I'm in the same boat as traditionally crewed by wives...

Getting middle aged and becoming unemployable for various reasons...,
I was denied benefits because the wife earns a meagre local authority Education dept salary..

But lucky me, I would be entitled to sign on for nothing more than NI credits
if I'd spend each and every week jumping through the same full time hoops,
and attending the same time and soul destroying 'training' schemes
as a claimant getting full benefits..

For the sake of my own blood pressure and sanity I had to bale out of that vindictive merry go round....

Hence I dropped off the radar, and stopped existing in the eyes of the tax system....

Not even working in the black economy - any music and culture I became more involved in didn't pay a single penny..
..ok a few pints of rough cider at most...

If I recall the irony, the last money I could call my own was a tax rebate some long time ago...

I'll be 60 this year so need to start thinking seriously about all this again...