For this post, I want to invite you to Christmas with me!
There is no Christmas shopping to do, you won't see a tree or a string of tinsel anywhere in sight... and you certainly won't be tucking into a turkey at my dinner table. Why's that, I hear you ask? The answer is pretty simple in that we just can't afford it!
We are barely scraping by right now, with less than £200 to support 2 people for 2 weeks. That's right, almost a quarter of our household income is gone by the time we have paid for £20 gas and £20 electricity. We all need heat and light to get through the cold, dark winter.
I've had to deviate from my claimants commitments and restrict my 60 minutes travel to work time because I can't afford the bus and train fare to travel out to interviews in the cities around me. I had pinned all my hopes on a Christmas temp job in a High Street supermarket coming through - at least, then, we might have had a decent shot at a comfortable Christmas this year... but, sadly, I got my rejection email this morning. I don't blame them, though, even at the interview, I was mentally doubting my own ability to do the job for the two weeks that I would have been contracted to do it for - though I didn't let the interviewer in on that fact.
I woke up today and applied for five more local jobs that I know that I'm not physically able to do, but I have no other choice than to do this because I've been referred for a sanction for the past 6 weeks and my work coach has told me straight that this pattern is going to continue every three weeks until I either "do enough to find work" or sanction out of the benefits system for three years. Given the fact that I am physically unable to do half of what is demanded of me, I don't hold much hope of ever being able to "do enough", so I accept the latter and am now reduced to telling her to refer me for a sanction at every meeting I attend.
I tried going to my MP's office because I am desperate for someone just to hear me and accept that falling over/collapsing puts me at a disadvantage for stand up jobs and my hearing impairment will make jobs that require me to use a telephone difficult - especially when I have an ear infection in both of my ears. At times like that, I struggle with face to face communication, never mind trying to communicate over the phone.
I learned that my MP's receptionist supports not telling employers about your health conditions when they ask for them at the interview - apparently, you can do that to prevent them from turning you down for a job just because of your health conditions - however, in cases like mine, there comes a time when I'll have no choice but to tell them because it potentially places myself or my colleagues at risk of injury or death. I wonder what will happen to me then... will I get sacked because of the way that I will struggle to do the work required of me without taking a lot more breaks than an able bodied person and are they even required to make reasonable adjustments because DWP can't wait for me to get the issue investigated and diagnosed?
My Christmas will be spent in the same way as the other 364 days of the year, I'll no doubt be sitting right here applying for jobs and protesting about the unfairness of Universal Credit. The only thing that takes away some of the sting is the knowledge that I am not the only one who won't be having a Christmas this year.
I read articles where people are encouraging people to donate to food banks etc... and it takes all that I have to not scream that this won't help all of us. Some people are too proud to resort to using the likes of the food bank (if they can even find it, that is - some food banks are in pretty obscure places and aren't marked by any signage... my food bank isn't even on Google Maps). The thing is that there are still people in our communities who will go without this Christmas. These are people who would be entitled to help from the food bank, but they find the process of having to list their income and expenditure to be a humiliating process... exactly the same process that also renders a claim for hardship out of their league, too.
We need to find a non means tested way to reach out to those who are struggling to make ends meet so that we can all access the help that we need when we need it because it certainly is humiliating to have to go begging for food, never mind having to also have to prove why you need enough food to give yourself one meal for 6 days - because, let's face facts, these people aren't eating three square meals a day.
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