After my somewhat frustrating experience with the benefits agency, I decide I would visit the local Citizens Advice Bureau on my way home, if for no other reason than to make an appointment.
What a truly wonderful experience. From the moment I walked through the door, I felt important. Here were people who's only goal was to help. Appointment? Not a bit of it. "Take a seat Sir, someone will be with you shortly"
And true to their word, an advisor was indeed with me shortly. She took me to a private room and spoke to me with such genuine concern, that she reminded me of my wise old grandmother who comforted me the day after my first true love broke my heart at the age of eleven (not that the advisor was particularly old you understand.) But coupled with her concern was a depth and breadth of knowledge that made me envious. However, not content with the mass of information she stored in her head, she then consulted with a colleague, consulted with a rather weighty benefits publication and consulted with her computer before giving me a definitive answer to my question. And you know what? I never for one moment believed the answer may be incorrect. Of course she may prove to be wrong when we eventually make our claim, but somehow I very much doubt it.
It does however beg the question why the 'Customer Services Floor Walkers' at the benefits office didn't have access to the same knowledge base.
If it's of any help to anyone, the question I wanted answered was whether as 'Contribution Based Job Seekers' we would be eligible to the Governments 'Support for Mortgage Interest' scheme as the .gov website suggests it is only available to 'Income Based Job Seekers' which we would not become until six months after making our claim. This is important because if the latter was true we would effectively have to wait for a total of 39 weeks before we could get help with our mortgage. If the former is true, then we would only have to wait 13 weeks. The benefits agency help line gave me two different answers, the wonderful advisor at CAB gave me the answer I wanted, so my spirits at this moment in time are lifted and I can try and enjoy the rest of my day.
Whilst on the subject of helpful people, I would just like to thank a gentleman called David, who runs a debt charity, for all his support over the past week, it's much appreciated. David and I are not consulting on any formal arrangement at the moment so I won't go into detail at this stage about his charity or what it does, but I just wanted to acknowledge him and thank him for the e mail exchanges we have been having.
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