I have a friend who has had a long term mental health problem. After twenty years of ill health he is finally stable enough to work once again. He has found himself a zero hours contract job as a carer and started tuba week having been advised to sign off JSA etc.
He started this week to discover he won't get any pay until the end of Octobwr because of the way the pay roll system works. There appears to be little in the way of income he can claim in the meantime. How in the hell is he meant to survive?
JSA has stopped.
Income Support has stopped.
He might be able to claim WTC if the company give him enough hours.
In the meantime he has rent to pay, council tax to pay, gas and electric etc.
I mean, God forbid he should want to keep warm and cook food.
He is already panicking and all I can see is that he will end up going downhill into a mental health crisis despite the support I can give him.
Surely it shouldn't be THIS hard to go back into work.
Being cynical all I can think is that the Jobcentre and Govt are happy that another unemployed person is off their books in a shitty contract...but that he can starve as long as their figures look good.
Trying to find out how he lives financially until his first pay day seems nigh on impossible. I have advised him to go back to the no centre and ask for help as they surely cannot just abandon him.
He was at one point on IB/ESA but has recovered well enough not to meet the criteria any more. However, if they are looking for ways to send him back there then this situation he is currently in seems a pretty good one.
I will feed him if needed, he is my friend and I look after my friends. He has no family ...nobody else to look out for him. How many other people are in these circumstances?
I am wondering if he can reclaim JSA for a while....
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AIBU?
In thinking people should have enough help when they go back into work?
7 replies
GratefulHead · 03/09/2014 13:39
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