I'm a single mum living in London. My toddler has recently been referred for an ASD assessment and is verbal but has a speech disorder and significantly behind his peers.
I was homeless after leaving an abusive relationship where I was financially and emotionally abused. We slept on the floor when I lived with my ex with my son during the cold winter and he would ration my food even though I was breastfeeding. He would kick us out of the house during the day in the middle of winter and I would be forced to wander around all day to keep warm all while suffering from an undiagnosed birth injury which meant I was in excruciating pain while walking.
We lived in temp accommodation in a not so nice area (someone was recently murdered while walking home two streets down from where we stayed), where the heating was controlled by the landlord, the bathrooms were filthy and I was only entitled to £50 a week for my son (British citizen) as I had no recourse to public funds (me non-British citizen).
Suffice to say it has not been easy. I got a job 18 months ago. And we finally got our own flat. I love it so much. It was so hard starting work and having to pay almost all my salary in childcare and having a million side hustles to make the rent and living on my credit card for food and essentials.
But I have some good news. I got another job a few months ago that gave me a 60% increase on my salary and finally have me some breathing room to pay off my debts and manage the cost of living crisis increase in bills and food.
I recently got offered another job that will almost doubled my new salary and bring my income up to £90k a year!
What! That is insane! Honestly I had given up on a career once I had my son. My ex told I was stupid and noone would ever hire me. This money means I can afford private therapy for my son. It means I can afford physiotherapy for myself and I can afford my prescriptions. I don't have to worry about rent.
I am incredibly fortunate. I just wanted to share this with someone because I'm pinching myself as I have no close friends or family to share with. I can't believe inmy wildest dreams when I was sharing my receipts every week with my social worker and being asked why I was abusing funds for my son's needs by buying 30p sanitary towels for myself that this is where I would end up.
The system and my abusive ex tried to break me and they succeeded but somehow I made it on the other side. At one point in March 2021 I couldn't even get an interview for any jobs.
I don't want to brag, I'm just proud of myself and I can't believe how much luck I've had in turning everything around.