Ebenezer Scrooge

Monday 7th June 2010

Had a visit that afternoon from the council’s finance officer. It was to see if we were eligible for a grant to put a ramp at the back of the house.

I had been asked to have ready all bank and any savings accounts statements. The OT had said that the savings limit for the grant was quite high so didn’t think there would be a problem in getting the grant.

The officer explained that the saving limit was £6k so we would be penalised if we had anything above that level. We had.

I took exception to being penalised purely because we were savers and not spenders. We could have been saving our pennies so I could have my hip operation done privately, should the plastic man say he didn’t have any funds in his budget to do my skin graft. I’d like to see them try and worm their way out of that one…

She then asked how much John was bringing home in wages each month. I told her. While she was pressing a few buttons into her calculator, I asked would we had been eligible for a grant if we had less than £6k in savings.
“No”, she replied, looking at her calculator, “you’re over the limit”.
“What limit”, I asked.
“The limit for what the council says is enough to live on”.
“And that is”, I enquired.
“£150”, she replied.
“That’s a week”.
“No”, she said, “a month”.
“£150 a month to live on”, I stressed.
“Yes”, she replied, “that’s what the council says you can easily live on. Anyone bringing in more than that a month is refused the grant”.

I stared at her open mouthed.
“If you are marginally over the limit”, she said, “we then take into consideration your outgoings. However that doesn’t apply in your case so there would be no point”.

Even those who earn the minimum wage bring in more than £150 per month.

You couldn’t make it up !!!!!!!