If you dont have children living with you I dont think you would be awarded council tax benefit on a 18k salary, housing benefit (unless the rules are different in london) I think also would be denied. I may be wrong tho as especially I dont know your full circumstances.

18k has take home pay of £1231 per month thats after both NI and income tax deductions.

I sympathise with you on the 3 month contract but find it hard to sympathise on the turning down based on wage. Before I got ill I never refused a job because I thought I would be worst off financially.

Think of what you got offered compared to others, we had a court case yesterday where a lady was forced to work at poundland for nothing 30 hours a week whilst you got offered a 3 month contract paying out over 1.2k a month net.

I hope this is down to you misunderstanding the monthly take home pay and thinking it was much lower.

Council tax round here is £1800 a month - as I would not be getting any benefit because I would be working my effective 'personal spending money' would be about £35 a week for clothing etc etc - thank you for suggesting I should work as a slave for that. It wouldn't pay for lunches during the week, let alone anything else.

I have studied hard to get to the level I got to at work, gained skills and experience in dealing with volatile situations and people and you want me to go back to the beginning just because 'it is a job and you are unemployed'.

As for working for nothing, I do volunteer work two days a week, I am also working on getting my own business going WITHOUT ANY FUNDING WHATSOEVER as none is available once you get over a particular age (I am 55).

What I was offered was a pittance for travelling for 2 1/2 hours each way each day for 5 days, having to get up at 5.30 to make sure you got there on time, change trains twice and not be home until 8pm - if the money had been more I would have taken the job, but not for the basic salary it offered. 40 minutes travelling time is considered reasonable travelling time by the DWP in London so again it was a blatant breach of the Jobseekers agreement they made me sign.

If anyone thinks I am not taking jobhunting seriously I am more than willing to send them all the jobs I have applied for, cover letters as well.

Council tax round here is £1800 a month - as I would not be getting any benefit because I would be working my effective 'personal spending money' would be about £35 a week for clothing etc etc - thank you for suggesting I should work as a slave for that. It wouldn't pay for lunches during the week, let alone anything else.

 

I have studied hard to get to the level I got to at work, gained skills and experience in dealing with volatile situations and people and you want me to go back to the beginning just because 'it is a job and you are unemployed'.

 

As for working for nothing, I do volunteer work two days a week, I am also working on getting my own business going WITHOUT ANY FUNDING WHATSOEVER as none is available once you get over a particular age (I am 55).

 

What I was offered was a pittance for travelling for 2 1/2 hours each way each day for 5 days, having to get up at 5.30 to make sure you got there on time, change trains twice and not be home until 8pm - if the money had been more I would have taken the job, but not for the basic salary it offered. 40 minutes travelling time is considered reasonable travelling time by the DWP in London so again it was a blatant breach of the Jobseekers agreement they made me sign.

 

If anyone thinks I am not taking jobhunting seriously I am more than willing to send them all the jobs I have applied for, cover letters as well.

In terms of your business, do you believe that your WP Provider provided superior capability than, say, a Professional Business Advisor working within the Business Link Network outside of the Work Programme?

When you announced your interest in self employment, did the WP Provider fast track you to the "Register Your Business" stage without any thought of developing a business plan, without any assistance towards developing a Marketing Strategy, and any assistance towards building a Client Base? And did the Clerk within the WP Provider suggest that, irrespective of how many hours you worked per week, provided that you could create the impression of working for 30 hours per week, you could claim Working Tax Credit.

This latter issue is important - if any erstwhile Self Employed person is audited by HMRC, if it can not be proven that each and every hour which was claimed for Working Tax Credit was not related to an activity where it was expected that you would be paid, then the claimant will be liable for repayment of any Working Tax Credit, and more than likely subject to a Benefit Fraud investigation.

When I was first made redundant I stated that I wanted to go self employed but it fell on deaf ears - the jobcentre were hellbent on getting me onto the Work Programme.

I was herded into an office where they went through who we were, what we did, what we want to do, it was at that point they realised I already had pre-empted them and done a bottom line budget sheet, and a business plan. The guy we had was only available for an hour each month, and his time was divided between 4 centres, so trying to get hold of him in between was a nightmare.

My idea (then, its changed a bit since) was to do a sewing service, and earn about £120 a week on a good week - but without the proper premises and equipment the funders did not want to know. I was told to contact HMRC as I would be eligible for WTC, so I did and was told I was NOT eligible as I was probably better off looking at early retirement!

I think I still have the projection the guy did for me around, it said I would get about £55 a week on WTC on top of what I could earn.

Another problem has been getting a business bank account to 'prove' that you are doing business, and of course trying to get trade accounts with suppliers - that is another story.

I've asked the moderators to make this post and the previous posts into a new thread.

I forgot to mention I've done two courses to further my experience, it was 8 years since I last did a certified course, so I now have two Level 2 courses, one in Ethnicity and Diversity and the other in Customer Services. I am filling in the paperwork for a Level 2 IT course. Level 2 courses are mostly free. There was no point doing an admin course as I already have NVQ Level 3 Admin.

Council tax round here is £1800 a month - as I would not be getting any benefit because I would be working my effective 'personal spending money' would be about £35 a week for clothing etc etc - thank you for suggesting I should work as a slave for that. It wouldn't pay for lunches during the week, let alone anything else.

 

I have studied hard to get to the level I got to at work, gained skills and experience in dealing with volatile situations and people and you want me to go back to the beginning just because 'it is a job and you are unemployed'.

 

As for working for nothing, I do volunteer work two days a week, I am also working on getting my own business going WITHOUT ANY FUNDING WHATSOEVER as none is available once you get over a particular age (I am 55).

 

What I was offered was a pittance for travelling for 2 1/2 hours each way each day for 5 days, having to get up at 5.30 to make sure you got there on time, change trains twice and not be home until 8pm - if the money had been more I would have taken the job, but not for the basic salary it offered. 40 minutes travelling time is considered reasonable travelling time by the DWP in London so again it was a blatant breach of the Jobseekers agreement they made me sign.

 

If anyone thinks I am not taking jobhunting seriously I am more than willing to send them all the jobs I have applied for, cover letters as well.

I never said you wasnt just that I think you are in the trap because your previous job was extremely well paid you will find it hard to accept a lower paid job, because you worked your way up to that salary and may have a lifestyle accustomed to that salary. I also dont know your full circumstances so it would be wrong to make any assumptions about you.

eg. for me 18k is more than my highest ever paid job, its a huge wage compared to what I am used to. Since i am now used to living on sickness benefit if I ever had 18k per year it would be like winning the lottery with the spare cash I would have.

Now you have completely lost me on the £1800 a month council tax, I have never heard of a resident paying that level of council tax, maybe if they in a mansion. You sure you dont mean £1800 a year?

http://www.katybairstow.com/2010/03/comparing-london-borough-council-tax-rates/

Sorry, I meant 1800 a year, brain not working properly today - think I have a cold coming.

18K in London is considered a 'starter' salary, ie no skills, experience, qualifications.

I don't have a lavish lifestyle, I don't have Sky TV, fancy clothes, holidays or anything like that.

I am not in a trap, I left the debt trap a long time ago. I saw redundancy coming from a long way off so was able to plan accordingly. The only thing that did not work is getting temp work - I used to temp a lot. Gone now are the days when people went on holiday you automatically got somebody in to cover the work, same if somebody goes off sick.

ok I respect it wont be mentally rewarding as you have had previously a much higher salary.

But I am struggling to see how that salary makes you worse off than JSA + housing benefit. Especially with the upcoming council tax benefit cuts.

Best of luck in whatever decision you make but I do suggest you do the maths again as I think you have got it wrong on that you wont be any better off, here is how I calculated net pay.

http://www.listentotaxman.com/index.php