My aunt passed away last night. She had dementia and had been very ill for a long time, and I hope HaShem is taking good care of her.
I miss her.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Home taping is providing lazy journalists and awful PR companies with income
When did the UK develop a sub-tropical climate? The Daily Mash provides sensible advice as usual, though I wish my house didn't have such enormous windows that make wandering around in the nude probably a criminal offence. I'm not even sure about these boxer shorts.
In other news, The Pirate Bay has been sold and the new owners are going to pay file-sharers to upload content - though this probably won't even cover what they pay to download it. It's highly likely that TPB will now go the way of Napster, i.e. fade into obscurity and only ever be mentioned again by geeks when discussing tech history, possibly with a small nostalgic sigh and a faraway look in their eyes. It's also further proof that every man has his price, though I do wish my price was £4.7 million.
If there's one thing the death of TPB doesn't signify, it's the end of media piracy. Rest assured, there will always be ways to get stuff illegally, and that applies to absolutely everything - drugs, guns, pornography, Absinthe, music (audio and sheet), software, TV, everything. People in China and Saudi Arabia manage it, how much easier do you think it is in the USA and UK? Also rest assured that home taping is not in fact killing music. The MPAA made $9.63 billion in 2007 purely from theatre ticket sales. Microsoft's net income after costs and taxes was $2.97 billon for the quarter ending March 31st this year - and that's after a 32% drop and in the midst of a global recession. Internet piracy is making a dent in these company's profits, but they're still so astronomical that I couldn't really care less. As for the anguished cries that loss of profit because of music piracy means record companies can't fund new artists, I say they recoup the losses by getting rid of some old artists we could happily do without.
In other news, The Pirate Bay has been sold and the new owners are going to pay file-sharers to upload content - though this probably won't even cover what they pay to download it. It's highly likely that TPB will now go the way of Napster, i.e. fade into obscurity and only ever be mentioned again by geeks when discussing tech history, possibly with a small nostalgic sigh and a faraway look in their eyes. It's also further proof that every man has his price, though I do wish my price was £4.7 million.
If there's one thing the death of TPB doesn't signify, it's the end of media piracy. Rest assured, there will always be ways to get stuff illegally, and that applies to absolutely everything - drugs, guns, pornography, Absinthe, music (audio and sheet), software, TV, everything. People in China and Saudi Arabia manage it, how much easier do you think it is in the USA and UK? Also rest assured that home taping is not in fact killing music. The MPAA made $9.63 billion in 2007 purely from theatre ticket sales. Microsoft's net income after costs and taxes was $2.97 billon for the quarter ending March 31st this year - and that's after a 32% drop and in the midst of a global recession. Internet piracy is making a dent in these company's profits, but they're still so astronomical that I couldn't really care less. As for the anguished cries that loss of profit because of music piracy means record companies can't fund new artists, I say they recoup the losses by getting rid of some old artists we could happily do without.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Repairing the world, one carer at a time
Techy talk: I have put some of the IB backpay towards a dual-core processor (second-hand), new heatsink and fan and a new PSU for my desktop. I must be getting better at computer maintenance, as this is the first time I've taken a computer apart and put it back together and it's worked on the first go without any tweakings. I'm quite impressed by this, as replacing the PSU involved taking every cable out and unscrewing the motherboard, and I also had to move the DVD drive as the new power cable was shorter and only just reaches between the DVD drive and the hard drive. It's all very lovely, and the new low noise cooler fan is exactly that. The sound of nothing coming from my computer is quite fantastic. What I need now is some more storage space, but that can wait a bit as it's not an immediate necessity. What does need to be done in the not-too-distant future is getting a new hard drive for my old laptop, as the current one is faulty and I'm pretty sure that's all that's wrong with it. The new laptop's power cable is also getting a bit tempermental, though I think that's just because it's become loose from being pulled in and out and could be fixed with a pair of pliers. Once I've found my pliers I'll let you know.
Money and benefits talk: I'm trying to help my friend and housemate sort out her money - as a 2009 graduate she is having some difficulty with the jobs market (she has a degree in Forensic Science, which is quite firmly in the 'proper subject' category, but there's precious little in the way of jobs round here at the moment unless you're a teacher, nurse or care assistant in possession of NVQs/a car she doesn't have), and thus rather than go on the dole I suggested she claim Carer's Allowance for me, as my partner can't claim Carer's Allowance as he's a full-time student, so I figure at least one of my carers should get paid for caring for me, and Carer's Allowance is slightly higher than age 18-24 JSA. We also think if she gets Carer's Allowance she should be able to get Income Support as well, which makes applying for Housing Benefit simpler.
I also think it would be possible to get her lower rate mobility on DLA, due to the fact that she has severe dyspraxia which makes her impervious to subtle distinctions such as that between left and right, and that between the horizontal and vertical positioning of the human body. This is why we work well together when outside; I make sure she doesn't get lost or fall over, she makes sure I don't get panicky or run over, and we both get back home in one piece. We could possibly argue for lower rate care as well, due to the number of cuts and burns on her arms acquired from cooking, ironing and general life (she's not a self-harmer, they are all daftness-inflicted).
None of these are a lot of money, but all put together they should be enough for her to live on until she gets a job, which she is actively looking for but at the moment they're just aren't any, not for someone with a degree instead of an NVQ in arse-wiping. As I've said before, I have made it my mission in life to ensure all disabled people and carers claim every penny they can get from the government that screws them over. Don't give me any of this bollocks about stealing the money of hard-working taxpayers; everyone pays taxes in some form and, for many claimants, DLA is a strange merry-go-round whereby the government takes money from their wages in the form of income tax and then gives some, all or even more back in the form of DLA. Carers deserve every single penny of the pittance they get, and a lot more; young carers should also be being paid retroactively for all the work they did before they could claim Carer's Allowance, and if it's not being handed to them in leather-bound pounds on a solid gold plate (as it should) then they should do their best to get whatever they can now. The government which claims to support disabled people - I don't believe it has actually ever claimed to support carers - has failed them miserably and we should be hitting them where it hurts most: their wallets.
Thought for the day: I read quite a lot, even if all the reading I do isn't in dead tree format. It's a common misconception that a student on a computer is doing nothing but Facebook, MSN and the occasional essay, which is certainly not true in my case. I have a lot of PDF books, which is helpful with my huge monitor as I can zoom in and make the text easier to read. My vision, like my physical hearing, is actually fine; the problem with both lies in my brain, which refuses to process both visual and auditory input properly. With reading, my eyes have a tendancy to jump around the page so I end up reading things out of order, and this is especially common with small text as I read very fast anyway so in magazines I end up skipping over entire paragraphs and everything gets very disjointed. Zooming in allows me to concentrate better and thus take in more of what I read, and provides more whitespace. I like whitespace, it keeps things in order and doesn't distract me.
Using a combination of audio and text (like I do with subtitles on TV) also helps, as if both inputs are used together they back each other up and I'm more likely to get a comprehensible output from my brain. It's a downfall of having a dirty mind and a weird brain that if I misread a word it tends to end up as something rude, which can be very incongruous and distracting. I do have a soft spot for the old dead tree format though, as the quite impressive collection of books in my house shows. We have discovered that two bookcases is nowhere near enough to house all the books the three of us in the new house own; five would be a better estimate, and we need at least one tall one to put books in which are A4-sized or larger. This doesn't include sheet music, or video games and DVDs, just fiction and non-fiction books. At some point I will count the number of books in the house, and probably conclude that the reason people are reading less nowadays is because all the books are here!
Money and benefits talk: I'm trying to help my friend and housemate sort out her money - as a 2009 graduate she is having some difficulty with the jobs market (she has a degree in Forensic Science, which is quite firmly in the 'proper subject' category, but there's precious little in the way of jobs round here at the moment unless you're a teacher, nurse or care assistant in possession of NVQs/a car she doesn't have), and thus rather than go on the dole I suggested she claim Carer's Allowance for me, as my partner can't claim Carer's Allowance as he's a full-time student, so I figure at least one of my carers should get paid for caring for me, and Carer's Allowance is slightly higher than age 18-24 JSA. We also think if she gets Carer's Allowance she should be able to get Income Support as well, which makes applying for Housing Benefit simpler.
I also think it would be possible to get her lower rate mobility on DLA, due to the fact that she has severe dyspraxia which makes her impervious to subtle distinctions such as that between left and right, and that between the horizontal and vertical positioning of the human body. This is why we work well together when outside; I make sure she doesn't get lost or fall over, she makes sure I don't get panicky or run over, and we both get back home in one piece. We could possibly argue for lower rate care as well, due to the number of cuts and burns on her arms acquired from cooking, ironing and general life (she's not a self-harmer, they are all daftness-inflicted).
None of these are a lot of money, but all put together they should be enough for her to live on until she gets a job, which she is actively looking for but at the moment they're just aren't any, not for someone with a degree instead of an NVQ in arse-wiping. As I've said before, I have made it my mission in life to ensure all disabled people and carers claim every penny they can get from the government that screws them over. Don't give me any of this bollocks about stealing the money of hard-working taxpayers; everyone pays taxes in some form and, for many claimants, DLA is a strange merry-go-round whereby the government takes money from their wages in the form of income tax and then gives some, all or even more back in the form of DLA. Carers deserve every single penny of the pittance they get, and a lot more; young carers should also be being paid retroactively for all the work they did before they could claim Carer's Allowance, and if it's not being handed to them in leather-bound pounds on a solid gold plate (as it should) then they should do their best to get whatever they can now. The government which claims to support disabled people - I don't believe it has actually ever claimed to support carers - has failed them miserably and we should be hitting them where it hurts most: their wallets.
Thought for the day: I read quite a lot, even if all the reading I do isn't in dead tree format. It's a common misconception that a student on a computer is doing nothing but Facebook, MSN and the occasional essay, which is certainly not true in my case. I have a lot of PDF books, which is helpful with my huge monitor as I can zoom in and make the text easier to read. My vision, like my physical hearing, is actually fine; the problem with both lies in my brain, which refuses to process both visual and auditory input properly. With reading, my eyes have a tendancy to jump around the page so I end up reading things out of order, and this is especially common with small text as I read very fast anyway so in magazines I end up skipping over entire paragraphs and everything gets very disjointed. Zooming in allows me to concentrate better and thus take in more of what I read, and provides more whitespace. I like whitespace, it keeps things in order and doesn't distract me.
Using a combination of audio and text (like I do with subtitles on TV) also helps, as if both inputs are used together they back each other up and I'm more likely to get a comprehensible output from my brain. It's a downfall of having a dirty mind and a weird brain that if I misread a word it tends to end up as something rude, which can be very incongruous and distracting. I do have a soft spot for the old dead tree format though, as the quite impressive collection of books in my house shows. We have discovered that two bookcases is nowhere near enough to house all the books the three of us in the new house own; five would be a better estimate, and we need at least one tall one to put books in which are A4-sized or larger. This doesn't include sheet music, or video games and DVDs, just fiction and non-fiction books. At some point I will count the number of books in the house, and probably conclude that the reason people are reading less nowadays is because all the books are here!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Vulnerable adult?
Looking over my student loans today, I owe just over £8000 (from one year of full-time higher education). I note that there is a clause that states if one becomes permanently disabled and unfit for work, the loan will be cancelled. However, there is no definition that I can find of what is considered permanent disability, nor is there any information on how one goes about proving that one is permanently disabled. I suppose that it is possible that since I have an indefinite award of Disability Living Allowance higher rate care, which also exempts me from the Personal Capability Assessment of Incapacity Benefit (though not from any assessment for Employment and Support Allowance) it could be construed that I am considered permanently disabled. Whether I am permanently unfit for work remains to be seen - after all, I am only 21 and thus it's rather hard to tell at this stage. Right now I cannot work, certainly not without endangering myself. It is possible I could hold down a job, but I would not be able to look after myself at the same time, which would eventually ("eventually", in my experience, meaning "within six weeks") mean I would lose the job anyway and be back to square one. This inability to take care of myself puts me in the 'vulnerable adult' category.
I've been reading some things about 'vulnerable adults', and wondering, as one, what specifically I am vulnerable to. Abuse? Probably. Exploitation? Definitely. Neglect? Usually.
How am I at risk of abuse? Well, in terms of physical abuse I could be said to be an 'easy target'. I am socially awkward, nervous around people and generally seen as 'weird', which gets taken to a whole new level of fun if people start questioning the relationship and perceived discrepancy between my gender and my genitalia (incidentally, that is possibly the most elaborate definition in history of 'being read'). In terms of emotional abuse, I am susceptible to criticism and do my best to avoid it by making every effort to please and placate everyone around me, with varying degrees of success. This leads on to exploitation; I am often easily led, as I will go to great lengths to avoid confrontation, and I could be said to be easily manipulated, especially when tired or stressed. My reaction to a stressful situation tends to be to throw money at it ("it" usually being "my husband"), which shows a lack of sound fiscal planning but does at least mean I get my food bought.
This follows into neglect, as amongst other things I cannot cook for myself and find it very difficult to maintain any sort of order in my house, including cleanliness and tidiness. If I have someone to do these things for me, then it gets done - if I don't, it gets done when I can deal with it, and sporadically even then due to my general cognitive limitations. I am lucky in that I usually have someone to cook me dinner, but if I don't then I have to rush out and acquire some microwave tat or, if I can't for some reason, I don't eat dinner. I rarely have someone to help me tidy my room and do my laundry, meaning it tends to build up until I have no clean clothes left at all and seventeen loads of washing to do, although none of it seems to consist of socks - then about every six months I'll be able to get someone to help me tidy my room and they will all reappear. I counted the number of socks that were uncovered the last time my bedroom got tidied; it was 32. My approach to hygeine and going outside, other than to the shops to buy fags, also tends to be lackadaisical. The one thing I always do without fail is pay my bills on time, mostly because I cannot bear the stress of having unpaid bills or the threat of court action/baliffs hanging over my head.
The interesting question is whether my vulnerability is specifically related to my disability, or whether some proportion of it can also be attributed to my transsexuality. I suppose my homosexuality could also contribute, but the crucial difference is that homosexuality is no longer classified as a mental illness (since 1973 by the DSM, and 1990 by the ICD). Transsexuality is still a mental illness, both as defined by the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10, and due to the medical and social treatment of trans people could be said to meet the criteria for a disability under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act. A fair few people have said that if we want Gender Identity Disorder declassified (as apparently is happening in France) then we should all claim DLA for it and see how quickly the pyramid tumbles. But I digress.
The ironic point in all of this is that despite my high level of vulnerablility, I have a very low level of dependency. It would in fact be more accurate to say that the other members of my household are dependent on me, as I arrange and pay for the food and utilities, make the computers work, calculate the budget (whether anybody besides me pays attention to it is another matter; see 'exploitation' above) and I tend to be the first point of contact within the house, otherwise known as a receptionist. I spend so much time playing around with figures and percentages I have considered doing courses in accountancy, but they cost quite frightening sums of money and many of them don't have cheap rates for people on benefits. Possibly one for the future.
I miss learning, though I'm enjoying spending time on music - my theory teacher reckons he can get me up to Grade 6 in 6-8 weeks. I thought it would be more like 6 months! Maybe I'll be ready to take Grade 7 by the November exam date - or Grade 8 next May. That would be fantastic, and also highly weird to get grade 8 theory before any of my grade 8 practicals. Meh, I'm a pretty weird person.
I've been reading some things about 'vulnerable adults', and wondering, as one, what specifically I am vulnerable to. Abuse? Probably. Exploitation? Definitely. Neglect? Usually.
How am I at risk of abuse? Well, in terms of physical abuse I could be said to be an 'easy target'. I am socially awkward, nervous around people and generally seen as 'weird', which gets taken to a whole new level of fun if people start questioning the relationship and perceived discrepancy between my gender and my genitalia (incidentally, that is possibly the most elaborate definition in history of 'being read'). In terms of emotional abuse, I am susceptible to criticism and do my best to avoid it by making every effort to please and placate everyone around me, with varying degrees of success. This leads on to exploitation; I am often easily led, as I will go to great lengths to avoid confrontation, and I could be said to be easily manipulated, especially when tired or stressed. My reaction to a stressful situation tends to be to throw money at it ("it" usually being "my husband"), which shows a lack of sound fiscal planning but does at least mean I get my food bought.
This follows into neglect, as amongst other things I cannot cook for myself and find it very difficult to maintain any sort of order in my house, including cleanliness and tidiness. If I have someone to do these things for me, then it gets done - if I don't, it gets done when I can deal with it, and sporadically even then due to my general cognitive limitations. I am lucky in that I usually have someone to cook me dinner, but if I don't then I have to rush out and acquire some microwave tat or, if I can't for some reason, I don't eat dinner. I rarely have someone to help me tidy my room and do my laundry, meaning it tends to build up until I have no clean clothes left at all and seventeen loads of washing to do, although none of it seems to consist of socks - then about every six months I'll be able to get someone to help me tidy my room and they will all reappear. I counted the number of socks that were uncovered the last time my bedroom got tidied; it was 32. My approach to hygeine and going outside, other than to the shops to buy fags, also tends to be lackadaisical. The one thing I always do without fail is pay my bills on time, mostly because I cannot bear the stress of having unpaid bills or the threat of court action/baliffs hanging over my head.
The interesting question is whether my vulnerability is specifically related to my disability, or whether some proportion of it can also be attributed to my transsexuality. I suppose my homosexuality could also contribute, but the crucial difference is that homosexuality is no longer classified as a mental illness (since 1973 by the DSM, and 1990 by the ICD). Transsexuality is still a mental illness, both as defined by the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10, and due to the medical and social treatment of trans people could be said to meet the criteria for a disability under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act. A fair few people have said that if we want Gender Identity Disorder declassified (as apparently is happening in France) then we should all claim DLA for it and see how quickly the pyramid tumbles. But I digress.
The ironic point in all of this is that despite my high level of vulnerablility, I have a very low level of dependency. It would in fact be more accurate to say that the other members of my household are dependent on me, as I arrange and pay for the food and utilities, make the computers work, calculate the budget (whether anybody besides me pays attention to it is another matter; see 'exploitation' above) and I tend to be the first point of contact within the house, otherwise known as a receptionist. I spend so much time playing around with figures and percentages I have considered doing courses in accountancy, but they cost quite frightening sums of money and many of them don't have cheap rates for people on benefits. Possibly one for the future.
I miss learning, though I'm enjoying spending time on music - my theory teacher reckons he can get me up to Grade 6 in 6-8 weeks. I thought it would be more like 6 months! Maybe I'll be ready to take Grade 7 by the November exam date - or Grade 8 next May. That would be fantastic, and also highly weird to get grade 8 theory before any of my grade 8 practicals. Meh, I'm a pretty weird person.
Friday, June 19, 2009
I giggle in the face of stress!
I apologise for my extended silence - I only got the internet here at the new house on Wednesday, after it was cut off at the old house on 29th May. As for the intervening time, on 22nd May my partner and I got civil-partnershipped married, we got back from our honeymoon and reception on the 28th, and I have just (literally, yesterday) finished moving everything from the old house to the new house and handed back the keys. To say I am a tired bunny would be an understatement.
I've also been sorting out all the bills, which I can afford to do now my IB has come through finally! After that minor little panic in my last post I got the backpay three days before, which meant there was a lot of last-minute rushing about and it's pretty safe to say I haven't stopped moving since then. I didn't get the next payment of my IB until yesterday, though; I rang them last week and apparently some complete teacup authorised the backpay but didn't think to authorise the continuing payment - this is now cited in my mind as the current benchmark for "The stupidest thing I have ever heard of." This minor hiccup has now been sorted, and I now have a regular income which is actually enough to eat and pay rent and bills and smoke and even go out occasionally.
This is fortunate, as my partner is on sick leave from his new job until September (he was extremely lucky not to get fired; more on that later) and my other housemate hasn't found a job yet and only just about has enough for her rent so I'm paying two-thirds of the rent and all the bills and food. This still leaves me with what should be enough to live on, but after September my partner will have his student loan and thus can pay his own rent and share of the bills, leaving me with money to spare to pay for my OU courses and possibly to even put away. According to the woman at the council I might still be entitled to a partial amount of housing and council tax benefit, which I am in the middle of doing the forms for, mostly on the basis of the benefits in kind like getting some of my OU courses paid for. I hope I don't come across as greedy; it's more that I'm bitter about how difficult they make it for people, and especially disabled people, to claim what they are entitled to, whilst constantly banging on about benefit cheats and making you feel like a criminal even if your claims are 100% legitimate. As a result of this, I intend to claim every single penny I am legally entitled to and to help as many other people as I can do the same thing. Life is difficult enough without having to spend weeks, months and sometimes years fighting for what should have been yours in the first place.
Despite all the stress of the past few weeks, I am still in one piece and vaguely functional. I'm off to Manchester tonight for a friend's 18th, then in a couple of weeks my husband and I are going to London Pride and then he has an appointment with the private gender clinic on 6th July - £220 I am more than happy to part with. After that I have nothing to do until 22nd July, which makes me a happy bunny as it means I can work on my grade 6 music theory, having found myself a correspondence tutor (yes I'm mad, even more so since I'm also considering doing grade 7 and 8).
Probably should go have some breakfast now...
Exit right, in ridiculously comfy pink fluffy booties.
I've also been sorting out all the bills, which I can afford to do now my IB has come through finally! After that minor little panic in my last post I got the backpay three days before, which meant there was a lot of last-minute rushing about and it's pretty safe to say I haven't stopped moving since then. I didn't get the next payment of my IB until yesterday, though; I rang them last week and apparently some complete teacup authorised the backpay but didn't think to authorise the continuing payment - this is now cited in my mind as the current benchmark for "The stupidest thing I have ever heard of." This minor hiccup has now been sorted, and I now have a regular income which is actually enough to eat and pay rent and bills and smoke and even go out occasionally.
This is fortunate, as my partner is on sick leave from his new job until September (he was extremely lucky not to get fired; more on that later) and my other housemate hasn't found a job yet and only just about has enough for her rent so I'm paying two-thirds of the rent and all the bills and food. This still leaves me with what should be enough to live on, but after September my partner will have his student loan and thus can pay his own rent and share of the bills, leaving me with money to spare to pay for my OU courses and possibly to even put away. According to the woman at the council I might still be entitled to a partial amount of housing and council tax benefit, which I am in the middle of doing the forms for, mostly on the basis of the benefits in kind like getting some of my OU courses paid for. I hope I don't come across as greedy; it's more that I'm bitter about how difficult they make it for people, and especially disabled people, to claim what they are entitled to, whilst constantly banging on about benefit cheats and making you feel like a criminal even if your claims are 100% legitimate. As a result of this, I intend to claim every single penny I am legally entitled to and to help as many other people as I can do the same thing. Life is difficult enough without having to spend weeks, months and sometimes years fighting for what should have been yours in the first place.
Despite all the stress of the past few weeks, I am still in one piece and vaguely functional. I'm off to Manchester tonight for a friend's 18th, then in a couple of weeks my husband and I are going to London Pride and then he has an appointment with the private gender clinic on 6th July - £220 I am more than happy to part with. After that I have nothing to do until 22nd July, which makes me a happy bunny as it means I can work on my grade 6 music theory, having found myself a correspondence tutor (yes I'm mad, even more so since I'm also considering doing grade 7 and 8).
Probably should go have some breakfast now...
Exit right, in ridiculously comfy pink fluffy booties.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Money money money...
Went to the bank this morning as having a slight cash flow crisis re: wedding and rent. They've stopped my Income Support and housing benefit, but have as yet neglected to actually start paying me Incapacity Benefit. My partner has also had a letter claiming he owes the uni £200 in unpaid tuition fees (I have no idea where that's come from) which if he doesn't pay by Thursday he won't be able to go into 3rd year. With that, the wedding, the post-wedding dinner, the reception and the rent and deposit for the new house we have to come up with £1300 in the next week, and to quote Bernard Black, "well I've got three pounds fifty on me, what have you got?"
That doesn't even include buying ourselves a bed since we don't have one in the new house, or having any spending money for my stag do and our honeymoon. I rang the IB people the other day, they said if it hasn't arrived by next Friday to give them a ring on Friday morning. I am getting MARRIED at 11am on Friday and the last thing I want to do at 9am on my wedding day is spend half an hour on the phone to those useless wankers! We've applied for a loan but won't know if we've got it until Wednesday, which leaves me with precious little leeway. It also stresses me out that if we don't get this loan, I will not know if I have enough money to pay for my wedding reception until three hours before it starts.
Generally when me and my partner are down to our very last penny, something comes through at the proverbial eleventh hour and bails us out, but I do wish they wouldn't leave me in the lurch until the very literal eleventh hour! I am panicking like crazy about this which is really spoiling the whole thing - I should be brimming over with joy right now and I can't because of all this bollocks.
I also was not happy that the person at the bank tried to sell us life insurance to the tune of £30 a month, which we were almost considering until I got them to reveal that if neither of us dies before the policy runs out (when we're both 64) we get nothing. I wouldn't expect the full payment, but for them to at least give us back what we'd paid (which would amount to ten grand by then) would be nice. To take out a life insurance policy which would pay nothing if neither of us dies before the age of 64 is a death lottery, which I find distasteful and refuse to do.
I dislike banks, I really do. I also dislike the DWP and our new landlords for insisting we bring our move-in date forward two weeks when I made it clear this would make the money situation very tight - insisting we pick up the keys on the day we come back from our honeymoon also wasn't the nicest thing in the world to do. If we don't get this loan we are also stuck paying £13 a month for the joint bank account with their special deal thing which gives you money off contents insurace and travel insurance and all that, but I see insurance as a form of gambling anyway and am not pleased that I went out to try and get money and all I have come back with is an assurance that I am going to spend more money. If my mother finds out I have a joint bank account she will also cut my head off and fry it in garlic - it majorly goes against her policy of self-reliance and not trusting anyone else with your money, even and possibly especially your husband as they are the person who can screw you over most easily.
I keep letting myself get talked into impractical situations I can't afford, and trusting other people to do things which screws me over when they don't follow through, and I need to stop. It is far better to avoid relying on people, especially if you will be utterly screwed if they pull the rug out from under you. If I need to rely on someone else to make sure something happens, I probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
That doesn't even include buying ourselves a bed since we don't have one in the new house, or having any spending money for my stag do and our honeymoon. I rang the IB people the other day, they said if it hasn't arrived by next Friday to give them a ring on Friday morning. I am getting MARRIED at 11am on Friday and the last thing I want to do at 9am on my wedding day is spend half an hour on the phone to those useless wankers! We've applied for a loan but won't know if we've got it until Wednesday, which leaves me with precious little leeway. It also stresses me out that if we don't get this loan, I will not know if I have enough money to pay for my wedding reception until three hours before it starts.
Generally when me and my partner are down to our very last penny, something comes through at the proverbial eleventh hour and bails us out, but I do wish they wouldn't leave me in the lurch until the very literal eleventh hour! I am panicking like crazy about this which is really spoiling the whole thing - I should be brimming over with joy right now and I can't because of all this bollocks.
I also was not happy that the person at the bank tried to sell us life insurance to the tune of £30 a month, which we were almost considering until I got them to reveal that if neither of us dies before the policy runs out (when we're both 64) we get nothing. I wouldn't expect the full payment, but for them to at least give us back what we'd paid (which would amount to ten grand by then) would be nice. To take out a life insurance policy which would pay nothing if neither of us dies before the age of 64 is a death lottery, which I find distasteful and refuse to do.
I dislike banks, I really do. I also dislike the DWP and our new landlords for insisting we bring our move-in date forward two weeks when I made it clear this would make the money situation very tight - insisting we pick up the keys on the day we come back from our honeymoon also wasn't the nicest thing in the world to do. If we don't get this loan we are also stuck paying £13 a month for the joint bank account with their special deal thing which gives you money off contents insurace and travel insurance and all that, but I see insurance as a form of gambling anyway and am not pleased that I went out to try and get money and all I have come back with is an assurance that I am going to spend more money. If my mother finds out I have a joint bank account she will also cut my head off and fry it in garlic - it majorly goes against her policy of self-reliance and not trusting anyone else with your money, even and possibly especially your husband as they are the person who can screw you over most easily.
I keep letting myself get talked into impractical situations I can't afford, and trusting other people to do things which screws me over when they don't follow through, and I need to stop. It is far better to avoid relying on people, especially if you will be utterly screwed if they pull the rug out from under you. If I need to rely on someone else to make sure something happens, I probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Just a quick one
I did an update on my maths for the IB->ESA changeover, as I neglected to note a number of details (primarly the distinction between 24-hour days and the average 5-day, 40-hour working week, and the number of Jobcentre Plus employees obviously being signficantly less than the entire staff quotient of the DWP). Based on this revised calculation, between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2012 (in order to be finished by the 2013 deadline) one IB transfer needs to be processed every 12 seconds. Each individual Jobcentre Plus employee must process 23 claims per day, or one every 20 minutes. Considering in my experience of the recent past it took them seven weeks to process one claim, of which it took three weeks just to open the letter I sent, I stand by my previous conclusion that the whole thing is a load of nonsense drawn up by people clearly taking far more powerful drugs than me.
In other news: If the government want people to stop making Stalinist and/or 1984 references in relation to their policies, they really shouldn't be naming these policies Five Year Strategies.
...They're really not even trying anymore, are they?
In other news: If the government want people to stop making Stalinist and/or 1984 references in relation to their policies, they really shouldn't be naming these policies Five Year Strategies.
...They're really not even trying anymore, are they?
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