I went through pilot training ten years ago with a bread knife and a young bread snatcher so I lived out of collage. I was made redundant from the offshore rigs before I started at well known collage. I rolled up to the local DSS and told them story of woe and strife and explained I was trying to feed the Mrs and sprog and pay £38,000 to in prove my life and not live of state benefits for the rest of my life and all I wanted was some help for a year. I was told that because I owned a house in the North East of Scotland (I was letting it out and not making a penny profit because I wanted to move back to the same house knowing that was where I would live again when I had my license) I could not get a penny benefit. All we lived off was child benefit, £42.50 a month. After seven months I walked back into the DSS office and pleaded with them, in then end they paid for my rent, £400 a month. The Mrs got a part time job in the local pub at weekends and the landlord was a real gent and let her ALL the tips ( and I got a free steak dinner every Friday night) That was another £70 a week. In the end we managed but only just.