I have been unemployed and on benefits for 4 years now. I am disabled, though not in anyway that is immediately obvious and my day to day life is a struggle. I never intended to go on disability benefits but when I phoned up to apply for JSA I was told I couldn't because I was not looking for full time employment. And so I have got on this incapacity benefit - the name of which makes me cringe - and I have spent 4 years trying to build myself up through part time education, medication, lifestyle changes and voluntary work. So now you know whose talking, what have I got to say?
Well firstly, I am fed up with the government targeting disabled people for their cuts when it is their policies and practise that allow employers to ask for disclosure, which allows them to discriminate. While most disabled people would probably struggle to work full time (especially with fatigue related disease) it is unfair not to give them the chance. Once on incapacity benefits for 6 months approximately 90% of claimants will be on it for life. It's not a cushy deal - living in naff rented accommodation, unable to afford to have children, being looked down on and having people believe you are ripping them off because your disability is hidden and they are ignorant.
I want to work! I want the identity and self-esteem, not to mention the wage and activity that employment brings. The Daily Mail and government are happy to label us as scroungers but the truth is with employers preferring people who are 'easier' to employ and the Jobcentre not giving us contact or guidance unless we really chase it (8 numbers, £2.60 and 68 minutes to get through to the Disability Employment Adviser's office - and she wasn't there and failed to return my call!). People on the old benefit like I am are not entitled to any fee remission at college if we want to learn new skills, unlike those on JSA or who have moved to the cut down benefit and the dodgy dealing 'back to work' schemes refuse to believe we have any skills in the first place.
On one Remploy course we had a day's lecture on personal hygiene - because apparently disabled is a synonym for 'stinky' - and the course leader made the woman next to me cry. Is it any wonder we lose our confidence in our ability to work? What's more us 'stinkies' are also apparently also 'thickies' - I was offered a beginners' literacy course more than once (my first degree is English Literature). It turns out they were pushing these courses because the companies get a fee for every person they get 'into training' - regardless of whether it is appropriate. In the end I gave up and started looking for part time work on my own.
After help from my university careers' service my CV is pretty pimped out and my own experiences of being on society's bottom rung inspired me to do an MA in Community Work. Looking around for entry level part time community jobs I found the Future Jobs Fund - perfect! It was designed especially to give bright jobseekers part time paid work experience in areas of the third sector. I thought I was falling on my feet.
Then my knees buckled - or to be more precise I was knee-capped. I was not eligible to apply and why?
Because I was on Incapacity Benefit rather than Jobseeker's Allowance. In other words, those opportunities were for the 'abled only. Two of my best friends were employed through the scheme and are still working, one has moved on to a job in marketing and one is still at the company, who have kept him on while he does an MSc. It's hard not to be bitter. Luckily they are awesome people so I don't begrudge them their successes.
So if I can't go to college or get onto job schemes for graduates and I can't do the low skilled work that is on offer through people like the Shaw Trust (I'm not being snooty, factory work caused my original nervous break down and I have been told more than once that I'm 'over-qualified') then what are my options?
To be continued...
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