Some of you who've read this know who I am, some of you don't. Those who do I think know that i'm not having a great time money wise, and this is helping me to sink deeper and deeper into despair
Currently, even though I get paid what I call a "Decent Salary", I can not afford to live. I do not pay into my employers occupational scheme, because I can't afford it. My rent takes up 40% of my take home wages, and even if the town I live in did have cheaper flats (I can not do house shares, as due to the stress of my job, I need somewhere I can just be me, with no worries), I wouldn't be able to afford the deposit. Most people say, it'll be fine, just stay at mates once you move out, until you get your deposit back, but, that doesn't come to me, it goes to the people who very very kindly paid my deposit and a couple of months rent when I moved down here.
I pay a large amount of my wages to a debt collection agency, in respect of many debts I incurred when I was a student, and the nice friendly debt collection agency, who bought up all of my debts for Pennies in the Pound, decided to wait to contact me, until 3 days before the 6yr statute of limitation, even though they had access to all addresses I was connected with...I can hear a lot of you asking why I hadn't tried to contact the companies I had the debts with previously, it can be answered quite simply. Nervous Breakdown, a forced repatriation by my family from the beautiful Northern City I was living in, for fears I would take my own life (not unfounded), and then spending 3 yrs in intense councelling, and on Incapacity Benefit. It's enough to make you forget things.
I haven't been able to pay my gas, electric, or tv licence for 4 months, because I only have £100 a month (plus or minus £10), and I need to use this to pay for my travelling with work, admittedly, I get this money back (eventually) but I have to pay it upfront...i have to take out multiple payday loans each month, just to survive, because they don't check your credit rating on the whole. Each one of these incurs quite high interest and fees each month, so to cover those, I have to take out further and further payday loans.
The worst bit about it, is, if I had a decent credit rating, I could get a loan which would be able to pay of the collection agency, the payday loans, pay my bills, and still have £400 a month "me money" but because I don't have a good one, nobody will lend me this! It's enough to force anybody into depression and despair.
It is because of this that I absolutely and utterly support the trade unions who have balloted/are balloting their members for strike action on the 30th november. These ordinary workers will be forced into the position I am currently in, paying more each month, having a reduced standard of living, and being forced into debt to survive, all because the government decided to bail out the banks who got us into this mess, who refused to give people who could afford it loans, but were more than happy to lend other companies billions, which they couldn't afford back.
All out on the 30th!
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