On the news today I saw they are again going to give everyone a medical who's on incapacity benefit, they say it every few years as if it's a new thing but they've always done it, it just seems they are getting a little harsher every time.
As I posted before I'm trying to find work after a gap in employment of 5 years, I've been on the sick as I suffer from Anxiety based depression. But the amount of money they expect us to live on and the constant threat they will cut it off is only making it worse so I've started looking for work before I'm forced.
The main problem I'm finding is a lack of jobs to apply for, every day I look on the DWP site to find there are hardly any new jobs posted, and what jobs there are usually state "experience essential" so there's no point applying.
I've applied for a number of jobs as a care assistant as these ads usually say "experience not essential as full training will be given". There is a large elderly population and quite a few homes for adults with learning difficulties on the Island so I thought this would be a good path to go down if I could start training.
I've got a letter saying I wasn't picked for interview from one I applied for and am still waiting to hear back from another but am not holding out much hope of getting it as it's been a while since I applied. It may say no experience necessary but if someone with experience has applied they will obviously get the job.
There are a couple of apprenticeships in care work I've seen but the wages are a joke, the minimum wage for apprentices now is £2.50 an hour. One vacancy pays £45 a week which would have to support me and my partner, though I would still get housing benefit, and another pays £95 a week but the amount of hours would make me not qualify for housing benefit so I couldn't afford to pay rent and council tax.
I also noticed an apprenticeship in engineering pays about £150 a week so the gap in pay between jobs aimed at men and women is still huge it seems. But even if I went for the apprenticeship in engineering I still wouldn't have enough money to live.
I did a search this morning for advice for the long term unemployed for finding work and found a couple of articles including one on the guardian website. Some of the comments left there angered me, I'm amazed people still think that the unemployed like it and are just work shy lay abouts who sponge off the hard working tax payers. News Flash people we all pay tax on everything we buy, and they take tax out of our benefits and have no obligation to tell us how much. We get barely enough money to live and they don't pay full rent so you have to find top up money or risk eviction. I have been studying for years and am now looking work and applying for jobs, what else can I do? I don't like living off the state but don't fancy living in a cardboard box either, those are the only two alternatives I have what would you choose?
I want a job I'm looking for a job and I would be bloody good at whatever job I could get, but there are no jobs.
In a few years we're going to be like America and the long term unemployed will live and die on the streets, the middle classes ignoring them and stepping over their bodies before someone comes to clear them up. God Save The Queen.
2 comments:
It's a known fact in this country (France) that the jobs advertised at the unemployment office are there because they are required to be by law. Most jobs are filled by friends and relatives. I was unemployed for 4 years. Networking and thinking about what you can do to create your own job is the way to go
In my country (America) finding a job without a college degree is so difficult. I actually withdrew from school so I could start building money up to start my own business. I found out really fast that finding a job with just a high school (Secondary) education wasn't all that easy. The real world finally started to settle in.
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