Thanx
Work-focused interviews
Most people claiming Employment and Support Allowance will be expected to take appropriate steps to help prepare for work, including attending a series of work-focused interviews with a personal adviser.
Support Group
Under Employment and Support Allowance, if people have an illness or disability that is too severe to undertake any form of work-related activity, they will get increased financial support and will not be expected to prepare for a return to work.
I think that sums up my son's dilemma. He is managing six hours of simple work with an understanding family friend and that is as much as he can do.
So he falls right through the middle.
I have been worried & anxious about all this change within the benefit system. Things have a very fine balance in my life. I have a history of 20 years of severe mental illness. I have had very little orthodox support. Over the past 7 years I have been living alone & independently. I have seen a psychiatrist earlier this year who extolled the virtues of the therapeutic value of work - & he told me that people couldn't recover properly unless they were in work! I have been seeing a psychologist recently & they have gone on at me a lot about pursing a path which leads into work.
This is all very well, but it's been over 10 years since I have worked. I am put in another catch 22, as your son is Lisa. I don't have the support I need, I have never had the support I need. On the one hand; I have a long term dream/goal of being financially self supporting, but getting there would be very long term; & full of some very difficult challenges. On the other hand, if I play ball & actively look at a route into work - then my benefits will be reduced & jeopardised; & I'll be forced into certain activities. If I play the "sickness" card - then I'm suck in the same position with virtually no support. That's if they decide to leave me alone.
Most of my energies are focused on recovery & maintaining a life in which I have to cope on a daily basis. From the perspective of seeking work; of which I have no idea how I would manage, as even now I often feel exhausted & stressed with what I do have to cope with. How would I pay the bills? I live in a modest flat - the rent is £530 PM, then there's council tax, bills, food, travel expenses. I'm not going to be able to find a job that pays it all; let alone be able to get done everything that needs to be done, while being in full time work. It would end in severe illness - as has every job I have had in the past. After every period of employment I have ended up sectioned.
The government should be focusing on proper support for the
mentally ill & genuine therapeutic assistance, affordable housing, & a whole gamut of measures to improve the lives of societies most unfortunate. This entire benefit change is solely motivated by politics - there is nothing about it to address the real issues. It will not help those that need help the most. It is quite simply an utterly ridiculous policy.
We are not all blessed with a good MH team; in fact the majority don't have the support they need.
The truth of the matter is - that a lot of people will be forced into a lot of activities that they do not wish to do, & the whole exercise is going to be counter productive to a whole range of people; especially the mentally ill.
All of this is yet another measure of control - that widens the gap yet further of those with money & power - to those with nothing.