If you follow this blog then you probably know that I run a small IT business that I started 15 months ago. It’s pretty much my only option since I am otherwise unemployable. So far the business has not made any money and so no one involved has been paid any wages.

The plan was that my wife would earn an income as a teacher which would see us through until my business could supply me with an income. Plans like that never work. For most of that year my wife has been registered as a supply teacher while she applies for permanent teaching posts. Unfortunately it seems that schools would rather hire minders than teachers. They are using cover supervisors, not teachers. They are not allowing training courses for teachers, so no supply cover is needed there. They are forcing teachers to cover other teachers instead of giving them time to plan and mark. And they definitely aren’t hiring permanent teachers to fill the gaps. As a result she has had barely any supply work and no success in finding a permanent job. Being diligent and definitely not lazy she has endeavoured to fill in the gaps with other temporary work. She is registered with two supply teaching agencies, one tutoring agency, one exam board as a marker, and a standard temping agency. Work is sporadic and certainly never covers our outgoings.

Step up housing benefit. We have been receiving housing benefit and council tax benefit through the last year. It seems quite reasonable; after all, the national insurance and tax paid in previous years of teaching were paying towards it. It should be straightforward, but here is what really happened. The people at the council are utterly incapable of understanding that my wife has multiple employers, sporadic employment and completely variable income. They barely understand that although I am a director of a business, I too have no income. Since housing benefit varies in accordance with our income, we have dutifully supplied the council with all payslips every few weeks. What usually happens is that in good weeks they decide that we must have always had good income and they send us an invoice for the “overpayment.” In bad weeks, they assume that we have had no income only that week and then they deduct our supposed over payment from the money that should be paying our rent. On more than one occasion they have concluded that we should be paying more council tax but instead of resuming monthly payments they sent us a demand for the years council tax in full, followed almost immediately by threats of court. On one occasion it reached an actual court summons. I called them, negotiated to pay about £100 to avoid having to go to court the next week, only to receive a letter the following day advising us that we don’t owe the money after all. Demands for our £100 back were completely ignored.

Two weeks ago our payment was stopped altogether because they had decided that they needed P45s from all of my wifes “former” employers. Call centre staff persisted in demanding them even after it was explained multiple times, quite forcefully, that there were no P45s because she had not stopped working for anyone, they just hadn’t provided any work over Christmas.

What this all boils down to, is that there is hardly any point in trying to work. There is no point in trying to do the right thing. Why bother? Just sit at home, claim Job Seekers Allowance, have a nice, monotonous, small, but stable income, and everything will be fine. Attempt to actually work for a living, and the system will fuck you over.

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