Side hustles

[grenfell]

That’s not graft though. That’s what I like to do,so it doesn’t ( for me) class as work.

That's the best sort of side hustle though , income with no or very little work , physical work , involved. You'll never get rich grafting...

After my recent illness,and my wife’s particularly,along with what it seems will be a sh*t pension,I ain’t doing anymore than I have to. I have never been lazy ,but now I need to ease off.

It could be argued that a pension is a lazy way to provide in that there's no physical work involved , just pay in the money , let it grow and reap the benefits later . It's not like physically growing , harvesting and preserving food for over the winter months for example. Course you still have to work to get the money in the first place but it's not quite like putting it in a jar on the shelf. Perhaps a better term than lazy would be smart and that's the sort of side hustle that is ideal , income with little or no effort. I also suppose that cash in hand jobs are probably more attractive. Even working for a case of beer strictly speaking should be declared for tax purposes but this whole side hustle thing seems to be something of a grey area in that respect.

[Arzosah]

Even working for a case of beer strictly speaking should be declared for tax purposes but this whole side hustle thing seems to be something of a grey area in that respect.

Masses of grey, its true. My income from mystery shopping had to be declared (at the time, don't know if that's changed) but the odd £50 from You Gov didn't.

[grenfell]

Going slightly off topic but when I was made redundant in 2011 I went to the dole office to sign on and they told me what I would get and added that I can earn £5 as well. "£5 " I said " what , an hour? " . "No" came the reply "£5 a week" to which I replied that I probably would get more doing a paper round or just walking around the town centre picking up dropped coins.

[Frnc]

Going slightly off topic but when I was made redundant in 2011 I went to the dole office to sign on and they told me what I would get and added that I can earn £5 as well. "£5 " I said " what , an hour? " . "No" came the reply "£5 a week" to which I replied that I probably would get more doing a paper round or just walking around the town centre picking up dropped coins.

I had to claim when I became disabled, had to stop being a tradesperson, and got severe anxiety*. I thought I would get ESA automatically as stress could worsen the eye disease I had that can cause blindness. But the *******s gave me Nil Points. However they had to pay me til it got to court, where again they ignored my doctor, medical conditions, disability, severe anxiety and risk of blindness. Then I claimed Jobseekers for a while. They stopped my money, saying I wasn't looking hard enough, just after I went for an interview, which I'd prepared for with someone who I knew who worked at the company. Eventually they said I wasn't entitled, because I had lodgers, but they couldn't ask for the money back.

* among other things, a person at the tax office was trying to make me pay my tax twice as punishment for a minor error. They have a weird system where I was supposed to pay it twice and then claim one lot back. Because I didn't know that, they wanted to fine me, ie for me to pay it twice but NOT claim one lot back, as punishment. I got the fine reduced to nil when my MP wrote them a letter plus I told them about stress risking worsening my eye disease that can cause bindness. I think the boss of the person who was persecuting me got involved.

[grenfell]

Doesn't sound a very pleasent experand I really don't envy you for that. I hope the medical conditions have improved. Miny experience was simpler but left me cynical. The firm I worked for went insolvent. We had gone to work as normal and around 9.30 were all asked to report to the site office. There we were told the job is closed as of now , collect your tools and go back to the yard. A few phone calls confirmed everyone had the same message. Back at base we were handed a form to fill in so the government would pay the redundancy , that's it go home. What wasn't explained was the severence pay. I was due for 12 weeks severence ( paid at £400 per week back in 2011) and that was paid after the 12 week period. I had signed on for job seekers . I did find another job within a month but found that that meant I lost two months of severence pay and to add to that I was taxed on the month I was allowed to keep but had to also pay back any job seekers allowance I had claimed. At one point I mentioned claiming carers allowance as my parents were in poor health. The man at the dole office ran off , came back with a form and said "fill this in for carers allowance. It's the same as job seekers but it's off our books and onto another department" . That to me showed their real intent to make themselves look good rather than offering real help.
As it happened I lost my parents a couple of months later and then was made redundant again shortly after that. As the first experience had left me feeling cynical I stayed on the dole and renovated my parents house rather than trying to properly find another job. Again a bit of a lack of communication but staying out of work for six months made me eligible for a grant to start a business which I took , so things worked out in the end.
I have a friend who has recently been made redundant and I can see how things have changed. He has had to do more computer work , telephone interviews and has been sent on unpaid work experience.

[Frnc]

Doesn't sound a very pleasent experand I really don't envy you for that. I hope the medical conditions have improved.

Mostly, thanks. Eye disease stopped, got discharged, which the consultant said was rare, so I was lucky (had it for 30 years and have permanent eye/sight damage though). I cured my left shoulder, which had frozen, with stretching. Got on top of my anxiety with meds and counselling. Knees and back are still knackered though.
Your experience sounds bad, and probably all too common.

[Vitamin c]

You only have to look at the treatment of long covid suffers in Britain 2.4 million most of whome have it from the first wave .
Most are no better after 2.5 years most can't work because of it .
No special help from government little help from nhs .
Sweped under the carpet.

This is the real reason their's so many job vacancies not Europeans going home and the next wave will make 100s of thousands more poor folk sick.

[jansman]

You only have to look at the treatment of long covid suffers in Britain 2.4 million most of whome have it from the first wave .
Most are no better after 2.5 years most can't work because of it .
No special help from government little help from nhs .
Sweped under the carpet.

This is the real reason their's so many job vacancies not Europeans going home and the next wave will make 100s of thousands more poor folk sick.

The furlough caused a LOT in the hospitality,pubs,restaurants and the like to take a look at cr#p hours and wages,along with cr#p and horrible customers! My own game,butchery,is short of staff too,for the same reasons. Folks don’t want non-weekends either. One place I work has a takeaway food outlet,and they cannot get staff,and I am not surprised,as they have applicants who want a proper two day weekend,like so many others! And the company’s management don’t get it!

The poultry and slaughter system can’t get staff,as they all went back to Poland and Lithuania- YES ,they didn’t want to stay after the UK decided that being European was a bad idea Well now there’s so many firms who can’t get staff,it looks like leaving Europe wasn’t such a good idea,but I digress…

There’s also the 50 + year olds like my wife and myself,who have grafted for 40 + years,and after Furlough,we said “stuff it”. The shortage of staff has nothing to do with poorly people from COVID.

[grenfell]

Doesn't sound a very pleasent experand I really don't envy you for that. I hope the medical conditions have improved.

Mostly, thanks. Eye disease stopped, got discharged, which the consultant said was rare, so I was lucky (had it for 30 years and have permanent eye/sight damage though). I cured my left shoulder, which had frozen, with stretching. Got on top of my anxiety with meds and counselling. Knees and back are still knackered though.
Your experience sounds bad, and probably all too common.

Good to hear your conditions are going the right way. I know what you mean with regards to knees and backs. I'm not too bad but if I'm doing a job such as skirting where I'm up and down all day long then my legs ache by the end of the day.
I suppose my experience with redundancy and the benefits system wasn't in retrospect too bad. I did get benefits and it all worked out in the end , it's just the woeful state of communication that irritated me. But then that lack of communication seems endemic throughout our society as one industry , department and even services like the police forces don't seem to talk to each other and share information.. Apologies to myself for going off topic

[Arzosah]

it's just the woeful state of communication that irritated me. But then that lack of communication seems endemic throughout our society as one industry , department and even services like the police forces don't seem to talk to each other and share information.. Apologies to myself for going off topic

Actually, I think that bad communication from official bodies could well be a useful prep topic to think about. If its confirming conversations, it could be anything from writing on twitter, facebook, email, text, sending an actual handwritten letter, sending a copy to a manager, or *the* manager. Depending on the context, talking to the police, weights and measures, their local paper, an ombudsman, a specialist forum. Making sure you know their complaints procedure, not letting them wriggle off the hook because you haven't dotted an "i" the way they say they want. There's a lot of chat buttons about these days - I regularly take a picture of the conversation as its happening, the first time I used one, they wanted £10 to send me a copy of the chat that I'd been a part of!

And one thing above all - write it down, for yourself, who said what where, and when, and be prepared to produce it to any officials that seem to be on your side.

People may remember my Sainsbury mastercard ID was stolen/hacked - Sainbury themselves put me through absolute hell, but I had the card and didn't have any dodgy transactions. The clincher came when I was actually talking to them on the phone and they got immediate notice of attempted use hundreds of miles away from where I was. They ended up paying me £750 compensation, as well as taking the hit for the fraud themselves. I did ask for more when I found out they destroyed the original document they demanded as part of their ID process, but they turned that down. Never hurts to carry on negotiating as far as you can, though