I wasn’t looking forward to today’s visit for several reasons and my feelings were proved right. I already knew that I would be questioned on my efforts and had the evidence to support them.
However I was told that I should now be open to taking anything. I am still not happy with this and unwilling to commit career suicide. I was advised to look into obtaining Carers Allowance as I am also a full-time Carer. However on doing this I discovered that the person I care for would most likely lose some of their benefits should we go down that route and no matter how it was worked out will end up worse off.
So , the short answer seems to be that I find something in my field within the next 13 weeks and apply for everything else that I am capable of as if I am still looking after that, with my savings I won’t be able to claim a penny.
I have worked hard for over 20 years to put money away for use in the future. I understand that there have to be levels but why do hard working people who are in this predicament through no fault of their own have to suffer. I can’t even claim Council Tax so am paying that each month too, then there are the bank charges alluded to in an earlier post.
Am I wrong to hold out for something I want to do? At what point do you stop following your career path and take something entirely different just to prove you really are willing to work?
Having thought about the six month cut off from contribution based JSA a little further, if you are unable to claim because you have more than the £6000 savings , does this mean you no longer are included in the number of unemployed in the Country?
I have spent the afternoon considering other roles that I could do and have applied for some of them. I wasn’t able to get across the matter of affordability today either , in that if I pursue a low paid position in town I will have season ticket costs of just under £1000 to consider too.
Maybe I am being unduly negative here after a particularly bad day or maybe I really should start minicabbing instead?
Comeragh 