I played here👉
My name’s Jack Collins. I’m 35. I’m from the UK. I’m just a regular bloke working in construction. Bricklaying mostly. Been doing it for about 10 years now, usually through contractors and site managers. Money was never amazing, but it was enough to live on. Some months I’d take home about £2,400 – £3,000 if there was plenty of work and overtime. Nothing fancy — but it paid the bills. When our daughter was born, my partner went on maternity leave. Her maternity pay was about £184 a week. We thought we’d manage for a few months until she could go back to work part-time. But things didn’t go the way we planned. Winter 2025–2026 was absolutely brutal for construction. Rain almost every week. Sites shutting down. Jobs getting delayed. The main contractor I’d been working with suddenly started delaying payments. First one week. Then three. Then almost two months. He kept saying the same thing: “Cash flow problems mate.” If you work in construction, you know how common that is. But when you’ve got a partner and a baby at home… it’s not just annoying. It’s terrifying. And then our landlord raised the rent. Another £170 a month. Nursery for our daughter when my partner planned to go back part-time? Nearly £1,000 a month. We started cutting back on everything. Heating. Food. Even small things like nappies and baby stuff. Then the thing that really finished me off happened. My van broke down. Clutch and gearbox gone. Mechanic said the repair would cost £2,900. And if you work in construction, you know one thing: Without a van — you’re finished. No one hires a bricklayer who can’t get to site and bring his tools. So every day the van sat in the garage… I was losing money. At first I used my credit card. Then my overdraft. Eventually I had to take out a loan. My thinking was simple: “Fix the van, get back to work, pay it off quickly.” But life doesn’t always work like that. Interest piling up. Bills still coming. My daughter got ill
