Dirt poor?

[Griff]

That is very cool! Don't tell tw though, his passion for zoning stops at no man's dream.

[monster]

Big sarge, you say pics of the house you're hoping to build -did you build this one too, somewhere else? I really like it.

Are you currently on medical leave from your police job, or did you have to give that up? (If that's not being too nosy)

[monster]

My mom took us to some fairly poor levels when she was carting us around the UK, but she was very good at finding people to take us in and it never lasted very long. We did end up living with her parents for most of our childhood and they supported us, so we were very, very lucky. Without them, I dread to think what would have happened, but maybe she wouldn't have gone so far down the irresponsible route if she hadn't had the safety net they provided.

[DanaC]

The only times I have been really 'dirt poor' were in my late teens and early twenties. Having left home to move into a bedsit with J, we got work at a local plastics factory for £1 an hour each. Pulled less than £100 between us for a 45 hour week. Didn't last long 'cause J took the top of his thumb of using a machine without safetey guards. Also the bastard foreman had wandering hands.

That left us sans income with the bedsit rent to pay and there was a three month wait period for any benefits if you'd voluntarily given up your job, or been fired. These days I believe a gap in your regular benefit is somewhat ameliorated by crisis payments of a much lower value.

That's when my friend Harry stepped in to help. Let us rent a room in his madhouse, to live amongst his even madder mates and paid our rent with stolen brandy 'til the housing benefit kicked in. Tried getting work, but just moved from one shitty commission only sales job to the next. With bosses who were all either incompetant wide boys or utter twats. Shortest job lasted two and a half hours. I left after the boss had grilled me for 20 minutes about my boyfriend and sexual experiences.

I do recall stealing slices of wholemeal bread from a housemate. And getting up early to steal bottles of milk from doorsteps. That was probably the nadir of my dirt poor experience.

Truth is though, I may not have felt it at the time, but I was there by choice. At any time I cuold have gone home to Mum's and she'd have been fine with that. And J, though he didn't think so at the time, cuold have gone back to his Dad. It would have stung his pride given the tone of his leaving in the first place, but that was still a choice.

I had a brief spell of a few years more recently when I was managing on benefits, but that was not what I'd consider dirt poor. I live in an area of the country where the cost of living is relatively low. I'm not sure I'd find it as manageble on the current benefits system, but back then it wasn't so terrible. Boring, and disheartening, and grinding, but not terrible.

[infinite monkey]

Sinbad did a bit about being "college poor." He said you'd find a dollar, and think you had it made. He acted all puffed up "Yeah, I got a dollar. I think I'll just walk around with my dollar."

[DanaC]

hahahaha

I remember one time, me and J had been hanging about the fair on the patch of ground near the bus station. We'd spent our last few coins on a ride together and were walking back to the bedsit, with nothing left. I so wanted a cup of tea, but we didn't have any milk at home and I can't bear it without milk.

Suddenly I spot, on the pavement ahead of us a little grey cloth pouch tightened at the top with a pull cord. A kid's penny purse: containing precisely the correct amount for a pint of milk ;p

[infinite monkey]

Sweet!

The smaller things bring you real joy, when you're poor.

[monster]

Did you ever steal candy from a baby, though?

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by DanaC

These days I believe a gap in your regular benefit is somewhat ameliorated by crisis payments of a much lower value.

Don't you believe it!
The tabloids will have it that Crisis Loans are used by scroungers for foreign holidays and drink binges.
My experience was VERY different.

I had my Incapacity Benefit Assessment in March? April? I'm being honest - I now don't know the exact date. I was completely honest, as I have always been with every aspect of the Benefits Service. I explained that I was volunteering and working towards a full-time job, but currently I felt that the symptoms of anxiety and depression would affect any employment that I took in the short term and would mean a return to benefits.

MONTHS later (again - I can't specify, it's probably here somewhere) I was sent a letter to tell me that according to my assessment I was fit to work, therefore my benefit was stopped - backdated to the time of my assessment. This was only a week before my next payment was due - the sole payment I received and the one I counted on to pay all my bills.

I applied for unemployment benefit a couple of days after - and did in fact start looking for work immediately, but there was a delay while I was interviewed and assessed and the paperwork went through. At least three weeks - because it's always the estimated maximum for me - if they say one-two, it's three.

I have debts. My fault of course, but I have them. Many people do, even those recently employed. I had scheduled payments which I'd been meeting every month, at least one of which was Court agreed.

So I called Crisis Loans, to find they won't pay this and they won't pay that and they won't consider this and they won't consider that. Yes, I do understand they can't be responsible for people's debts, but the Crisis Loan does have to be repaid, it's not whoopee money. And in a situation where someone has set up a payment schedule via a debtor's court, and the payment schedule has been rigidly adhered to previously, surely that's worth considering?

I was asked detailed questions about whether my mother and father would feed me if I was starving. Would they not leave a little bit on their plate for me, even if they'd cooked a ready meal? If they had spagetti, couldn't have some? Would they really begrudge me a piece of toast?

I've been in a lot of humiliating situations, going through the mental health/ benefits system, but that one take the biscuit. I have no idea how people managed to blag enough for holidays. I got the minimum payment and borrowed from friends and family to keep up to date with agreed payments. All paid back now.

Sarge, sorry this was OT.
Really? Is it that bad?
All I can say is you don't seem too horrified by it. But how can this be good for your health? Is there really no-one who can help you as a vet? Is it really down to this? That's appalling.

[DanaC]

Ahh, no not the crisis loans. That's something different. Actually, I think what I am talking about is a 'hardship' payment or something. It's for when you've been sanctioned in some way. So, if your benefits have been stopped as a sanction (like some of my students when i was teaching basic skills, who didn;t turn up to their training too often, would have their income support docked or stopped) or if you're considered to have wilfully made yoursef unemployed and are therefore no longer eligible for regular benefits.

When you are no longer eligible for sickness or incapacity benefit, you still have somewhere to go in the benefits system: you applied for jobseekers. I'm talking about when you are ineligible for any o fthe regular benefits for a period of time. And there's nothing to say that this hardship payment will be made in a timely fashion...

When I was claiming back in the early 90s, being fired from your job or voluntarily giving it up meant you were not entitled to any assistance at all for a period of three months. Once you started claiming it then might take some time on top of that for the claim to be active.

I recall an employer (clothes shop) right royally doing for me in '93 when he 'had to let' me and another girl go, but then told the dole office he'd fired us. Nobody at the dole office ever wondered why the guy was constantly firing his girls a day or so before their 21st birthday when full employment rights kicked in.

[Pico and ME]

We weren't dirt poor when I was growing up, thanks in part due to Johnson's Great Society. My Mom was able to go to school and during that period we were on welfare and food stamps. We ate a lot of shit on a shingle of which I would only eat the peas and toast. Most of my clothes were donated and Christmas came thanks to Toys for Tots. I dont remember suffering though. In fact, we had a lot of fun. Mom always found cheap things to do...back then zoo's and museums didn't cost so much. And the drive-in was a bargain if you brought your own popcorn and pop. Plus, I played outside ALL THE TIME. Even in the winter. And there was also the music. Mom was able to afford a hi-fi one year and she loved listening to her albums..Simon and Garfunkle, The Mammas and the Papas, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond and Jesus Christ Superstar. And when Mom wasn't home, my oldest brother played The Rolling Stones and Led Zepplin.

I have very fond memories of my childhood.

[SamIam]

I hate being on SSDI and have started to struggle to get off it or at least supplement it. A major problem is that I'm trying to get back into the game at an age when most people are starting to think about retirement. So, I have two strikes against me - age and disability. At the moment I am living very simply with my SSDI payment supplemented by my small part time job. My major concern is that my housing is completely dependent on a section 8 housing voucher and congress continues to make cuts to that program. I live in fear that I will lose my voucher and at age 60 be turned out into the street.

I was homeless once before and I ended up spending the summer camped out on public lands up in the mountains. The experience actually ended up being sort of cool - I was living in a beautiful setting, and I had a snug little tent and all my camping gear. I'd build big campfires out of juniper wood at night and toast hot dogs donated from a charity in a town about 30 miles away. I bathed in a crystal clear (but very cold!) mountain stream and even had my cat along for company. By October I was admitted into a rural housing program and managed to make it back indoors before the snow began to fly.

But if they demolish the HUD programs, I'll be looking at sleeping in my car in the winter, and I'll never make it through that, no matter how wonderful my summer camp might be.

[Nirvana]

I don't know how anyone can afford to buy food and gasoline that has children.

[monster]

Sam, have you thought of buying a tiny camper rather than a 4WD? Given your precarious situation, I would definitely consider the idea of buying a vehicle you could live in and then "flying" south for the winter if nothing else came up

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by monster

Sam, have you thought of buying a tiny camper rather than a 4WD? Given your precarious situation, I would definitely consider the idea of buying a vehicle you could live in and then "flying" south for the winter if nothing else came up

I think the cost of a camper would be too great. Actually, my ideal is to acquire a small camper trailer like a Scamp and then apply to the Forest Service and National Parks to be a campground host. The FS will pay for trailer hook-ups and even give you a small monthly stipend. In return, all I'd have to do is collect recreational fees and make sure everybody shut off their generators by 10:00 pm. In this dream scenario, I'd be a campgound host for a Forest up in Montana in the summer and hit some place like Saguaro National Monument in Arizona for the winter. I'd get to live in some pretty places and meet people from all over the world. Sounds like a dream retirement to me!

The problem is that my income is so low that it will take me a couple of years to save up the money for even a used Scamp. I feel like I'm in a race with the Feds to just survive. I don't know how valid my fears about my housing voucher are, but everytime I check the news from HUD, it's uniformly grim.