For a long time now I've been thinking about setting up a web site which offers cheap custom web site templates and some free designs too. I don't mean to sound big headed when I say this, but quite a few friends have said that I'm getting better with html, and many people that stop by my diary have commented on my layouts, so I figured it'd be worth a try.
My cousin has bought my domain name and hosting for me as a late Xmas pressie, and for the last week or so I've been busy 'setting up shop'. I reckon it'll be another week or two before I can officially 'open' the site, but at least I feel like I'm doing something. Even if it's not that successful, at least I can say I've tried.
I don't know what else to do.....