Work?
This afternoon I actually did something towards one of my New Year's Resolutions.
I called up the DWP's 'Pathways to Work' number and asked for more information.
The 'Pathways to Work' initiative is apparently supposed to help people who've been on Incapacity Benefit to go back to work if they want to. I admit to having some misgivings about the concept in general (I'm afraid it could be misused to force people into going to work when they aren't physically capable), but as my Incap is due to be re-evaluated this year anyway, I figured that I might as well bite the bullet and try it out before they came looking for me. Plus, I'm getting so frustrated at home with little to do that I figured that I might as well see if I'm able to go back to work or something. If I can't then I can't, but at least I'll have tried (and they then can't try to force me into it at a later date).
I've now got an appointment with a personal adviser of some sort at the local JobCentre next Wednesday at 3pm, where I assume I'll have to answer a lot of slightly patronising questions about what I want to do and what I think I can do. The DWP website is remarkably vague about what exactly will go on (worryingly, I saw the phrase "life goals" on the website... I somehow doubt that "getting a character to level 50" will count among them), so I'm still mostly in the dark over what will happen, but I'll keep things updated.
Of course, there are two obstacles in my way that I can see at the moment. One is my health, because if I have to lie down for a few hours after walking down to the town centre (which is just over a mile) then I'm not too sure I'm going to be able to do much in the way of work. Especially if I have to travel a bit to get to a place of work, seeing as I don't drive, won't be driving any time in the near future and more than likely won't be able to afford daily taxis.
The other is the fact that Nick has... misgivings, shall we say, about this. Partly because of my health, but also because he has this slightly oldfashioned idea that only one person on a house should need to go to work, and since he's got a job, I don't need one. Now admittedly, Nick's wages mean that we're not doing too badly right now, but it's not entirely about money - it's about the fact that I don't want to be cooped up indoors any more, and want to at least try to do something. Also, I'm getting rather sick of having no money to spend on myself (the IB goes on the gas, electric, food and cats as Nick's wages only come through once a month and mostly goes on rent and paying people off) and so having to ask Nick for money. I want to be more independant, dammit!
We'll see how things go, anyway.
I called up the DWP's 'Pathways to Work' number and asked for more information.
The 'Pathways to Work' initiative is apparently supposed to help people who've been on Incapacity Benefit to go back to work if they want to. I admit to having some misgivings about the concept in general (I'm afraid it could be misused to force people into going to work when they aren't physically capable), but as my Incap is due to be re-evaluated this year anyway, I figured that I might as well bite the bullet and try it out before they came looking for me. Plus, I'm getting so frustrated at home with little to do that I figured that I might as well see if I'm able to go back to work or something. If I can't then I can't, but at least I'll have tried (and they then can't try to force me into it at a later date).
I've now got an appointment with a personal adviser of some sort at the local JobCentre next Wednesday at 3pm, where I assume I'll have to answer a lot of slightly patronising questions about what I want to do and what I think I can do. The DWP website is remarkably vague about what exactly will go on (worryingly, I saw the phrase "life goals" on the website... I somehow doubt that "getting a character to level 50" will count among them), so I'm still mostly in the dark over what will happen, but I'll keep things updated.
Of course, there are two obstacles in my way that I can see at the moment. One is my health, because if I have to lie down for a few hours after walking down to the town centre (which is just over a mile) then I'm not too sure I'm going to be able to do much in the way of work. Especially if I have to travel a bit to get to a place of work, seeing as I don't drive, won't be driving any time in the near future and more than likely won't be able to afford daily taxis.
The other is the fact that Nick has... misgivings, shall we say, about this. Partly because of my health, but also because he has this slightly oldfashioned idea that only one person on a house should need to go to work, and since he's got a job, I don't need one. Now admittedly, Nick's wages mean that we're not doing too badly right now, but it's not entirely about money - it's about the fact that I don't want to be cooped up indoors any more, and want to at least try to do something. Also, I'm getting rather sick of having no money to spend on myself (the IB goes on the gas, electric, food and cats as Nick's wages only come through once a month and mostly goes on rent and paying people off) and so having to ask Nick for money. I want to be more independant, dammit!
We'll see how things go, anyway.