I have lived in a houseshare for 6 months to save up. There is another woman here in her late 20s who has worked for the past decade for a charity that has now had funding cut off, so she's unemployed. She has an unusual history; I think she's only lived with family before, has no qualifications, no ID or bank account, one job ever. She's very away-with-the-fairies and spends most of her time hanging out in parks, cooking elaborate meals or online.
Anyway, yesterday she went to the job centre because she has no money. She's already on housing benefit and hasn't worked a day since moving in 4 months ago. Apparently they have encouraged her to look for voluntary work in a music shop or recording studio (she likes music though can't play an instrument nor has performance history) rather than a paying job??? It's not like she wants to get into a specialist field like nursing and I just can't believe this is true. Surely they should be helping her onto courses or y'know, find a job? She says they told her that she'd be more likely to stay in a voluntary job so this works better for them. Can this be true?