Thanks both for your incredible support and prayers. It means so much. I have just got home.
It was one of those very still and sunny mornings, the sort I really love. Stillness within and without. Five minutes before the meeting my guts kicked off and had to delay for a few minutes.
Well, I met with two people, one young and one my age. They were looking for a constructive way forward and were as kind as they could be. It helped that I had made a complaint about how the bailiffs were treating me copied to my mp, except I never got round to sending it to my mp. When I tell my story it is a sad one and they appreciated that it was. Plus they also saw how stuck I was, whilst at the same time not prepared to write the debt off. When I left I kept thinking I need a new scriptwriter for my life. It is all just too sad.
They clarified a few things, they saw I was not guilty of culpable neglect but had built up a huge debt. They said that they could not help with the bedroom tax,which my housing officer said they could, but they were right. The local authority can’t when someone is on universal credit. They said I must use a food bank. They said that if my Gp could confirm that I had a serious mental impairment that I would be exempt from council tax. I said that I would be completely stuffed re employment if we went down that route. They also said that if I was made homeless then I would be statutorily entitled to sheltered housing as I was over 55. Dont like that option either. At the end we agreed to pay on the day of my benefit 15 pounds a month reviewable after six months. They gave me their personal phone numbers. This will leave me with around 30 pounds month to live on. Better than prison proceedings though which they said would take until around June to happen. Cannot miss one payment. Bankruptcy would, of course, change all that. They will recall the debt from the bailiffs. So, all in all, a huge relief in some ways re averting prison proceedings but not re the amount they want. I still have one other court action to deal with which other bailiffs have been called in plus the inland revenue which I will start to write letters to before I go to gma in the 22nd. Now that this huge thing is out of the way, I am going to ask Pete formally to leave by the end of March. I cannot move on until he goes. I find this very hard as he and the dog have nowhere to go. But as he is only here bow a few days of the week, he must have somewhere else to go.
It seems I have two options. The first is that Life has stuffed me completely and I go down the physical and mental health impairment route or I get better and get a job for the six years I have before retirement, whilst accepting that bankruptcy stops me from working in my profession. For anyone reading this, and my story, can only illustrate how destructive a gambling addiction can be. Plus how sometimes it is very difficult to be clear about our own issues and how to resolve them. I should have asked Pete leave years ago, but what has stopped me is that I have been virtually made homeless and I don’t want to cause that sort of distress to another person. It does seem like I have a choice now between my son and Pete, and my son will always take priority. Hard decisions.
