onlineFOCUS – News and Stuff For Rochford District since 2003

We’ve linked before to Southend blogger and writer  Jack Monroe- especially on issues of poverty and how to feed yourself on ridiculously low amounts of money.

Things are looking up for Jack .  As the BBC reports:

• Until two months ago, Jack Monroe was unemployed, and unable to claim all her benefits. She struggled to feed herself and her young son on a budget of £10 a week. Often she ate just a single meal a day.
• She started a blog on how to eat cheaply. In February she became a trainee reporter on her local paper, The Southend Echo. She has just been offered an advance of £25,000 to produce a cookbook for Penguin.

And Jack was on BBC1 at 8:40 this morning , talking about eating on £1 per day – and will be on again at 9:40!

[Youtube added April 29th]

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April 27th, 2013 | Category: Food and Drink, Money Tips, YouTube and Video | Comments (4)

From Scottish Lib Dem Blogger Caron Lindsay on the Child Benefit changes:

…..The thing that worried me, though, was that many stay at home parents, usually mothers, are given a National Insurance credit which goes towards their state pension until their youngest child is 12. What would happen to them if they were no longer claiming child benefit? Would they still get the credits towards their State Pension, or would they get a nasty surprise in a few decades’ time?

I’ve spent some time on the phone to various government helplines this morning to find out. The HMRC helpline was very helpful but when I asked the question, the person I was speaking to actually had to go and look it up and actually said she wasn’t very sure and recommended that I call the Child Benefit people.She told me that if a claim had been made and the claimant decided not to receive the payments, then they would still get the credits. I then phoned the Child Benefit line and they confirmed this, with a lot less faffing. Now that I’ve had it from two Government sources, I’m prepared to believe it.

My only concern is that this is all very well if your children are already here and you’ve made the claim. If, however, you have a baby at any point from now and your partner is a high earner, you might think that you shouldn’t even bother claiming. This would be a mistake if you are not going to go back to work. You have to make the claim to get the credit towards your pension even if you don’t end up taking the money.

I hope that makes sense. It might not affect very many people, but it’s worth taking note.

January 7th, 2013 | Category: Money Tips | Leave a comment

Southend Blogger Jack Monroe has revamped her site – It’s worth a look.

Here’s an example:

I’m often quoted as saying I spend around £10 a week on my food shopping for me and Small Boy, which is often met with a mixture of disbelief and shock, and a quick roving eye over my thin but soft-around-the-edges figure. The latest example of this was when I set up my business account for Bread And Jam, and the bank manager wanted some insight into my spending habits. “£10 a WEEK?” he said. “HOW?”

December 6th, 2012 | Category: Money Tips, Web Stuff | Leave a comment

There are some BIG misunderstandings about student loans. You only actually pay this loan back if you are earning enough money…. graduates only pay money back when they earning over £21,000 per year. And then they pay back 9% of whatever they earn above £21,000 per year. And this £21,000 level will be adjusted for inflation in future years.

After 30 years, even if you haven’t paid back a penny, the debt is wiped.

This video explains things and is described as the “best half-hour I have spent on you-tube”:

Proceeds are going to charity:

September 20th, 2012 | Category: Education, Liberal Democrats, Money Tips, Music, National Politics, YouTube and Video | Leave a comment

Nissan with bumps on roof.

If you drive on roads like the A13 you’ll find quite a few drivers are sticking to 50 mph and cruise control to save fuel.

Here’s another idea (no guarantees that it works!)

We found a new article on the Pacific Standard website that’s quiet intriguing.

It’s about a Californian deep-sea diver and inventor who’s looked at the tiny bumps on whales. He reckons that if you put the same type of bumps on car roofs you improve the aerodynamics and save on fuel:

The pods—spaced four inches apart and located 10 inches from the lip of the roof—reduced aerodynamic drag by 5 percent when a two-door VW Golf was driven at 65 miles per hour….

The pods come in loud flashy colors. Some can be permanently glued to the roof. A more expensive model attaches via magnets. Prices currently range from $60 to $100, but those, Evans said, will come down to reflect how much a driver might save in a couple of months.
Aside from the monetary relief, Evans said the pods offer drivers the opportunity do something about climate change.
“People don’t want to be told what to do; they want to do it themselves.”

The sellers of these bumps have a website here.

Does anybody fancy being a pioneer? Should County Highways invest in a set and see if they work?

June 5th, 2012 | Category: American Ideas, Green Issues, Highways & Parking, Money Tips | Leave a comment

We’ve recently added links to three Southend blogs in our right sidebar. Rather neatly , there’s one Lib Dem, one Conservative and one Labour. Though we haven’t done this out of any deliberate political balance – they are all worth a look in their own right.

Neil Monnery is a Liberal Democrat in Southend who writes in a thoughtful but frank manner.

Anna Waite is a well-known Conservative and former Borough Councillor who actually lives in Barling.

Ms Jack Monroe is a Labour blogger in Southend who writes in a pretty lively manner. Some of her recent posts are particularly interesting; she is attempting this years Living Below The Line Challenge. As she explains:

I’m a day late with this one, but I thought I’d join in with this years Live Below The Line challenge, whereby participants are challenged to live on £1 a day for food.

Having done this already when I left the Fire Service, I figure that I’m a bit more prepared than most people for how to actually prepare 3 meals a day for less than a pound. So I’ve got 4 days left, £4 to spend, and 12 meals to keep myself going on. I’ll blog my progress here…

One of her meals was carrot, cumin and kidney bean soup for 14p…

May 9th, 2012 | Category: Conservatives, Food and Drink, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Money Tips, Southend, Web Stuff | Comments (1)

The District Council is relaunching the “Shop At My Local ” scheme. They have a new team looking after the scheme from the council’s Economic Development Unit. Their aim is increase the activity around the scheme to make it more attractive and beneficial to residents…..

They currently have 572 shoppers and 416 businesses registered with the scheme, which is a good starting point. If you haven’t heard of it before, have a look at the Shop At My Local website here.

The scheme is pretty quiet at the moment. But, for example, you can get 10% off dry cleaning at Alan’s Dry Cleaners in Rochford…..

It’s worth joining because it’s FREE and if it takes off could save you money….. and help our town centres…..

October 27th, 2011 | Category: Money Tips, Retail, Web Stuff | Leave a comment

We had the followng email today from an onlinefocus reader:

Chris – I’ve just had a call from a so-called ‘National Crime Research Group’, representing SAS Security – which is a scam, as you can see here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2085601

I wondered if we might alert people that this is not what it seems?

The ‘National Crime Research Group’ are not a public body, just a private company. These people offer ‘free alarms’ , but you have to pay them to fit them for you……. so they are not free at all.

June 15th, 2010 | Category: Money Tips | Comments (2)

There’s an interesting article in the Guardian today about unemployed professional people and Jobcentres.

Key point: Some people are being told they don’t qualify for Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) because they have savings, or their spouse is working. But contributory JSA of £64.30 a week is payable to anyone who has paid national insurance for the preceding two years.

This guy wasn’t told about it though:

Magazine editor David Freedman, 38, from London, was made redundant in December and has also struggled to get help. “It’s my first time out of work since I was 24,” he says. “It was quite a shock and, because I’d only been in my job 14 months, I didn’t get redundancy pay.”

Freedman did sign on at his local Jobcentre – but only in order to qualify for the mortgage protection insurance he had taken out while working….

Freedman, whose wife is disabled but works part-time, says it took “forever” to sort out his claim and he was then told he wasn’t entitled to any form of JSA due to his wife’s salary and the fact that she had savings. “I’ve had no income for six months,” he says. “Thank God I took out mortgage protection insurance or I’d have to sell my house.”

According to government guidelines, Freedman should be entitled to weekly contributory JSA of £64.30, irrespective of his wife’s earnings or any savings. It’s not much but it can make a difference if you are struggling, yet Freedman says he wasn’t told this.

May 31st, 2009 | Category: Money Tips | Comments (8)