Chapter Thirty-Eight - Work Allowance

Friday 8th December

'Hilary?  Hi.  I'm sorry, I'm going to be late in again this morning.  I have to go to the school first.  Hopefully, I'll be with you before the IT clinic starts.  I'm so sorry this has happened.  I'll explain when I see you.'

Hilary had sounded perfectly happy but Catherine hated to let anyone down.  She could see no alternative, however.  Clearly, she needed to see both girls safely to school and, in addition, to update Ms Harrison on Leo Finn's latest threat.

She decided not to worry Aunty Ruby and, although she laughed when Alex suggested installing Ralph as look-out and bodyguard for their former neighbour and old friend, Catherine later decided she would confide in him about what had now been said, much to Kirsty's disgust. 

‘God!  Like it isn’t bad enough you had lunch with him, now you’re inviting him here again!  You had better not fancy him!’

‘I don’t,’ Catherine answered sharply.  ‘But you had better show some manners when he gets here, or clear off up to your room beforehand.  I don’t have time for your tantrums, miss.’

Kirsty sat in resentful silence when the doorbell announced their guest’s arrival.  Alex let him in, all smiles.  She at least seemed to have decided that he posed no threat to her father’s memory.

Ralph gave Catherine PCSO Sue's card.  'You could do worse than give her a call, you know,' he suggested.

She did.  Fortunately, PCSO Sue was on duty.  She promised to 'take a wander' round Ruby's neighbourhood, which was a regular part of her routine patrol anyway. 

'You need to make a formal report about this threat,' Sue concluded.  @it may be nothing, but then again…’

'I will,' Catherine promised. 

'What about you and the girls?' Ralph asked.  'Will you be safe tonight?  If you'd like me to...'

'No way!' Kirsty sneered.  'We don't want a strange bloke in our house!'

'I was going to ask your mother if she would like me to drive you all to the police station, actually,' said Ralph.  'Or, if you didn’t feel safe here, whether I could help find you a hotel for the night?'

'Yeah, right...'  Kirsty was unconvinced.

'That's very kind of you, Ralph,' Catherine answered.  'I'm sure Leo Finn's bark is worse than his bite and we'll be quite safe, but thank you for being such a gentleman.'

She glowered at Kirsty, who was making mock vomiting noises.  Kirsty slunk out.  After a refill of his coffee cup and a chat about his horticultural plans for the following year, Ralph said a polite goodnight to Alex and Catherine saw him to the door.

‘Thanks again, Ralph.  You’re very kind but I’m sure we’ll be fine.’

‘As long as you’re quite sure.  I don’t mind staying - sleeping on your sofa, of course - if that would make you feel safer.’

‘Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about it,’ Catherine said.  ‘I’m not sure I could handle the drama from Kirsty.’

Ralph laughed gently. 

‘I quite understand.  Don’t be afraid to call if there’s anything I can do.’

‘Thank you.’

Catherine waved and closed the door.

The next morning, Ms Harrison was very displeased to learn that Leo Finn had been on the premises, as he had been formerly excluded after the previous incident. 

'I've asked any pupils who have borrowed money or been offered loans by fellow students or their family members to contact me, in confidence,' she told Catherine.  'I've also put some information about loan sharks and the hot line to report them in this week's newsletter.  Rest assured, Alex and Kirsty will be completely safe here, while you're at work.  I can’t name names, but I can tell you, you are not the only family to have issues with Leo Finn and his family.'

Waiting for her bus, Catherine felt sufficiently reassured to keep up a cheerful conversation when she found Aunty Ruby was travelling to town with her.  Ruby showed her a leaflet which had been dropped through her door the evening before, offering a home safety check from the local police.

'I don't know.  They can find time for all these community things, but when it comes to catching real criminals and stopping all this terrorism, where are they?' the old lady grumbled.

'You should ask them to do this,' Catherine urged.  'It’s free.  You can't be too careful.'

'I suppose not, with all these foreigners about...'

Catherine helpfully got her phone out and arranged for the PCSO to call on Monday afternoon.

'Don't forget,' she said, writing the time and the officer's name on the leaflet.

She reached the Community Café twenty minutes after the IT clinic had started.  Toby and Ashley were run off their feet and, consequently, delighted to see her.

‘I’m so sorry I’m…’

‘No worries,’ Toby interrupted.  ‘H said you were held up.  Something to do with having to go to school, she said.  As a fellow parent, that’s familiar territory.’

Now was not the time to explain why her visit to the school might be different to Toby’s, although Catherine resolved to tell either Toby or Hilary more, if only because she wouldn’t be able to stay later to make up time as she wanted to meet the girls after school. 

During a lull, Ashley wandered over for a quiet chat, guiding her colleague to a quiet corner.

‘Tell me to get lost if this is none of my business,’ she said.  ‘But you get UC, don’t you?’

‘I do, yes.’  Catherine assumed the younger woman had a query about how it worked in practice, maybe for families or for widows.

‘I’ve just had a cunning plan,’ Ash said mischievously.

‘What about?’

‘About your wages and the work allowances.  It was helping Pete over there check his award.  He’s on zero hours, so his wages are different every month.  Sometimes, it’s so little it’s well below the work allowance for a family and it doesn’t affect his UC at all.  Another month, it’s well over and takes a chunk out of it, but he doesn’t get any credit for not using his full allowance the month before.  You can’t carry left-over work allowance forward to the next month.’

‘I know.’

‘Well, that’s going to happen with you, if you get one payment for this month’s work, just before Christmas.  They’ll disregard a hundred and ninety-two quid and taper the rest.’

‘I know.’

‘So why not ask Vaughan for an advance, like I had to?  If he pays your wages in two halves, in different assessment periods, you’ll get two work allowances.’

Catherine was less excited about Ashley’s idea than by the news that she should be paid before Christmas.  She had assumed her wages would be paid between Christmas and New Year, too late to meet Mr Steven’s deadline for January’s rent.

‘Are you sure we’re paid before Christmas anyway?’

‘Vaughan said at the team meeting that he’s sorting the payroll for the twenty-second, the Friday before Christmas.  You must have missed it.’

Catherine had missed the first couple of items on Wednesday, as she had arrived late.

‘You could still ask him to do you an advance sooner, if it helps.’

‘I don’t want to be a nuisance, especially if he has extra work anyway…’

Ashley almost looked hurt.  Before Catherine could say anything more, to offer some thanks and gratitude for the thought, there was a call for assistance from one of their clients.  Ash hurried away to help.  Catherine soon had someone to assist too.  There was no break until closing time and that came later than intended, with two clients needing urgent assistance to make claims before the weekend.  Finally, they left the IT room and Toby closed the door behind them.

‘Lunch, ladies!’ he said, gallantly offering them an arm each. 

‘Women – or colleagues, please!’ countered Ashley.

Catherine joked that she didn’t mind being a lady, a woman, a colleague or a little piece of each. 

Ashley looked unimpressed. 

Catherine realised she had inadvertently upset her again. 

‘I’m sorry, Ashley, you’re quite entitled to insist on the form of address you prefer,’ she said hastily.  ‘And I should have been more grateful to you for that idea about the work allowance.  I’m going to be short on my UC this month if the sanction goes ahead…’

‘Sanction?’ asked Ashley.

‘I missed an appointment with my work coach.’

‘How come?’ Toby queried.

Catherine laughed ironically.  ‘Because I was working here.’

‘Didn’t you tell him?’ 

‘I did, Toby.  He’s admitted it was his error but he also says my jobsearch fell short of my claimant commitment, so the sanction is likely to go through anyway.’

‘For fuck’s sake!’ Ashley cried.  ‘That’s ridiculous.  You have an actual job and you’re being sanctioned for doing it?’

‘Colin says not, but it feels like it.’

‘What a dick!’

‘Anyway, I’m going to see if Vaughan is in the office and have a quiet word.’

‘He is,’ said Deepak, who had just stepped out to get his midday meal.  ‘If you go in now, you’ll catch him.’

Catherine realised that Ashley’s scheme would only work if her advance was paid before the end of her current monthly assessment period.  That was next Tuesday.  Any later, and her payments would both fall in the same UC month.

She found Vaughan, Hilary and Martin talking together.

‘Ah!  The very person.’ said Vaughan.  ‘Most fortuitous.  Please, come and join us.’

Catherine sat down.  Despite Vaughan’s reassuring manner, she was worried that her repeated lateness was an issue.

‘I can make up the hours I missed next Tuesday, if that would help,’ she said.

‘Hours you missed?’ Hilary said.  ‘It would be really rather churlish of us to insist on that, when you were volunteering here before we started paying you.  Please, don’t feel obliged to do anything of the sort.  I’m sure you wouldn’t have been late if there wasn’t a very good reason for it.’

‘As long as you’re sure.’

‘Absolutely.  That’s not what we wanted to speak to you about at all.’  Hilary turned to Martin.  ‘Perhaps you might like to explain?’

‘Okay.  It’s like this, Catherine.  We wondered if you could change your days from the end of the week to the beginning – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, rather than Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.’

Catherine hesitated.  She didn’t want to be difficult, but there was no way she could work Monday, having scheduled her appointment with Colin for that day.

‘Not until January,’ Martin added.

‘Oh, that would be fine, I’m sure, if it works out better for everyone else.’

‘It’s just that Tom and I rather hope to work the same days and have the same days off, when I go half-time,’ Hilary explained. 

‘The Management Committee have approved Tom taking on half of Hilary’s post,’ Vaughan explained.  ‘They didn’t think there was anything to be gained in advertising externally, with the future of the Project back in the lap of the gods from September.’

‘I see.’  Catherine understood.  This meeting was to confirm her return to volunteer status from the New Year.

‘Ash doesn’t want to change her days,’ Martin explained.  ‘Now she’s got somewhere fixed up to move to, she’s signed up to do an art course at the college.’

‘She didn’t say,’ Catherine answered.  There was, of course, no reason why Ashley would share her private plans with Catherine.

‘Due to the course, she’s not after extra hours either,’ Martin added.

‘I suppose that makes things simpler for Hilary and Tom,’ said Catherine.

Martin looked surprised. 

‘What’s Hilary and Tom got to do with it?’

‘Nothing,’ said Martin.

‘But if Ashley had wanted…’

‘You haven’t told her, Martin,’ Hilary laughed.  ‘He’s awfully logical, most of the time, but never was good at coming to the point.  Which is – Martin’s partner is returning to work, full-time, from the start of the New Year and Martin is taking the rather unexpected step of becoming a full-time, stay-at-home dad.’

Catherine wasn’t sure whether ‘Congratulations’ was entirely the correct response, but it was the first comment that came to mind.

‘Cheers,’ said Martin.

‘As a matter of fact, the congratulations are more properly due to you,’ Vaughan said, beaming at Catherine.  ‘We would be delighted to make your current appointment permanent – well, as permanent as any appointment around here is, in reality.’

‘You mean, I’m being offered Martin’s hours?’  Catherine gasped.

‘Of course.’

‘What about your Management Committee?’

‘They agreed this, in principle, when they discussed Hilary’s post.  There were a few quibbles about the lack of any full-timers but, since we’re all in on a Wednesday morning, there shouldn’t be any messy interregnum, should there?’  Vaughan folded his long hands together.  ‘You do accept, I suppose?  You aren’t obliged to, if you have other plans?’

‘Other plans?  No, not at all.  I mean, I’ve been applying but…’

‘Splendid!  Welcome to the team.’

Vaughan stood and offered her his hand.  Catherine shook it warmly, then shared a hug with him.  Hilary and Martin hugged her too.

Unexpectedly, she suddenly burst into tears.

‘I can’t tell you how much this means to me,’ she said.  ‘Things have been very difficult.’

Hilary and Martin excused themselves, on the basis that they needed to eat before afternoon appointments.

‘You can have a chat with Vaughan about the practicalities,’ Hilary said tactfully.

Catherine took a deep breath, then did just that.