FreeSuccess4u Blog

In a follow up to my recent post I am asking myself if it is better to stick with benefits than to get an income in.

The situation is as follows: Me and my wife are searching for a job for some time. I am getting a JSA benefit. During the application instances have told me that nothing will happen to the benefit if my partner is going to work less than 24 hours a week.

This is exactly what is happening. My wife has been offered a job for 16 hours a week earning as a start a “massive” minimum wage. I contacted the instances to ask what will happen if my wife is starting work. No consideration is made that my wife has to make travel expenses and so on. At this moment we are only getting JSA, so there isn’t anything to compensate these expenses and the benefits payment is just enough to cover the necessary food and energy bills.
The answer I got from the benefits office was the income that my wife will get will be deducted till £ 10.00 of our benefits. This means if you look at it properly that my wife is working 16 hours for about £ 15.00. 

If logical my wife isn’t able to take on the job because travel expenses are more than £ 15.00 a week.

From the above I can understand that it is better to benefit from the system then go into employment although I can understand that being employed is a better way to get into a job that is more rewarding.

On the other hand I can’t understand the position of the government in this. We struggle to get ourselves into an interview, benefits are immediately stopped or deductions are unreasonable and with the little people make they will not be able to make ends meet. Would it not be better to have a more supportive government that will temporarily help you to get back on your feet?

At this moment there are measures in place to help banks, to help people that have been repossessed or help for small businesses.

I can understand that we all suffer. I can understand that I am not the only one with the same problems. Therefore I think with the support the government is giving it will not be enough for the people that suffered already and my conclusion of this article might be to stick with your benefits rather than to start working unless you are able to benefit from it. That will not say that I’ll support benefits because in all ways it is better to be in a job but not if there isn’t a temporary financial support available.

PS: Yes I know that tax credits can top up your income but in my circumstances I am only getting JSA for the moment. 

With the downturn of the economy in full glory, spending on luxury goods going down, highstreet shops going bankrupt and people being laid off I am wondering if we still are able to make money.

When someone has to tighten the belt, doesn’t buy any luxury goods anymore, will budget to be able to pay for the necessary basic goods I do believe it does effect the money making in internet marketing.

In a recession many people turn to the internet to make money. Increase of online survey’s, reading of emails or getting money in from affiliate marketing are just some ways that people are doing for getting an income.
Normally more than 100.000 new people are getting into a form of internet marketing a week. Most of them are promised a weekly or monthly huge income.
But with spending down and an increase in online money making more and more people fail and spending on unnecessary items will also fall.

Even if I am in internet marketing, an industry I love and still have some technical experience in, I foresee a decline in turnover for most of the internet marketers out there. The rate of failures will increase because in the short term no money will be made and the return for taking part in surveys or reading emails is far too low.

Money on the internet can be made with any good product and with good support and education. Most programs don’t provide all of this and without good education people aren’t making money.
I don’t know any program that will provide people with all the possibilities of traffic generation or programs that will show you all ways for promotion or advertising. Besides that I don’t know of any program that will teach you in detail how to improve your results. Most programs will teach you the basics and then…..find it out yourself. This most probably means that you need to upgrade or need to sign up with a different program to be able to master the complete resources available.
Each individual program most probably will support other programs. In the end you are having a load of programs and still not any income coming in.

I provide people with the means to succeed online without having to sign up for loads of programs to learn one way of promotion or generation of traffic. My personal approach, (I teach you via Yahoo or MSN Messenger), will teach you all the questions you might have. The information I provide is free although I use and recommend resources that might require a subscription or one time off fee. I teach people how to combine different strategies into one general strategy to increase the possibility to earn online.

How much you can earn online is dependent on the implementation of the overall strategy. 

Since the economic downturn is going on we also hear stories of the government reviewing benefits and their claimants.

For me it was already hard to get any benefits at all. I am a foreigner in the UK and yes I lost my job and am willing to do anything to get back to work.

In my case the government was taking months before I was getting JSA. All instances kept saying you are not eligable and for that reason I am completely broke. I live on my weekly JSA allowances with 4 people.

So I am quite upset by the article I read: “Claimants must earn their benefits”.

In recent weeks my house was repossessed and I had to borrow from friends and family to be able to move to another home.
As you can imagine with failing to pay for your mortgage, creditreports are bad and for that reason you are not able to take out a loan. There is no support available and government rules are preventing you to get real help.

I had to deny job offers because benefits will stop immediately after you have accepted a job and your pay will come in weeks after you started. My family is dependent on a new start and require financial aid to come through the first few weeks. I can’t start a job by putting my family’s well being on the line. My family can’t continue living on £0.00 when JSA benefits are insufficient to manage your weekly well being.

All benefits will stop and that I can imagine but what about the period in between? I am lined up for a full-time job in London which will have a daily travel costs of about £ 20.00. How can I accept a job without any financial aid, with no possibility of getting a loan in and when you aren’t able to get any financial help anymore from family or friends? Besides the financial aid question, all other claims for other benefits don’t have a decision yet and I can’t predict, although I am eligable, if I am successful or getting denied for these claims. For the time being I live on my JSA and can’t anticipate on these benefits for entering a new job. If I start a new job these claims will definitely be denied since I will earn more than the lower income bracket.

Don’t get me wrong I want to get out of benefits, I want to work and a new job will pay me more than the average salary here in the UK. Still there isn’t any support available except to turn my attention to loansharks or to fraud the system.

On the other hand I do believe it is costing the goverment less to have financial aid available to support people in the same situation I am in myself. What would be better? To have someone on benefits for another 3 months or longer or support that person with aid towards travel and continue paying for benefits for a set of time before stopping all the benefits? With a decent salary a person can be part of society again in 1 or 2 months time without interfering in the well being of family or children and will be able to pay for all his expenses.

Off course government instances are referring you to other instances or other rules and rights you might be eligible to. This requires an application period again and can be denied leaving you in the same position of making a decision for entering a job or not.
I also need to add that government instances are making a lot of mistakes and it will take a while again to have the right decision or the right amount of benefit in. And government officers are tending to blame one another more rather than taking the blame and take the right action. All in all who is suffering: We as tax payers are suffering and will continue to abuse the system. 

If a job requires you to make expenses in advance than most likely most of the claimants will not be in a position to take on a job since government bodies are tight to give you the appropriate help.