Wednesday 30 April 2014

The government needs to wake up.

More disabled and unwell people want to work than not. I myself as a disabled person had sort of a living job over Wales when I left school. For the first three years I didn't get paid then I was put YTS at the age of 19.  There were lots of animals and we did Riding For Disabled. I was there for five years. It was called the Camnant Centre. I moved on because I was hoping for a change of career, which I didn't know what at the time. As well as looking after animals myself and 10 other young girls my age at the time did housework and took most of our education there. It was ok but we were out in the sticks where we couldn't get on buses and get anywhere else easily. We always had these older women around us so we never really had our own lives so not that much of a social life either. We'd start work at 8am and finish at 8pm.

Over the years I myself had been on different schemes from YTS onwards from the age of 19 to 27. I have had been put many different places, which I weren't there very long because I was far too slow to learn the jobs as far as the managers were certained.
 At age of 23 I got into creative writing. Writing say short stories and pieces of writing about things that came into my mind at the time. When I was 27 I went to poetry which started over what I thought at the time was a very bad realtionship break up but from there I wrote poetry about all kinds of subjects. I had one each published in 11 books but then my Mother thought I had been spending too much money on the books so I stopped but then I carried on try by looking the internet and that, I have had no luck. When been on disability benefits and that publishing isn't easy to afford.
Back 2007 I discovered another career Advocacy, Learning Disability and Mental Health Awareness, which I did for Royal Wolverhampton Mencap until the government cut the funding in 2011. In 2012 I started working for 1 Voice in Wolverhampton as an Office Access Signment then went back to Advocacy in 2013, which is where still am.

In 2013 last year I sat in a three hour assessment at West Bromwich Jobcentre. They told me I needed full support working in a supermarket. Even though it's not the job I want I said ye fine. When I agreed to go along with what they wanted they changed their minds and told me to go back see my Learning Disability Employment Advisor.

The awareness of my experience with the Jobcentre has taught me is that the government needs to make up their minds what they want people to do, even more so with people with disabilities. On one hand they are making us aware that there's cuts everywhere so if that's the case what chance has anyone got? They 1 minute we can work with support then the next minute there's not enough funding to pay for support. If people are put into work that they can't manage the support needs to be there but if there's no funding that's not possible. Therefore they need be creating jobs that people disabilities can mange otherwise it's going to be hard for people with disabilities to a achieve work and what the government wants to achieve. On the other hand it's about what people can manage and what they enjoy. From my own experience as a person with disabilities I am more at a health and safety risk with the jobs I can't mange than can, this is where the support comes in if necessary but as the government knows the funding isn't there they shouldn't except too much off people.
 I have found a lot people like and including myself have been on job clubs and job courses for years on and off but haven't had a great of support looking for jobs on the computers but for me that hasn't been on everyone but most.