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I'm in a similar situation. Just paid power bill, telephone bill and car registration. Now the car insurance want their excess for the car I backed into as well, and are making legal noises if they don't get it. GAARR!
On the only occasion when I had trouble with a bank about an unplanned overdraft (which was back while I was a student, because a mix-up delayed my grant...) I sent the branch manager a letter explaining how it really was a one-off event that wouldn't happen again and, because I was writing in a December, wishing him a "Merry Chrsitmas". He sent me a reply which basically said "OK, don't do it again..." and ended with "Happy New Year".
I wouldn't advocate this as a regular source of income, but since this is an emergency, do you have any skills such as singing, dancing, juggling, playing an instrument, fire-eating, or anything else you could do in the street to persuade people to drop small change into your hat?
Failing that, you could always pick the one you're really bad at and see if they'll give you money to get you to stop doing it.
We could sponsor him to write a novel. It would give him an incentive to get it finished, and, you never know, it might even get published and make more money!