I am about to move back to Ireland, age 59, having worked here in NHS for three years in a stressful cl
inical therapy job. I worked in Ireland as a nurse before that. I have really bad arthritis in my feet and need three surgeries. I have arthritis in my elbow and my GP now thinks I have arthritis in my cocyx. I still need to work par-time as I have no pension from the NHS as I only worked here two years and no pension from nursing in Ireland until age 65 and then it's only 4k per year as I moved jobs a lot depending on my children's needs, childcare etc.
I have been offered EAP work in Ireland - 5 clients per month and two days per week with a therapy service I used to work with where I work for them on a sessional basis. However, I need to be able to be a PAYE worker to get State illness benefit when I am off with my two surgeries - the surgeon thinks I will be off my feet for a year and that if I don't get the surgery done within the next year, it might not be possible to do it. I wouldn't be a PAYE worker with the two private therapy jobs.
The PAYE job I have been offered is with a large homeless charity as a therapist, but I think the job may be stressful. It's 30 hours with once every six weeks working from 5.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. They have also been very disorganised with the on boarding process - putting in my date of birth wrong three times, so I had to go back each time and say the police vetting process said my application was invalid and that it was related to the wrong data they had input. Then my access to their online onboarding stopped. They said it was a glitch initially and the would get ICT to fix it, then they said the onboarding portal didn't work as I hadn't been police vetted yet, then they said it wasn't working because they put in my data wrong but it would work when the right data was inputted, then they stated two weeks later they didn't know why it wasn't working. I still can't finish the rest of my onboarding courses. They still haven't taken up my references though I interviewed at the beginning of April and am starting at the end of June. All this disorganisation makes me feel uneasy. I have never worked for a charit before so I don't know if this is the norm in the charity sector?
If I didn't take this PAYE job, I could just do one day per week as a support worker with a local autism charity - I wouldn't physically manage any more and the rest as a sessional therapist employed as a self-employed person with an agency.
I am sorry for this long post, but I would really welcome some advice on this dilemma given my age, physical issues, wanting to semi-retire.
Thanks.