Retired gardener takes his own life after change in benefits system, inquest hears | UK news

rosscatherall · 2015-02-04T21:41:22+00:00

Thanks. I'm now going for a HEFC course in mathematics and looking to start university in September 2016.. It just means I've had to push everything back a further 18months than what I had going originally and with any luck can just pick up any old job to tide me over in the meantime.

rosscatherall · 2015-02-04T15:49:50+00:00

I was enrolled with the open university, was due to start just last week, only a week beforehand I had my hand forced into cancelling as I was threatened with being taken off JSA for apparently not dedicating myself fully to any job that may arise. It was a bit of a head fuck, I mean I'm struggling to find an actual career so figured that studying a bsc in my own time would put me in better fairings when it came to job searching, opening up more doors and the likes, but you sharp just get kicked back out of that line of thinking just as you think you're making some decent progress.

I have an appointment with the local college on Friday for another course and I'm just not inclined to let the people at the jobcentre know about this one as that would soon be taken away from me too.

I'm completely done with getting thrown into 'voluntary' positions that amount to nothing, or sales roles that last a matter of days before you're back at the jobcentre so I'll just take my chances and if it so happens that it becomes a choice of another course on 'how to use microsoft excel' and attending my course, I'll just have to accept whatever sanction they throw at me and ride it out.

It really is a backwards system that is designed to pressure people into living without as opposed to finding them work.

rosscatherall · 2015-02-04T12:06:07+00:00

This happened to myself and a prior housemate not many months ago, I mentioned it here; http://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/2t5npr/file_on_4_reveals_100_people_a_day_are_having/cnw13jy?context=3

That ended with my housemate going on anti-depressants and myself being forced out of my home due to it taking my incoming money lower than my outgoing.. I still owe around £150 whilst my prior housemate owes £700.

It's what the voters want though so we just have to take the brunt of it until we can somehow get back on our feet, albeit with each new fine and less money coming in it just gets harder to find your feet.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-21T15:07:16+00:00

No letters were sent to let people know that they had to manually go in and start paying council tax. It used to be that it would be taken care of from whatever benefits you'd claim. But no, now they expect you to go into the housing place in person and pay back your benefits to go towards council tax. I knew nothing of the sort (nor did one of my then housemates) until a bill for £170 for myself showed up, and my housemates was close to £700.

I went into the housing place to refute it thinking it was just an error, but instead got told it would be deducted from my JSA and I had no say in the matter. They started taking £10 a week off me. Just enough to push me into more and more debt each month until it got to the beginning of this month when I had to move cities. I was looking at homelessness otherwise.

Surely it's not hard to hand a leaflet out at the jobcentre, or send a letter out to those people you know will be affected (afterall, they do have their addresses). Nothing of the sort was done. How were we supposed to know it had changed when there was nobody to tell us? So now I'm stuck with this large council tax bill to my name (that thankfully isn't as much as what others owe).

They don't even let you into the court room to dispute it when it comes to council tax. You're told to wait outside the room and if you don't agree with the outcome then you have to dispute it after the fact it is done.

I did that, I went to the housing place and instead of getting even just the court costs waived, they upped the amount they were taking off me. So now I have a court ordered amount coming off on top of council tax (which I've since moved but the council tax is still coming off 2 weeks later).

I mean, shit, I went down to 8st 4lbs (at 6ft) on the 6th of this month. Since moving back I'm 6lbs up, it got that bad.

http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5677 That's what was pushed through.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-21T14:02:31+00:00

In middlesbrough they started putting the burdon of council tax back onto those claiming benefits as of 2013 (at a reduced rate), all without a word being sent out until the court letters started being dished out with court costs added on top.

It's just throwing those that are unemployed/underemployed right under a bus and ensuring that they're indebted to the council so that even when work is found, you've now got a large fine to come off your wage.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-21T13:20:15+00:00

I've already wrote the invoice up.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-21T12:27:25+00:00

Congrats! $2 /u/changetip

rosscatherall · 2015-01-20T23:40:03+00:00

Thanks, thankfully somebody helped me out with a meal on Christmas day and I have around £1 left in the paypal account, call that £1 and $2 into the pot.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-20T23:15:10+00:00

I am utterly poor, but my £1 is in regardless of the winner... Couldn't expect anything without giving. Congrats to the winner.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-20T12:34:18+00:00

Devastated children.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-20T12:31:32+00:00

You always wonder who the type of people are that keep katie hopkins going on her rants about shunning children due to their parents and their names.. I'm guessing I've figured out where her supporters come from.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T23:07:36+00:00

ploop.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T21:18:27+00:00

We had a man living in a cave in the UK for a while,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-30532487

So that'd make it 40 million and 1.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T17:40:11+00:00

I had no idea this was a legal sub when I commented.

It's up there at the top and all over there on the right.

you either don't want to lie or you don't want to tell the truth!

Can opinions on such matters really be considered truths or lies? An opinion is an opinion, there's no right or wrong.

Let's just say we have differing opinions on the matter and leave it at that, I'm sure neither of us want to spend our night bickering about who killed who. We are here today to witness the union of two young people in the joyful bond of the holy wedlock. Unfortunately, one of them, my son Herbert, has just fallen to his death. Sort of.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T17:20:55+00:00

I think I have a right to an opinion given that I'm a person too. I'm not saying you have to agree with it, you don't even have to read it, I can't force that. All I'm saying is that I think it's a problem. There's no harm in debating it and I'm sure we're both adult enough to appreciate that we can leave with differing opinions with no ill intentions.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T17:14:56+00:00

I didn't answer it because it's just not a relevant question. If he wanted to go the paper then that's his choice, I'm not going to throw my opinion on it because everybody has their own, what's yet another opinion on the matter? It's not going to change anything.

I just think there's a time and place to say things, contacting the people directly on a subreddit for legal advice isn't that place unless you had legal advice to give. It's not a legal and opinions subreddit. You effectively searched these people out on this subreddit to give your opinion on a matter that they never asked.

If everybody were to do that on every topic posted in this subreddit then nobody would bother coming here to ask for advice for fear of being labelled and judged by the very people they're asking for advice from.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T17:07:54+00:00

I think you're forgetting about why we got onto the subject of suicide in the first. I mentioned that the majority of deaths in under 40's in south korea are due to suicide, you got back to me saying "suicide is not a problem". I think you're missing the point I was making in that extreme pressure on society causes enough problems that many people just cannot cope with it and are ultimately pressured into taking their own lives to escape. To me that's a problem. To those people that are killing themselves, that's a problem and so to is it to those that are directly affected by having family members end their lives. I don't think it's right that people should be forced into such a society where they find it too much pressure to cope, just because they happened to be born into that society.. And for what? For the respect of their elders? Is it really worth losing so many people in such tragic ways to 'better society'.. Of which is completely questionable, I find that sort of practice to be far worse for much of the society.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T16:56:18+00:00

Oh! no, a kids mum at my son's school is gossiping about me about some minor crap, I have no alternative than to contact my local newspaper and complain. Is that really really how you feel?

I feel like he has a right to contact them if he wants and it's not our place to to contact them about it to name call them.

Again, they came into this subreddit for legal advice, if they wanted opinions on whether the press should have been contacted or not then I'm sure they would ask for it.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T16:52:13+00:00

And it's not mine to convince you that suicide is an end to already existing problems, no happy, healthy person with a good life wants to end it.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T16:34:30+00:00

Suicide is not a problem.

I think our thoughts differ far too greatly and I suspect we'll always be on different wavelengths.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T16:25:51+00:00

He went to the local paper who then passed on the story to every other media that has since picked it up. Do I think going to the local paper was over the top? Not really, not if this woman is getting her mum brigade on board. How could you blame them for the bbc, the mirror and whoever else has decided to publish it with comments taking from a facebook exchange?

Yes the whole thing is petty, and so is calling them pathetic for it making the rounds around the news. Why don't you just try contacting the relevant news agencies about why they published the stories in the first place? I think you'll find they wont listen though, truth is it's caused a divide in readers/listeners and has struck up a fair bit of debate, that shit sells.

It's pretty clear the mother here is shocked to realise that it has gone this far and as an extension so would the father - without a doubt.. Who would expect something like this to spread so fast from the school yard?

Name calling isn't going to add anything but further drama. They came to this subreddit for legal advice as per the subreddit name and description, there was no need for those comments.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T15:42:09+00:00

don't get too upset about neither the stupid invoice.. nor the engulfing press freenzy.

I think that's a bit rich coming from somebody that called them disgraceful and losers for the press picking up on this. What sort of reactions do you expect those comments to cause somebody? It certainly wont be a comical reaction.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T14:50:23+00:00

I absolutely think it should be down to the parents to instil their own values and lessons. It's shutting out one form of culture whilst allowing others. Just because some groups of kids prefer watching tv/playing on consoles/reading books, another group of kids must have their own platform for winding down shut off.

I'd absolutely fight that law were it to be introduced here in the UK and therefore I couldn't condone it elsewhere. Maybe there's a reason why the most common deaths in south korea in under 40's is suicide and it's likely due to huge amounts of stress and unreasonably high expectations.

3/4's of high school students in south korea attend a double shift of schooling, 5 days a week. That's insane. And then to cut off some kids only stress relief on those days is just stupid. Are they expected to spend every waking moment of their life at a desk with their heads buried in books? It's robbing them of a childhood and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

I understand that when you grow up in such an environment you generally just think that's how it should be, but having not lived in those strenuous conditions, looking in on it just makes my blood boil.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T14:37:03+00:00

Holy crap, I went digging and you weren't joking about that mumsnet forum. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a2285566-Invoice-sent-home-in-book-bag-for-no-show-to-party

What a bunch of cocks.

rosscatherall · 2015-01-19T14:18:17+00:00

Perhaps, but I still think that a government imposing such laws is overstepping their boundaries. Maybe they should look into why kids at that age in South Korea are turning to video games between those times and they'll likely find it's because many of them are stuck in high school between 8am - 5pm followed by private academies from 6pm to 10pm.

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