Every new year seems to accentuate the focus on the challenges of the year ahead and the changes that may come. Some can be foreseen. Some come as a surprise or shock.
This new year the Cusp household knows that there will be changes on the work front. My partner was told just before Xmas that, come the end of March ,there will be no more job: the charity will run out of money. Pity really, because if they could have just hung on until September the Association would have been 75 years old...75 years of helping and supporting blind and visually impaired people in our district and now, thanks to swingeing cuts and the new Coalition's climate of 'save every penny and to hell with the weak and vulnerable...' it will be no more.
It isn't all doom and gloom. Partner has many strings to bow and there are all sorts of possibilities. In a strange way it is kind of exciting...looking at all the possibilities and opportunities for reinvention.
Yesterday we had a visit from an old friend,R. Partner and R were at Art School together when punk was new, possibilities were boundless and fear of the future was an unknown. R is a gentle and thoughtful chap. Over the past few years he has had his share of troubles and come out the other side. A year ago he lost the job he had been doing for 20 years and has reinvented himself with a complete change of career.
I sat back and listened to these two old chums chatting about the old days and the new days to come; both saying how at this age (nearly 50) they were old enough to be able to draw on experience and maturity yet still young enough to take on new challenges, new careers.
I was sort of included in the conversation as if I was one of them. At one point I was even asked if I would like to join them in a plan to do artwork with older people....which is what I used to do before I HAD to give up work. It hadn't occurred to either of them that, whilst they were talking about losing a job through redundancy ---- with the possibility of retraining or creating a new opportunity, I had lost my job through ill health with no hope of retraining or new exciting possibilities. There was to be no retraining for me, no new challenges on the work front, no exciting reinvention... just the challenge of trying to get by from day to day, to keep breathing. It left me feeling that neither of them really understood how it must be to suddenly have no job and have no idea if you could ever return to work...not because you'd be unable to find another job or create a new opportunity but because just surviving, just breathing would be more than enough to cope with.
In any case I almost certainly already have other people wondering what sort of work I could return to : namely the DWP (Dept of Work & Pensions) who will surely some day send me a letter 'inviting' me to go for my ESA assessment to see if I am capable of returning to work. Based on the experience of other people with M.E. I am pretty sure they will find me capable and so I wait with bated breath and wonder what on earth I could do that would be even vaguely meaningful and productive and yet still leave me capable of functioning at home where I attempt to keep up with the daily grind of necessary duties so that this house and home moves along smoothly.
One idea I came across in a moment of whimsy and fear is to follow this opportunity trail which is currently appearing in local Job Centres. I could work from home, spin a few yarns and 'increase my wedge'. Do you think I'd have to wear a bejewelled scarf round my head and gaze into a crystal ball whilst on the phone. Makes you wonder about the psychic and esoteric industry !
8 comments:
Yes, I do find it odd the different attitudes to losing a job. So much sympathy for those made redundant, but often less for those who left through ill health who most certainly have a double burden on their shoulders. Hope your partner does find something new with ease when the time comes, and it can be an opportunity to do something else he will enjoy. Also hope your assessment will be a long time coming...
haha i would say without a doubt you could do the job that the link goes to .... when I clicked on it I got a message that said 'unavailable' ... sounds perfect for us LOL
Mmmm.
I must say I am a traditional conservative voter at heart (eeek!! - I hear you sigh) but I think their cuts were to ill thought out on many fronts. Cuts needed to be made, but they need to be sensible. A lot of vulnerable people are going to be disadvantaged severely. Thats not right. For example Mrs K gets DLA, yet they are taking it away from those in residential care. Better to leave it with those in residential care and means test instead.
ah man...that really sucks. just shy of 75 years? makes me very sad to think any government would be like mine (US) and put money before people.
yes, no matter how much it seems a friend, mother, sister, or partner understands...they can never fully grasp it, can they?
The crash, the recession and now this government's policies are changing things fundamentally in a way we haven't really experienced since WW2. There's an extraordinary callousness behind the way the most vulnerable are being targetted. This year bankers' bonuses amount to £7bn. Can't remember where I heard it but on the radio the other day someone said- why is it that the poor are supposed to be incentivised by having money taken away whereas the rich have to be given these enormous bonuses?
I have had no out of work benefit paid since October since my Incapacity Benefit was taken off me. I've applied for ESA but they won't release payments while my appeal for IB is pending. There is at least a seven month backlog. In the meantime I've tried to pick up bits and pieces of work but the extra effort and stress is putting me right back to square one health wise.
Perhaps your partner might like to pick up some of the strain of running the household while he's out of work? You might get a fighting chance of some recovery and earning power yourself. Or at least have some me time for creativity.
@Ashy: Thanks...think we will find something...not sure about my assessment. I can feel them coming
@LeeLee: Oh that wasnt supposed to happen :O( Its a link to a job as a psychic where you can work at home on the phone. Above min wage and the company thats put up the vacancy is called 'Increase the Wedge'
@Kahless: EEeeeeek ! You're brave coming out on here :O)
@Elise: those cuts are everywhere. In the next County to us the whole Sensory Team (people who care for those with visual impairement and hearing loss) have been sacked...crazy !
@Jo: What a way to be treated ! I'm sure it IS having a detrimental effect on your health. We always do share the load here ...always have but if it does turn out we're both at home it may be easier in those terms too. We'll just have to pull together like we always have
Cusp, a job as a psychic - yes, haven't we discussed this somewhere? With a name like mine, the calling is obvious and all I need is a booth but your name has possibilities too - and hang on, I just remembered: of course! You talk to dead people, don't you (Noelle etc). You're a born Medium. If I were you I'd tell the nice asessment people all about that.
Well actually Signsie, Noelle talks to me :O) She's very commanding and I do as she says. Mind you it is a thought...psychicking I mean.
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