Vixy News Network: Update

Heyloo! Hehehe, uhm first I'm so sorry I'm behind on comments and so on.... I have had the most annoying start to the year you could imagine. Let's do this on a month-by-month basis hehe -

October - As some of you know, I'm a Wicca witch and so Hallowe'en or Samhain as I call it: is my New Year. I'm on a work placement which, for those not sure - basically means going to an employer and working a normal day as they would, but you get no pay except your welfare or benefits. My placement is with a charity store called Emmaus who help the homeless and my job was simply to sort through the donations for the best quality clothes that we would then sell in the store. Wednesday of Hallowe'en week and I literally turn to my right, pick up sack: turn left and suffered intense pain. This plagued me for the rest of the month even at one point my doctor thought I had pluresy so sent me for xrays which turned up clear. November I'm on what we call ESA or Employment and Sickness Allowance. It works like normal welfare only you haven't got to sign on at your local government authority, nor do you have to do such intense job searching: however the criteria is thusly - in order to receive your benefits you must send a doctor's certificate (slang here we call this a 'sick note') and they then pay your support. Should this cease for -any- reason.... our benefits are stopped.

December - I had one highlight in December, Christmas Eve with my sister and her family. December 1st my doctor says I have no medical nor clinical reason to not be working so doesn't issue me a sick note. This results in a whole month of - system unavailable or bookmark has moved messages on the UK Government site for me to try and make a new claim. When I did get through all its questions, I had a letter to state my benefits for ESA were -still- ongoing. How when I cancelled them at the start, I will never know. Downside to this means I had to get through December on half my usual benefits. That means all my bills are now late and things are not looking good. December 30th I finally get given my first appointment for the new Universal Credit benefits..... but it takes 6 weeks to be processed. The result is a January of no money... so no food.

January - Best bit about January is my sister, grandmother and niece have birthdays in it. I had to ask for an advance on my benefit which they count as a loan: that I now have to pay back every month cutting the benefit by £13/ 13 GBP. That meant I had just my phone to do anything job search-related and that is why you guys haven't seen me. Finally, first week of February on the 5th: I get my first Universal Credits (UC) payment and I'm now back to well.... normal for me to catch up with all of you.

And that has been my year so far.... not working out that well if I'm honest *chuckles* but the old song is that things can only get better and so here's this fox: hoping.

Until next time, this has been your Vixy on the Inside,

love to all

Claudxxx