Vote 'No' To An Increase In National Insurance Rates

You can't alas, do anything much about last week's Budget in the short term - although, of course, you can choose to vote for a party that will produce another, and hopefully less overtly political one in what I sincerely trust will not be the very long term.

However, you do still have time to say 'NO' to the proposed rise in National Insurance Rates by signing the Petition . You can find more information about the Petition on the Federation of Small Businesses website.

Please take the time to sign the Petition today - and don't be put off by the fact that the on-line form provided asks you to fill in your 'Company'. A 'Company' is a 'business' and if you are unemployed your 'business' is getting a job - so be creative. Put 'unemployed' or 'getting a job' or 'wanting work' -or whatever else works! - in the appropriate box.

Don't be put off, either, by the fact that the advertised signatories are large Companies. Your veto of the proposal is of equal importance - and will be recognised as such.

Given the numbers of people who are out of work at the moment, and its potential effect upon them, the proposed one per cent rise in National Insurance rates is a thoroughly disgraceful idea - and never mind that it isn't scheduled to come into effect until April 2011. April 2011 will be here soon enough - so this is not the time to sit down, wait for it to arrive, and hope for the best.

Make no mistake. The proposed rise in National Insurance rates is actually a tax on jobs - and if it goes into effect, it's going to mean fewer jobs, slower recovery, and yet more people having to sign on.

I have no idea what impact the Petition will have - but it's impact will certainly increase in proportion to it's length. So don't just sign it and forget it. Pass the information on. Get everyone you know to sign it.

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com/

Information, Information, Information

I found Careers in Collections more or less by accident. In fact I found them because I follow Philip King , the CEO of The Institute of Credit Management , on Twitter , and Careers in Credit Collections follows him.

If you're actually looking for a career in collections - and you've got experience in collections - then you'll find twenty-one jobs on that site alone. Those twenty-one jobs though, aren't the point of this post.

The real point is that there are opportunities all over the internet - but you may not find them if you don't use the internet fully - and with discrimination.

I have to say that I didn't see the point of Twitter when I first looked at it - too many people with nothing to say, and all of them saying it far too often - but I've come to realise that Twitter is a very useful tool. I didn't see the point of LinkedIn or Naymz either - but I see the point of them, now, too.

I'm not looking for a job - I'm looking for business - but I stumble over job advertisements all the time. I find them by accident, because I happen to follow somebody on Twitter - or somebody happens to follow me. I find them because I joined Groups on LinkedIn and they turn up as advertisements in my in-box. They come in occasionally via Naymz - and sometimes even via Ecademy .

It was time-consuming - and frankly quite boring - to fill in all those profiles and join all those Groups that bring me in all that information. But it was worth it. Use the internet. Get everything out of it that you can.

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com/

The Beauty of Asking Yourself Questions

You can be quite unhappy without knowing why.

You can want to change something without knowing quite what.

You can want to change three or more specific things, but dither about changing any of them because you can't make your mind up where to start.

The beauty of asking yourself questions is that is that you get more than you bargain for when you answer them.

Want to see? Print this post, then write out the answers to these questions. Take your time! It's likely you'll have to think about some of them...

• If you work, does your work satisfy you? If not, why not?


• If you are a home-maker, are you satisfied with your role? If not, why not?


• What do you like to do in your spare time?


• What would you like to do that you are not doing now?


• What is stopping you doing those things?


• What steps do you think you could take to make those things a reality in the future?


• What do you want out of life?


• Where do you see yourself in five years time?


• What are the bad habits you would like to overcome?


• What are your weaknesses that can be worked on?


• What are your strengths that can be worked with?


• What would you like to achieve in the short term?


• What are your long-term goals?


• Do you have overly high, or overly low, expectations of yourself and others?


• If so, where do you believe those expectations originated?


• In what kinds of situations do you most readily lose control?


• In which situations are you best able to keep self-control?


• How would you describe yourself?


• Which of your feelings, thoughts, or behaviours would you like to change?


• What benefits do you believe you would gain from understanding yourself better?


• If suddenly one morning you discovered that your biggest problem had disappeared and no longer troubled you, what would be different?

If you answer the questions as honestly as you can, you'll get some insight right away - but your unconscious mind will continue to process what you've written for some time, so that fresh questions, new ideas, solutions to problems (and perhaps gradual changes in habits or attitudes) will occur quite naturally over a period and continue to manifest themselves for several weeks or months afterwards without your necessarily being conscious of the reasons for them. Which is the beauty of asking yourself questions...

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com/

Council Tax Benefit - And How to Deal With Bailiffs

According to the Local Government Association, £1.8 billion in Council Tax Benefit goes unclaimed.

Check on-line with DirectGov. You can use the form provided to see whether you are entitled to Council Tax Benefit.

This is particularly important if you think you may have a problem paying your Council Tax.

The Citizens Advice Bureau has reported a thirty per cent rise in the numbers of people seeking help to deal with Bailiffs trying to collect Council Tax over the last three years - and more and more Councils are using Bailiffs to collect the tax.

Quite apart from the fact that nobody wants a Bailiff on the doorstep - they cost money. Which brings me to another point.

If you have to deal with a Bailiff, find out (from your local Citizens Advice Bureau) what their legitimate charges are.

Bailiffs are not regulated - and are unlikely to be regulated for at least two years - and there have been instances where Bailiffs have grossly over-charged debtors to collect Council Tax.

It's worthwhile in any event to know your law as far as Bailiffs are concerned. You can find out all about that by going to The UK Insolvency Helpline and look for "Debt Basics - Bailiff Guide".

Find out what you are entitled to - and know your rights!

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Fuel Bills, Getting Help to Pay Them - and Cutting Them Down

We've just got in our latest fuel bill for the winter. They come every couple of months here - and this one was a lot less than it might have been, thanks to something very French, called 'Paraffin' - and I'll get to the beauties of paraffin in a minute.

In the meantime - and with fuel bills in mind - if you have problems meeting your energy bills there are various places you can find help:

British Gas Energy Trust offers grants to individuals and families to meet arrears of energy charges and other household bills. Look at their website to read more about what they offer and see their on-line application form.

EDF Energy Trust offers grants and assistance to account-holding customers to help with energy and household debts and costs.

There are also various Government programmes - like Warm Front England - which you can find on http://www.direct.gov.uk by using the search box on the upper right hand side of the site.

Anyway - coming back to France and paraffin - we'd forgotten about paraffin until we decided to live here. And then we discovered - as most French people seem to know - that paraffin is very cheap, that it doesn't smell any more, and that paraffin heaters (and particularly Zibro paraffin heaters) are attractive and portable, and very, very safe.

We were doubtful about using paraffin, but this year - this very cold year! - has changed our minds. Paraffin - even considering the initial price of buying something like a Zibro heater - is cheap and efficient. Much cheaper, and much more efficient, we found, than using electrcity or gas. Paraffin is worth a thought - if not this year, then next.

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Not About Staying Solvent - Just About Staying Sane

For several days now I've been listening to a radio advert on Talksport.

The advertisement advises everyone to look out for people who don't talk to their neighbours; people who pay cash because they don't have a bank card, and people who close their curtains because they live on a main road.

Know somebody like that? You probably do - and it's probably your grandmother.

The advertisement is Government generated and intended to alert everyone to the existence of potential terrorists. God only knows what lunatic thought it up - and how many completely harmless people are going to be reported by their neighbours simply because they prefer to keep themselves to themselves, don't appreciate fumes and noise, and have decided that paying on tick is a lousy idea.

Naturally, we should all be on our guard against terrorism - and God knows, thirty plus years on we should be good enough at that by now! - but I very strongly disapprove of the Government inviting people to spy on their neighbours and take part in something that could very easily become a witch hunt. And I think we should all beware of becoming part of something like that - either willingly, or by default.

Obviously, if you've a genuine concern you should report it - but forget the advert. Use your own common sense, your own local knowledge, and your own criteria.

I'm sorry that this post isn't about redundancy or staying solvent. I do think, though, it's about staying sane!

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com/

Unfortunately, this advertisement reminded me of the instructions given to German children in the 1930's. They were encouraged to report their neighbours - and even their parents - to the authorities. And we all know where that led. Don't go there.

Geoffrey - http://www.metlissbarfield.com/

This sounds less like an injunction to love thy neighbour than to dump thy neighbour. Don't like it at all.

Bill - http://www.therapypartnership.com/

Spring Depression?

Most people get a lift from the arrival of Spring - but most people isn't everybody. Some people find Spring very depressing indeed.

Sometimes that can be due to on-going non-seasonal depression - in which case anti-depressants are the obvious answer - but seasonal depression isn't an on-going state, and it needs to be treated differently.

If you do not suffer from 'non-seasonal depression' (and you would certainly know if you were suffering from it!) and find that you regularly get depressed in Spring, then it's worth checking to see whether you are a victim of one or more allergies - specifically an allergy to pollen or mold.

It's pretty much common knowledge that any allergy can make you feel physically pretty terrible all round - but not so many people recognise that an allergy can make you feel mentally awful as well, and bring up all the classic symptoms of depression. And mold, incidentally, grows particularly well when it warms up and rains...

Obviously, if you're feeling wretched, then you need to see a Doctor - but make sure, if your depression only attacks you at certain times of the year, that you explain that fact very carefully. Anti-depressants will not make not make any impact on an allergy - but lots of other, and more appropriate drugs, certainly will.

And no - whether you are non-seasonally or seasonally depressed, you can't handle it by yourself. Depression of any kind - and there are many, many, different kinds of depression - can be a very dangerous condition. If you are suffering from it - get help.

Bill - http://www.therapypartnership.com/

Bankruptcy Can Be a Good Option - But

Bankruptcy can be a very good option if you are in serious financial difficulty - it is certainly a better option than living with perpetual worry and uncertainty - but if you are looking to go down that route, please do take advice first from someone who can explain all the options and all the consequences fully.

The Government is presently proposing to reduce bankruptcy procedure to an on-line 'box ticking' exercise. The object is to remove the stigma attached to bankruptcy and reduce the delay many debtors experience between the presentation of the Petition and the making of the Bankruptcy Order.

On the face of it, this looks like a very good idea - but it isn't, because advice isn't part of the 'box-ticking' package.

Bankruptcy is a very serious step to take and it needs to be treated as such. Anyone considering bankruptcy needs to talk it through first at a face-to-face interview with someone who knows and understands all of the options available to people in serious financial difficulty. You will be able to get help and advice as to whether bankruptcy is the best option for you from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or from a Debt Charity.

Could Be the Year to Get Rid of the Lawn

My father was - along with a lot of other things! - a professional gardener, and he had an absolute hatred of lawns, however small. Grass was, he said, greedy and expensive unless something useful was eating it.

By 'something useful', he meant 'something edible' - and I recall that both of my parents could be quite reticent about the 'useful things' that they and their neighbours had kept in the back gardens of Wednesbury Road, Walsall during the war. Like communally owned, privately slaughtered (and probably illegal!) pigs and sheep...

Anyway! Coming back to lawns and grass, my father was quite right. Grass really is very greedy, very expensive, and very wasteful unless something useful is eating it.

No sheep? Get rid of the grass and grow something you can eat yourself. You'll need to dig it up, of course - and you'll need to do it soon. And afterwards you'll need to put back the nutrients that grass is so greedy of - but considering the price of veg today you'll find it worthwhile to make the effort and pay for the fertiliser and the seeds.

By the way - if you don't have a lawn, don't worry - my father was just as fanatical about window boxes and - when they appeared - 'Grow Bags' that can be propped against a wall, or set out on a balcony. And he was keen on growing vegetables and herbs along with the flowers in borders. He thought that vegetables could be just as ornamental as flowers - and I think he was right.

If you've never grown anything - give it a go! You can get lots of advice on-line - and lots of things will grow anywhere without too much encouragement. A few years ago, I walked past a small museum behind Spitalfields market. Something was growing out of the cracks in the pavement, and clinging to the front of the house. It had very pretty red flowers. Took me a minute to recognise it. It was runner beans. Dad would have loved that.

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com/

Free Credit File Service

Equifax compiles credit reporting data and creates a credit report reflecting your personal credit history. Under normal circumstances Equifax would provide you with an initial free report as part of a 30 day trial period, after which you would have to pay for information.

At the moment, however, Equifax has committed itself to help the debt distressed, and is working with all the key debt advice charities to provide free access to credit files.

If you are working with an established debt advice charity to get your financial situation sorted out, you can use Equifax's free credit file service. You will need to request your credit file from Equifax yourself, using a request form and a supporting letter from the debt advice charity. Your free credit report will arrive by post within 7 days of your request.

To find out whether Equifax is working with your debt advice charity visit your local Citizens Advice Bureau or check with The Citizens Advice Organisation on line.