JSA and living with friend

Aup, Geeks!

I'm not sure if you can talk about something non-tech related on here. Is it ok to ask a question about JSA(Job Seekers Allowance) (UK only)?

It's the general discussions area for UK folks, it's not tech specific even if it looks that way at times.

As for JSA... I'm on it myself

IT Degree, 15 years experience and one job interview in 8 months.... I'm told I'm over qualified for Admin jobs and manual labour. I don't have enough documented experience with the latest technologies (last job legacy application support) for the few IT jobs that are out there.

LHA wount pay my full rent as apparently I can find cheaper than £185 a month for a rented room in a shared house, but if I moved to a one bed flat they would happily stump up £440 a month. Result of this is that my £67 a week to live on is actually £62 for all my bills, food, clothing and transport. I'd move but can't afford the deposit and in my area 80% of all available accomodation for rent is more than the LHA rates, that and the dreaded 'No DSS' tags on most property adverts.

When I changed from contributions based to income based JSA it took me 6 weeks to get the payments sorted again (they saw my JSA had stopped (contribututions) but I had to convince them I was on new format. Had it not been for savings I held I'd have run the risk of loosing my accomodation.

I'm fairly lucky. I came into this situation with some savings, an understanding landlord and some family support. If I don't find work by the summer I'm screwed, but for now I'm still keeping my head above water.

The trouble is what I'd do myself. The home PC repair market is not where I want to be and frankly I'd have a hard time competing on price with some of the operations round here. Business consulting is an option but my credibility as a new kid on the block would take considerable time to establish. Not having any funds to support myself while I do this and with the benefits system as it stands I might be able to get my housing covered (see above comments on that one!) but would have nothing to live on.

IT Tutoring is an option I've toyed with and might have to look into more closely. Having a couple of years in the education sector in examinations getting kids through GCSE IT would be reasonably easy and I have some contacts with the awarding bodies so I could get past papers etc.

I've considered making my hobby into a living. Cycling is an ever expanding market as people feel the economic pinch. I don't really want to be a bike shop and the schemes like Bike Rite don't provide a fixed income as tutors only get paid for the days they work and there is no fixed number of those in a month. It would be a lovely little pin money job if I was a kept man.

For the moment I'm applying for anything, contacting old work mates on linked in and trying to stay positive. As you can see from the time stamp on that last post of mine Insomnia is now starting to kick in and if I'm not carefull I'll be in need of the prozac before to long. At the end of the day I got myself into this mess, it's only me that can get me out of it.