Chapter Twenty-Two - Budget Debate

Wednesday 22nd November

Toby had always known that going part-time wouldn't work unless he cut back his commitments in line with his hours.  He wasn't good at this.  Much as he had enjoyed setting up the IT project, he couldn't stop picking up casework and, if that involved challenging decisions, he liked to see the case through to appeal.

As a result, the IT clinic that afternoon was off to a late start.  Toby had taken Ashley and Catherine along to his morning tribunal and, although it had been allowed, he couldn't help feeling that Mr Franklin had gone to town with an audience of new advisers to impress and made more of his role of tribunal judge than strictly necessary.

'He's always an arse,' Ashley said to Catherine, when she questioned the way he had cross-examined their client.  'He stepped it up a gear today, that's all.'

'He's a bully,' Catherine noted.

'He's certainly not one of my favourites,' Toby said.  'Mr Ellis was a top bloke, but he's retired now.  Mrs Morrison can be fierce, but she's mellowed a lot.  Mr Dinage is pretty sound.'

'Really?  I've only had him once.  I thought he was a complete fuckwit.'

By the end of lunch, together in the café, Toby and Ashley had agreed to disagree about tribunal judge Dinage.  Toby hoped they had also reassured Catherine about the basic fairness of the tribunal system, at least of its independence from the DWP.  There was no real doubt that, like everything else, it favoured the respectable and articulate over the under-educated and unsuccessful.

'How did it go with that agency?' Ashley asked Catherine. 

Toby remembered the conversation from Monday.  Catherine had been going for an interview with an agency specialising in care work,

'I need to go in again on my way home.  They need a fee for my DBS check.'

Ashley disagreed. 

'If you get a job, the place you go to work can do that.  You shouldn't have to pay up front.'

'They say it works better this way, as there's no delay.  The agency manager said it can take a couple of months to come through.'

'I can, but it doesn't have to.  Care homes can get a quick basic check in a couple of days and it's only a few quid extra.  Don't let them rip you off.'

'They seem very reputable.'

'If you don't mind me asking,' Toby said.  'How much are they asking for?'

Seventy-five pounds.'

'No way!' Ashley cried.  'They are ripping you off.  It's fifty quid, tops.'

'I suppose they have admin costs to take into account.'

'It's no big deal.  They're taking the piss.'

Catherine said nothing.

'You could ask your DWP work coach if they'll cough up for it,' Toby suggested.

'I'm waiting to hear back.  The trouble is, the agency won't put me on their books without it.'

'Tell them to go whistle,' Ashley advised.  'They wouldn't have a business if people didn't play their games.'

Toby could see where Ashley was coming from but the comment seemed insensitive.  Catherine couldn't simply walk away from employment options with her family to think about. 

'Don't forget you're owed some expenses,' he reminded her.  They wouldn't pay the fee but they would at least contribute something towards it.

'I'll see Vaughan on Friday,' she replied.

Toby reminded himself that, even if she was entitled to UC, it was possible that their volunteer had some capital behind her, saved up while in work or left by her late husband.  If she wasn’t worried about claiming her travelling expenses, it was hardly his place to twist her arm to take them.  Something about Catherine’s manner made him wonder if she really was so independent.  However, before Toby could think of a way to approach this, or even to decide if he was being a good colleague or a nosy git, Catherine finished her meal and set off to catch her bus.  Ashley was away shortly afterward, then Shane Walker came in and it was IT clinic time.

Shane's help was invaluable.  He couldn't advise on benefit issues but, in practice, most of the issues that came up in the IT clinic were about using computers.  Having the younger man available to help clients set up accounts and trouble-shoot technical issues gave him more time to check their client had to claim UC and shouldn't actually be on something else, offer advice and chase up payment problems.  It also gave him the opportunity to follow the Budget announcements online, in between customer enquiries.

'Anything good?' asked Martin, dropping in to see if they needed any help and to offer a round of hot drinks.

'They're extending the young person's railcard age to thirty,' said Toby.  'That's one for you.'

'For the next three months.  Fan-fucking-tastic!'

'It'll save you a few quid if you go to see her mum by train again.'

'We won't.  I've never had such a shit journey.  Cross-Country suck.  They would have to pay me to use their badly-designed, cramped, stinking trains ever again, especially with kids,' Martin complained.  'Anything on UC?'

'They're scrapping the waiting days; I'm trying to find the small print about when.'

'Not straight away?' asked Shane, who was helping a middle-aged woman making her first claim.

'It never is.  The helpline still isn't free and they announced that was changing weeks ago.'

'No change to the work allowances?' asked Martin.

'Nothing said.'

'Uprating for inflation?'

'Nothing.'

'Bastards!'

‘What are work allowances?’ asked Shane.

‘It’s the amount you can get in wages without it affecting your Universal Credit at all,’ said Martin.  ‘When UC started, everyone got a work allowance.  It was about a hundred quid a month for a single person – not wildly generous but better than the fiver you can keep on JSA, going up to about seven hundred for a family not claiming housing costs.  It went some way to delivering on the “making work pay” promise from the Tories.  Except they slashed them all a couple of years back.  Now there’s no work allowance at all if you aren’t sick or a parent, and the most you can get is under four hundred a month.  Anything over that, you lose sixty-three pence in the pound off your UC.’

‘So any money you get is sort-of taxed at sixty-three percent?’

‘No mate,’ said Toby.  ‘Your earnings are taxed at sixty-three percent.  Unearned income comes off pound for pound.’

‘Unearned income?’

‘Other benefits, pensions and all that,’ Toby explained.

‘Which is bollocks,’ said Martin, causing Shane’s client to look sharply at him.  ‘Because you earn most of those by paying National Insurance or having deductions from your wages for them.’

‘Harsh!’

‘It is,’ Toby agreed. ‘A lot of the losers from UC are people with so-called unearned income.’

There was no more good news in the Budget for the Project’s clients.  The IT clinic had a late surge of attendees, so finished later than normal.  Shane stayed on until they finished, provisionally negotiating a lift home from his grandmother Lyn, who was stranded at the café waiting for Terry to get back from the rural foodbank.  Vaughan took a call from Father Cornelius at five-thirty, just as he was seeing the last of the clinic customers out, confirming that they were on their way.

After Vaughan had set off home and they had closed down the computers, Toby and Shane came back into the main office.  Hilary had gone home, Deepak was fetching his coat but Martin was still working. Lyn was sitting in Toby’s seat and looked to be dozing.

‘Sorry luvvie,’ she said, moving to rise.’

‘You stay put, Lyn,’ Toby said.  ‘I’ll nick the hot seat.  I’ll be off in a minute - I only want to check my appointments for tomorrow.’

This was the desk used by Tom, on his odd days in, Vaughan if he was doing any case work and now Catherine.  Toby spun the chair around to use the screen, since he had gone digital by default for his diary.  As he did so, he noticed a sheet of paper on the floor.  Assuming it was something from a client’s record that had fallen from a file, he picked it up and turned it over.

‘Anyone got a case for a Mrs Catherine Colli…?’ he asked, reading the name of the addressee.  He stopped.

‘Isn’t that the new lady’s name?’ asked Lyn.

‘Yeah,’ said Martin.

‘She must have dropped it,’ said Toby.  He quickly folded it in half and put it inside a plain envelope and sealing it, before writing his colleague’s name on it.  He hadn’t meant to pry but had seen that it was from the Council and was a refusal of a discretionary housing payment.  There had been a reference to the Benefit Cap too.  That had to mean that Catherine’s income was below the minimum the Government supposedly believed a family in her circumstances needed to live on.

‘Does she need our help, luvvie?’

Toby guessed his face must have given away his concern.  ‘I can’t really say, Lyn.’

'Of course not,' she turned to her grandson.  'Why don't you pop out to the café, Shany love?  Your granddad and the Father will be back any minute and you can give them a hand bringing things in from the van.'

Shane did as instructed. 

Toby noticed that Martin was looking at him.  ‘I’ve offered Tom my days from December,’ he said.  ‘He might not mind if…’

‘Why are you changing your plans?’ Toby said defensively.  ‘I haven’t told you anything.’

‘You don’t have to, mate.  It’s obvious there’s a problem.’

‘How?’

‘From everything you’re doing.  If there wasn’t, you wouldn’t have gone all quiet and sealed that letter away, in case it fell into the wrong hands.’

‘Yes I would.  It's private.’

Martin had been a close colleague for too long to be fooled, of course.  However, Toby didn’t wish to discuss what he had seen with them.  Lyn was so kindly, she would probably give her concern away to Catherine as soon as she saw her.  He didn’t know his new colleague that well, but if there was one thing Toby had figured out about Catherine, it was that she was a private, rather proud person who would be mortified if she thought her troubles were widely known around the office.

'If she's in trouble, it would be silly not to let us help her, luvvie,' said Lyn.  'It's what we do for everyone else who comes here, isn't it?'

'They ask, Lyn.  Catherine hasn't.'

'Perhaps she was going to,' Martin suggested.  'What if she brought whatever that is in to show us and wanted our advice about it?'

'More likely she was looking up what to do about it,' Toby replied.  'Or taking it up to the coun...'  Toby stopped himself too late.

'If she's behind with her Council Tax, Deepak's your man,' Martin reminded him. 'His cousin...'

'I didn't say it was Council Tax, did I?'

'Whatever it is, if a couple of days a week here for the rest of this year would help, I don't reckon Tom would mind.  He and Hilary will have plenty to keep them busy.  I bet Tom would be just as happy not to have those days yet.  He can take on Hilary's spare ones.'

'That won't work, luvvie,' Lyn said.  'They'd never see each other if they shared the same job.  They'd be like the little people on one of those old-fashioned barometers.'

Martin had no idea what Lyn was talking about, so she had to explain it to him.

'Of course, they needn't share Hilary's actual days,' Martin concluded.  'If H and I work opposite ends of the week, they could do the same days.'

'Well then, I think that's settled,' said Lyn.  'You have a quiet word with Tom and tell him we've had a chat and we're worried about our new lady.  Then, when Catherine comes in on Friday, you offer her your hours.'

'If she comes in,' said Martin.  'She might have got a job through that agency.'

'I'm sure she'd be much happier here, luvvie.'

'You can't directly offer her the hours,' Toby argued.  'She'll see it as charity, especially if she thinks we all know what that bit of paper was about.  She might say no, to save face.'

'Then I'll just mention I'm after cover for a few months, when we're getting ready to start the day,' said Martin.

'What if someone else asks for the time?' said Toby. 

'Who?' 

'Deepak might want full-time.'

'I doubt it,' said Martin.

'Well, Ashley might ask for more hours, or someone else.'  Toby suddenly felt insensitive for not even considering that Lyn might have appreciated some paid hours as permitted work in the run-up to Christmas. 

'I'm alright, luvvie,' she said.

'So I'll ask when Ashley's not in.'

'That's hardly ethical either, though, is it mate?  We don't know that Ashley doesn't want the hours.  She might need the money as much as Catherine.'

'So what the fuck do you want me to do?'  Martin snapped.  'Don't ask her directly, because she'll be offended.  Don't ask everyone, in case the wrong person puts their hand up.  I wish I'd left it that Tom would cover it.'

'You could,' said Lyn.  'And then Hilary could ask Catherine if she would mind doing them this coming month, because they're moving and he'll be busy.'

'That's a great idea!' said Martin.

'I thought you'd say that,' Lyn laughed.

It was, Toby had to concede, a clever solution and, as neither Tom nor Hilary knew about the letter, he might even be able to plant the idea with them, without even hinting that Catherine needed the money.