Hello there,

I was a mature student a while back I was able to get a some of my rent paid with housing benefit.

I was also able to get some of the Council tax paid/reduced as well.

Most universities used to have something called the Access Fund (well that was what it was called where I went) this is a lump sum of money that the university shared with students facing hardship and it is always wise to see if the uni you would be attending do have it. I applied for it once and was able to get a payment of £900. It was based on circumstances and the amount you got depended on just how bad your circumstances were. But get your application in for it early as it's only so much money and if you leave it to late you can get nothing.

I did also take on a part time early evening job working in a warehouse environment for 19 hours per week and with it was able to make ends meet.

Also try to get a short term job during the main breaks this can help quite a lot and ease pressure on you during the actual term time.

I have never heard of the 2+2 college/uni courses as I had to do a straight 4 years (1 yr foundation, 3 years actual course)

If I can think of anything else I will post it for you.

Good Luck with the course

Hello there and thank you both for replying.

estellyn: You mentioned a few things in your reply that I would like some further information about if you could help me with them.

[1] I do not know what sort of figure they have with regards to what they think I have claimed so am in the dark there, what I would like to know is

do they base their figures on the weekly amount I am getting and would that be adjusted downwards to take into account the £20 I could have earned

without suffering any loss of the JSA payment.

[2] lets say that the money I have been getting from the hobby business was £200 before costs and about £91 after costs (not taking anything for "wages")

would they readjust the overpayment and base it on the £91 (profit) or will they just use the net earnings of £200?

As to being available for a job I have always made it clear I would take ANY job offered me, and have always exceeded the Job Search requirements that I had agreed to when signing on. I did most of the work for the business/hobby between the hours of 4am to 7am and 7pm to 10pm. This left me clear during the hours of 9am-5pm to concentrate on getting a job.

I have always risen early (way of life for me) and even after losing my Job I continue to do so.

You said that I should continue with my plans to go self employed but surely while this is going on I should stay unemployed due to the fact I can claim Legal aid.

I must admit I have very limited knowledge of the legal aid system so do not know if it is based on income, saving or anything for that matter.

Could anyone enlighten me with respect to this.

I honestly could do with as much information as possible in the next two days as my Interview" is on Tuesday 6th May.

I'm a PWPS and so far the amount of help I have had from my advisor (to be couch soon) has been virtually zero. I basically go in, get called, am handed the signing paper and they say thats it till next time. Even now I always have to wait beyond my actual signing time so what it's going to be like if the sign each day" thing comes in I do not want to know.

Mine thing she seems to push every time is I should apply for PIP (Care component as wife is disabled). We did that last December and it took the department that deals with it 18 days to send use the forms. This left us with just 13 days to fill them and send back and during that time we had to get a full medical history from the doctors and letters from the specialists that had seen her.

Because of delays receiving the forms back they instantly took it that we were not making a claim and then cancelled the lifetime award for DLA high rate mobility that my wife had. But they did not let us know the decision until 7 days before the DLA was going to be removed.

Had to spend some serious phone time to get them to reinstate the DLA.

So to say I was not happy with my advisor was an understatement (but I have been civil with her).

BTW any one know if it's possible to get your advisor changed if you do not like them or have a problem with them?

I was on the WP last year (finished around early October) and I got sent back to the JC. What I was not told is that I was off WP and could now get access to the start up schemes that you did not have access to whilst on WP. I was then sent to a mandatory scheme whereby I learnt how to make a CV, Update it, Interview techniques etc etc etc. The scheme ran for 3 weeks and I had to attend every day for 5 hours a day. I had some hopes for this but....

On the first day it started it soon became clear that the vast majority of people there were only there because it was mandatory and the atmosphere of "I'm bored, I'm only here because they sent me, this is a waste of time" soon showed it's head. This first day finished after just 3 hours had past.

2nd day was no better with very little being done and the person running it just seemed to want it over with. She got it over as fast as possible. time was 2.5 hours

By the end of the first week we had lost two people and time there was down to just 2 hours a day from the 5 the government were paying for.

In the 2nd week we actually got to use some computers to do our CV's on. They were not ones at the centre we were attending but ones in the local Salvation Army Centre about a mile from the place where the scheme was running. There was not enough machines for everyone and so half the people sat in the Sally Cafe area drinking and eating. They swapped after about an hour.

The vast majority of the people there did not have a clue as to how to use a computer and the person running the course was struggling. In the end I more or less took over as I know alot about computers and associated programs such as MSWorks etc I ended up doing 11 CV's that day.

Anyway by the end of the course 7 people had left it for one reason or another. The government had spent money to cover 75 hours of training and improvement to skills even though total time we were in attendance was only about 40. No one got a job and to me it was a total waste of time and public money.

Six months after I was referred back to the JC from the WP I told my advisor I wish I could have got onto the scheme that the government was running where you could start up a business whilst still receiving a proportion of the benefits you were currently getting. It was then that I found out that I was not still on the WP anymore and that I could now get access to this help. I had wasted 6 months and would not be in the position I am in now if they had told me this information when I was referred back to the JC from WP.

A lot of the problems with being on Unemployment is the sheer lack of information coming from and in some cases limited knowledge that advisers have. I know there's a limit to what can be expected from an adviser but important stuff they should know.

If they had to

Please do not judge me but I have cheated the benefit system.

On Monday of this week (28/04/2014) I received a letter which has requested that I attend an interview at my local Job Center concerning "an investigation into alleged criminal offences in relation to a claim to benefits"

The letter does not give any further information other that I might want to have some legal representative there with me and that I should notify them that I will be attending.

This I have done and have arranged for a legal representative as well to be there.

A little background concerning what led to this situation.

I have been on JSA for about 9-10 years and during that time I have done everything that the job centre as asked of me gone on courses both voluntary and mandatory, Been on the Work programme and finished it. Applied for numerous positions and showed them I was trying hard to get employment. But, at the end of it all I still was unemployed.

All through this time (except for a three year break) I have kept an hobby of mine going and even tried to turn it into a business using a employment run test trading scheme that allowed you to start up a business whilst still receiving benefits.

Business initiative (BI) were the people who oversaw the scheme. However during the test period BI did something which completely upset me to the point that I quit the scheme and did not touch my hobby again for three years.

Moving on :-

My wife is disabled with a variety of conditions (osteoporosis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome + others) and we have never had any Benefit for her except for DLA High rate Mobility) they never let us have the Care component. Anyway she developed another problem about 12 months ago and in receiving a prescribe drug for that to keep it under control as there's currently no cure for it. Something to do with the three main nerves in the face becoming inflamed and this causes severe pain in the head and neck. Even forgetting her tablets for one day means it takes about 10 days to get it back under control again.

Anyway to keep it short

Because I did not want her to be on her own in the house if I was lucky enough to finally get a job I did something silly and started my hobby again. However, due to the bedroom tax money had become rather tight and so I sold some of my things I had created to pay for my hobby and not have to use any money coming in from benefits as these were needed to pay for our normal day to day living.

The problem is that the hobby grew beyond just a few £'s per week and grew to about £50+ after all the costs involved were taken off. This money I reinvested in better equipment and materials for the hobby. None of it was ever used for day to day living.

I did not tell the JSA about this but discussed the possibility with them of getting onto a scheme they were now running whereby you received a proportion of the benefits you used to get for about 26 weeks and during that time you traded. We even went as far as getting me with a Enterprise Support Agency who would look over a business plan I was creating and make sure it was viable. However, the name Business Initiative came up as the people who would oversee my business progress and it was alarm bells instantly. As previously mentioned I had had a bad time with them and I just did not want them anyway near me again.

The hobby(business) kept growing and the calculations showed that I was now at a point that with Working Tax credits and the income I was generating I could finally get off JSA and made the decision to go self employed as I did not want to waste all the effort I had put into it.

The irony is that on the very morning I was going to sign off, get registered for self employment with the tax office and contact my housing association the above mentioned letter came and it completely put everything into jeopardy.

So, here I am asking for any advice concerning what I should do now.

I know I should not have done it but I only really did it with the intention of being there for my wife and to finally follow a dream I had had since I was a boy of running a business in an occupation I love.

Please advise and I will answer any questions you may have (except what the actual business would be).

Oh and I forgot to say that I have no criminal record at all, This would be my first offence if it did go to court.