mmm... poverty.
Mr Mazonas and I have been together for almost 5 years. When we met, I was a 19 year old uni student and he was, 21, having been homeless since he was about 18-19.

When we first moved in together, we were living off of my part-time wages and my tuition fees. Mr Mazonas was looking for work, but without success.

We were told that we weren't applicable for council tax benefit, because Mr Mazonas wasn't a student. We could only get Housing Benefit if Mr Mazonas was on Jobseekers. Mr Mazonas wasn't eligible for Jobseekers because I was a student. Even though we had only been living together a couple of months and weren't, technically, classed as a couple, we were treated as one when trying to claim.

When I finally gave in and quit my studies and got a full time job, we tried again. We couldn't get Council Tax benefit or Housing benefit unless Mr Mazonas was on Jobseekers, even though we were on a low income. Mr Mazonas STILL couldn't get Jobseekers. Why? Because he'd been made homeless so long he hadn't had much work before then, so his NI contributions were too low for him to claim anything. I couldn't apply for Council Tax or Jobseekers benefit myself, because by now we were classed as a couple.

Once my other half started lying about his past on job applications he quickly got some minimum wage factory work. Now we can claim for Council Tax and Housing Benefit, because we're both on a low income. We don't actually need it any more, though, but we're claiming it any way, because the council have been getting £90 a month off of me for the last 4 years that by rights we shouldn't have had to pay. The c@nts.
(Bunny Mazonas, Sun 29 Jul 2007, 17:29, Reply)