What do I want to be when I grow up?

[Sobeyondthehills]

Title is slightly misleading.

For the last 7 years I have been out of the job market due to my mental health. I am working with a large amount of professionals to try and get myself into a position where I will be able to work.

But I don't know what I want to do, I have little to no qualifications. I have thought about doing a course or something similar, but we are on the breadline as it is, so cant afford to pay for anything. I have started to look into seeing if we can get some help, but most places need to know what course you want to do and I have no fucking clue.

I use to work in customer services and was good at it, enough to be made a manager.

Maybe I am just not ready for it, but I have at least another 30 years of working and if I am going to be honest I can't face going through the ESA/PIP process again, in my ideal world I would be completely off benefits in a job I love.

I know no one on here is going to be able to say well Sobeyond you should work in xyz, but hopefully someone might be able to think of something that I haven't thought of.

I am not really sure what I am asking, I am damn proud of how far I have come in terms of my mental health and getting a job is the most logical step and one that I am terrified of

What did you want to do when you were little?

With your experience in the journey of mental health would you consider looking at courses to be some form of therapist? Especially relevant if you have good interpersonal skills i.e. excel at customer service.

Did you enjoy customer services?

Do you have access to any type of careers advise? Maybe through the benefits agency/job centre or through mental health?

If not maybe have a look online for a questionnaire that points you towards the type of career that you'd be suited to. There must be something out there

Well done by the way! That's something you should be very proud of!

@AyahuascaTrip I wanted to be in the army or go live on Saturn

@bringthethunder its something I have looked at, although if I am being really honest to myself, I personally I think I am too self involved, however I have signed up to do volunteering to go visit people who are lonely

@RosaWaiting I can say that working in retail is why I detest the majority of the population and Christmas. But I was damn good at it.

There are usually quite a few career opportunities for civilians in the military if that still interests you?

@OhMyGodTheyKilledKenny

Because I am on ESA support group and PIP, the job center leave me alone and while I was grateful for that in the last few years, I am at the point where I will probably need their help, but as silly as it sounds I don't want to draw attention to myself to have to go through the assessments again.

I will google those sort of questionairesand thank you. I have gone from not being able to leave my house 6 years ago to going on a four hours walk on Sunday, it has been tough going and while I am still not out the woods, the new medication is helping me and hopefully will continue to

@AyahuascaTrip

Weirdly I live opposite a massive military base, so have been looking on their website today, nothing there at the minute but nothing to say there isn't anything going to come up.

I also wanted to be a lighthouse keeper. The closest thing I have found is maintaince person to lighthouses but those jobs are rare and I have to be a trained electrician.

There is a good book to help you find your perfect career.. I think it is called What colour is your parachute.

@chickenninja

Thank you I shall google it :)

Lighthouse keeper sounds very romantic!

Does your history of mental illness rule out the territorial army? Or police/community support type role?

Maybe your nearest college has vocational leisure learning courses, you could see if any of those appeal even just for fun?

You know retail so have you thought of Stock Counting. No customer facing and working with a small team.

@AyahuascaTrip

It still sounds great, especially as with my mental health it would mean being away from people.

I am honestly not sure if any of my mental illnesses will rule me out for anything. I have Bipolar type 2, Anxiety and OCD (those are the main ones) so I have assumed apart from the Bipolar the others are controlled with talking therapy and the Bipolar is controlled using the various amount of drugs that they won't

@Warmhandscoldheart Nop, I have thought of stock counting. Thank you

When you say little to no qualifications ... could you be a little more specific?

Stay away from any therapy type of occupation. Seriously. Why put yourself through that?

I also have bipolar! I don’t know of any specific occupations it bars you from, but it affects my driving license from time to time.

Do you have any therapeutic hobbies, anything you love to do?

GeorgeTheBleeder

I have NVQ level 3 in management, 8 GCSEs and have done a course in bookkeeping about 10 years ago, I have a certificate saying I am great in customer service, I am also a first aider, or certainly was but I think that needs to be updated.

I am also a master at building Dens and if there was a certificate for building lego then I should have that as well.

Most of my skills are self taught, which was great 10-15 years ago but now a days its tougher in the job market from what I can see without a degree or at the very least A-levels

It sounds like you prefer things where you are away from dealing with people?

I'm in a similar boat in terms of the ESA / PIP OP..it's not easy. I think you can do up to 16 hrs 'supported work' in the ESA support group (in that also) but I worry as soon as they see that they would assess you again. Not sure though! I know what you mean about the reassessments also. If it helps any my last two for ESA were done on paper. maybe based on the PIP. I would like to be off them also but it would be quite a drop in income from both and am worried might not make enough in a job- a pressure. Not easy.

I wish it was easier with the supported working thing

@AyahuascaTrip

I didn't realise it affects your driving license, although at the moment that is not a consideration as we don't have a car, but that is something I will need to check up on.

I write a blog dirty word on MNs which is more like a diary for me, I cross stitch, I have pets, I enjoy cooking but I have worked in that industry before and its not something I would go back to

They used to let you have up to £100 a week in therapeutic earnings in the ESA support group, for up to a year. If that’s still the case you might be able to try a few temporary part time jobs to see how it goes - or a voluntary position?

You can be as depressed as you like but even a mild bout of mania results in medical disqualification (if your dr tells dvla) but if nobody discloses it then it’s probably fine?

That is the supported work thing. The therapeutic earnings. I bet they would use it to take off the ESA though knowing DWP. Sorry if that sounds miserable just know what they are like. Or it would at least trigger an assessment. Would love to hear from others who have done it though.

@user87382294757

I think a lot of my not wanting to be near people is my anxiety rather than anything else.

I think you can do 16 hours, however because both PIP and ESA is based on my anxiety, agrophobia and depression, I know that as soon as I get a job, I will be assessed again and tbh I should be, but knowing that I will have little to no time to get a job that will pay me the same as I am getting in benefits is scary.

However the plus side of that is I won't be shitting myself everytime I get a brown envelope through the door.

OK so if it helps any I cut and paste this post from a benefits adviser at Scope a charity, for info.- as you mention about assessments in the OP

*It's true to say that undertaking some work can trigger a new work capability assessment. The thing to be very careful about would seem to be that any permitted work (PW) you are considering should not directly contradict what you have got established by any work capability assessment that you've had so far.

So an over-simplified example would be a person says that they want to do PW as a lunchtime supervisor when they have been put into the support group because of anxiety issues so great that they cannot have any contact with other people. The lunchtime supervisor's job is a particularly people-centred job so there would be a likely contradiction there. So it's best to be clear about why you are in the support group.

Otherwise, I'd agree with what others have said, you are allowed to do work under these rules, but you do need to tell the DWP about it. Sadly there can never be a guarantee that you won't come across a DWP official who sets a train of events in motion.

It is definitely time that we stopped making people feel worried like this.

Best wishes

Gill
Benefits and Finance Specialist
Scope Helpline*

You have pets, what about volunteering at an Animal Charity? Dog walking is a wonderful therapy.
Our local library has a Lego Club, perhaps see if your local one does too.
Or local Forest Schools, they welcome den builders