Your stories of unemployment
We've been told 600,000 people could be made redundant this year. Some predict 3 million unemployed by mid 2010. We'd like you to help us tell the human stories behind those figures. Numbers alone rarely convey the reality of the situation.
For many, this will be their first experience of redundancy. If you have been made redundant or are facing the prospect of redundancy we'd like you to share your experience with us. Either post a comment on the blog or email us at ipm-at-bbc.co.uk. If you use Twitter or Facebook you can also use them to share your story.
- If you've a Twitter account we'd like you to include #redundantuk in your post to help us find your tweet.
- If you are on Facebook, Rupert's, created this group where you can share your experiences
You can still email and we like receiving letters too. The address is iPM, Room G601, TV Centre, London. W12 7RJ.
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I've been made redundant twice - it happens a lot in the industry I'm in as marketing spend fluctuates closely with the economy - particularly in times such as these.
It's hard not to take it personally, but you shouldn't. Both my redundancies actually turned out to be good breaks and I stepped up the ladder faster than I would have done had I not lost two jobs.
It's never a nice experience at the time, but hopefully if it happens to you, you'll look back in years to come and see it in a positive light.
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My husband & I worked for the same company until October last year when he was made redundant. It was a 'slimming down' process so only a selection of people were made redundant. Our employers allegedly used the 'scoring technique' to assess who to let go but this was very much warped by favouritism and resulted in better quality workers leaving and lesser-quality workers being kept on. I can assure you that this is not sour grapes on our part. I could provide several examples of this form of discrimination but this is not the forum to do so. My husband had a water-tight case against the company but chose not to pursue it because I still work for them & because he was fortunate enough to walk straight into another job.
My recommendation would be, to anyone facing redundancy, is to make sure you know your rights & entitlements and don't be afraid to let your employers know that you know them. ACAS provide lots of information both on their web-site and by phone. If you are unsure if you have been treated fairly, do not hesitate to seek legal advice. There are many solicitors who will provide a free initial session to discuss if you have a case to pursue.
Finally, to anyone made redundant, I wish you luck in getting a new job. Sometimes, it is actually a blessing in disguise as we found out. Hubby got a better job as a result of this action, so it can happen for others too.
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hi all
i am a bit down at the moment as i have been made redundant 3 times in 2008 one company closed one went into admin and one just laid off because of the eco climate . so i have had to sign on, and at £60 a week i do not know how i will manage the bills .
the wife works but it is only low paid so it will be a struggle. there is not much prospect of getting work around here either as most places are downsizeing or closing. so i sit around surfing the net in hope of finding a job but the prospects are bleak.
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As the person linked-to in the story, I can only re-iterate the other comments. Stay positive; keep looking for opportunities and try not to let the situation get you down.
3 days after finding out I was being made redundant, an ex-colleague phoned to offer me a 4-month contract (http://nowwhathappens.blogspot.com/2008/02/surprise.html), which was extended to the end of 2008.
I'm now looking round again for a new contract
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I am 50. When I left school at 17, I had no idea, no ambition and nothing going for me. This was ALL my fault for not really thinking and not really considering my future - Add to this a sort of zombie-like approach of my parents (not their fault) and my teachers (was it their responsibility in those days).
A friend and I met up on the day we left school and decided to sign on the dole. The lady behind the desk (no idea what it's like now) said "oh dear, wouldn't you rather have a job - go to the youth employment service office down the road".
We did, I got 1 interview with a company, the interviewer had the same surname as mine and we hit it off. I got the job. 3-4 years later my wife of a few months suggested getting my a in g and getting a job in computing. I got 1 interview, hit it off with the 2 lady interviewers (very informal) and I got the job.
I was not up to much in the job and 2 years later I was made redundant.
I wrote a letter to a company ad I had seen, I got the interview, I blagged my way through the interview, I got the job....I grew up immediately and realised I had to work hard.
27yrs later I left after being a board director for 20 years.
I now work for myself and because of very hard work, I am fairly comfortable and successful.
I have been very lucky.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I've been made redundant twice before over the last 15 years - once during the economic downturn of the early 90s, once during an outsourcing deal India - and I am likely to be made redundant again this year. Why? Because I one of the most experienced (and therefore one of the oldest) people at my firm, and because I am at the top of my promotion grade. The company I work for has a history of getting rid of its top earners during hard times and replacing them with inexperienced (but cheap!) graduates who they hope will "pick up the job" quickly.
To be honest, I would welcome it. The redundancy payoff would clear my mortgage, and I am confident I could find a contract quickly. Even if I didn't, I have redundancy insurance cover (which would pay the bills for a year). And, as I wouldn't have a mortgage, I could afford to take a lesser paid job. In many respects, the worst that could happen would be for my unappreciative company to keep me on!
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This is my first time unemployed as well, I am 26. I wish I had gone onto University, but then, we wish a lot of things and by 18 I was in an okay job with a lot to look forward to. At that age you sort of don't think long-term. Hindsight is always 20-20. Now I am another number to add to a growing list. It's easy to feel that way, I did at first - another number to an already growing figure, your identity and story meaningless, lost in the press and media furore around growing unemployment.
However, take heart. This is as good a time as any to look into training for a new career, to consider education, to rethink your long-term plans. There are lots of new roads out there to explore. Surprise yourself. It may be a great time to chase those dreams you have long thought impossible. I have always admired people like Jon Sargeant and always thought, "I'd love his job!". Maybe the Beeb is aiming high but why not chase that dream? It beats sitting miserable at home on £60.60 a week, knowing that's not going to cover my bills, food and other expenses. And it beats calling dozens of employers in a week and not even getting one interview. I can't live like that. It's driving me crazy.
So chase that dream if you can, and make it a wonderful reality. Yeah, I know - I make it sound so easy, don't I? But I live in hope. The world is one big oppertunity, and I feel like now is my time to change course.
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I guess I'm lucky. I work in IT and have only experienced redundancy once in 2003. Like other contributors you shouldn't take it personally, but when it happens it's hard to accept, particularly painful if you have worked for a company for a long time like I had and contributed a lot to the business.
Whatever anyone says it's hard. Self estime fades, depression is a risk. The important thing is to keep busy, focus on finding work but also use the time if you are able to perhaps do something you have always wanted to do but didn't have the time.
Of course how you manage this depends on the severance you get!
The financial pressure of course will complicate this if you just get the legal minimum.
I had to wait 10 weeks to secure another job and I took a 25%+ cut in pay. The job was locally based which influenced the decision. Over time if you do a good job often the opportunities to progress make themselves available.
At time there were many storeis of people getting out of IT all together and becoming plumbers etc...
If you have been hit by the crunch, hang in there and believe in yourself. If you you are good at what you do something will come along.
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I have MCIPD and am Prince2 accredited. I have been unemployed since I was made redundant at the end of August 2007 (Thats not a misprint).
I blame employment agencies for their ageist policies. I am 63, and have received no replies from jobs I would have walked into when I was 40. How do they find out my age? You have to produce "evidence" of your UK status - something with your age on it, like a passprot. Then there are the "equality and diversity" forms. What do they ask? Well, your age, amongst all the other stuff. Scrap al these so-called anti-discrimination laws, and lets at least have some honesty around here!!
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Fortunately only been made redundant once in 30 years of working.
I knew it was coming and started looking around (applying for jobs and going through interview processes) about 6 months beforehand.
I suppose the key points from my experience were:
- contact everyone you have ever known in your career to date
- be positive
- be prepared to retrain
- be prepared to move anywhere.
I was offered a job in Australia, came here with young family 8 years ago and have never looked back.
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The Govenment says that I can live on £5 odd a day out of that I have to feed clothe myself heating including water which I pay more than someone with children pay for, we can get grants but most we have to pay back and is never enough to cover what you need. You have to go cap in hand to get money from other places if you know were to look. I worked from the age of 15 till about six years ago I was burnt out simple as that after working for many years in hard, low paid jobs and bring children up after being married and getting divorced and to me the poor and the old and children of the poor suffer the most but I noticed the adverts about how they are going to hunt down the benefit cheats but none about hunting down the bankers and MPs and CEOs, and hedge fund managers.
We hear all about how those with houses are suffering and how we should give our last penny keep the banks afloat without question why?
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I have been made redundant several times - The worst thing is signing on at the local Job Centre
As if the stigma is not bad enough they make you sit in the window so that all who pass the JC can see you waiting for your state handout.
As if that was not bad enough - you are greeted by a security guard and asked for a variety of details about yourself in public.
If this is designed to make it an uncomfortable process for those who dont want to work it is successful, but in my experience these individuals have given dignity a wide birth long ago. As for the rest of us it's a complete humiliation compounded by the incompetance which characterises Job Centre management.
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I graduated in the early 90's in the recession then, could not get a job, in the end I hid some of my qualifications just to get any sort of job. Glad to see the governmant is offering help to unemployed graduates this time. I decided to go back as a mature student, had nothing to lose, paid off and got a great job.
My message to those who were in my situation do not lose hope things will improve.
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My suggestion is to encourage those seeking work to not set the bar too high. Try not to chase a jiob that offered the exact same terms & conditions as your last one. remember you have have earned pay rises & promotions through your hard work so you will need to rdemonstrate that hard work again to get the same pay.
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Here is something doing the rounds at the moment to make you laugh.
An Israeli doctor said,
> 'Medicine in my country is so advanced, we can take a kidney out of one
> person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks.'
>
>
>
> A German doctor said, 'That's nothing! In Germany , we can take a lung
> out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four
> weeks.'
>
>
>
> A Russian doctor said, 'In my country medicine is so advanced, we can
> take half a heart from one person, put it in 2 others, and have them both looking
> for work in two weeks.'
>
>
>
> The English doctor, not to be outdone, said 'Hah! We can take an
> Bum out of Scotland , put him in 10 Downing Street
and have half the country looking for work within twenty-four hours!'
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I was put back onto new deal just before xmas 2007 went through the gateway period then the intese activity period nda told me i had to do 13 weeks work placement then on last interview before i was due to start told me i had to do 26 weeks as in his opinion it would "enhance my employment prospects" which i disagreed with he threatened benefit sanctioning for 6 months and i would still have to do ndwp for six months at end of benefit sanction period so i signed off there and then wrote 25 on spec letters to local firms not to anywhere outwith cupar as that was all they ever offered me bottom end of the ladder min wage jobs either in glenrothes or st andrews usually involving working seven days a week which was no use to me as i would have had to pay more rent and council tax and buy food etc but before all that fork out £30 a week for bus fares when i kept pointing out that i would have nothing left in my pocket after all ougoings i was told not my problem its a job alright for them they didnt have to work at it and they only work mon to fri
got feedback from one of the letters sent out in april am now working locally valeting motorhomes and caravans trouble is because it is seasonal have been without any work for the past 7 weeks anyone know if i can claim jsa without having the jobsearch hassle ?
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Chris:
I am very glad, that I am not working and...But, I feel such sympathies to those who are unemployed...
~Dennis Junior~
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I was unemployed after my company went bust, so I signed on. Most irritating was the talk of taking a job, any job. The thing is, being over 50 the only thing I was good for was filling shelves. I made 350 + job applications and my wife (a trained nurse) over 270. Over all this time, I only one company had the courtesy to send a no thank you letter. Still, the DHSS ploughed on and in one instance, sanctioned me for not attending an interview. Why? They asked. "Because, with a wife, family and mortgage, on £15k a year, I would be bankrupt in two months" I replied. There is all this talk of jobs being offered - but what kind of jobs? Ageism is rife and now employers will not even interview anyone over 50 for fear of prosecution - so thank you for all that ageist legislation - before, we stood a chance mainly because if we were no good, they could get rid of us! The middle class poverty trap is alive and well - can't afford to stay in own home, can't afford to move, can't get a Council house and the DHSS? Frontline troops are kind and understanding enough but the faceless cowards ("decision makers") who are frightened to face real people..... Give us the jobs, real jobs and we'll do the work! Me? I became self employed and with a bit of help from working tax credit, am almost back on my feet again. As soon as we are able, though, we will move from this country
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I was made redundant from my newspaper job in the '91 downturn - a single woman who'd just bought a 4-bed house! It was June and I'd been at work for 25 years without a break - only had 2 weeks off in the 60s to give birth! So I determined to revel in redundancy dosh and the dole for 3 months at least and enjoy some time off and sunshine. I took in gas and electric apprentices Mon to Fri to keep up my mortgage payments - something very new and quite a learning curve! But September came, and the dole only let u look for a 'similar job to the one u lost' for 3 months ... then u have to go for/accept anything. So I got a part-time job writing up personal injury claims for a doctor - that lasted 6 yrs then I was redundant again when he retired. Redundancy made me see there are more ways of earning a living than the traditional 'one full time job' and now, at 62, I have 8 part-time jobs and 3 pensions .. as Martin Lewis recommends - try to build-up 'several streams of income' then if one dries up, it's not so bad! Redundancy even brought me love in middle age .. a guy a few doors down from my new house had been made redundant from Central Television - and we'd never have met if we hadn't lost our jobs! We'd have been at work all day and our paths would probably never have crossed. He took his redundancy 'opportunity' to do a foundation course then a degree - a secondary-modern boy without an O-level to his name - he got a first-class hons in illustration, leading to lots of freelance work then a full-time job. Oh, and marriage to me! Of course the credit crunch is bad news for the country and the world, but those affected here should reassess their options - they might be wider than they think.
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My daughter has been out of work since graduating in July last year. She has applied for countless jobs but employers never reply to applications. The majority of advertisements request applicants with experience; firms seem unwilling to consider taking on a young person to train. My daughter is in a no win situation. She cannot get a job without experience and cannot get experience without a job.
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My first career was in High Tech manufacturing. It was clear that the routine 10% head count reduction every couple of years was being used to cull older people. It was therefore not a surprise to eventually be made redundant. I am still in High Tech but on the design and development side now. Its still our manufacturing sites that are being downsized or moved. So my current long term advice is that you need to develop skills that put you higher up the food chain if you want to avoid redundancy. Note that "service industries" are just that - services to the food chain.
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Its alright for the prime minister to say we will help the unemployed in six months time what about us that have just been out of work two months .
Is there no help for us to get back into work ASAP. or do we not count.
Having been made redundant in November it is very hard to get a job I find it very down hearting. The job centre just want you to take any job to get you off there books not good enough
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I was unemployed for about 4 years in the early 1990s. Not because I was made redundant but because when I finished my degree there were absolutely no jobs to be had and it was one of the most degrading experiences imaginable.
A condition of signing-on in those days was to provide evidence that you were actively seeking works. This meant applying for many jobs and keeping evidence and rejection letters, which could sometimes be quite unkind and contain personal comments regarding one's unsuitability. Keeping these to show at ones next benefit review did little to raise ones self-confidence.
At the time, it was quite common to have Conservative politicians of the day pursuing witch-hunts against the unemployed, and it was particularly degrading to wake up to the likes of Peter Lilley in the 8.05 am slot on the Today programme trying to distract the nation from economic problems by blaming undeserving benefit claimants.
I eventually managed to forge a career by paying for a vocational diploma out of my small savings, and doing a lot of unpaid work experience. Neither activity could not be disclosed to the benefit agency at the time, as it would have invalidated my meagre benefits as it would have meant I was not available for work while studying at the local 'poly' or spending time doing unpaid work at a venerable institution that eventually employed me.
Looking at some of the posts on this thread, it seems that the benefit agencies are still out of touch with real world routes into work. At least today's unemployed will be spared being pilloried as 'scrounging socialists' by any latter-day, list-writing Peter Lilley clones.
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Re: Primark:
Not long ago the British Empire reigned supreme; the Empire founded on decent but poor, ordinary, very hard working people, of all ancestry. (yet, it's difficult to discern what a true 'British' person is or ever was)
Re: Primark:
Whilst I don't agree with illegal workers in UK, I strongly disagree with the Minimum Wage.
Without the Minimum Wage some unscrupulous employers would exploit people - but with the Minimum Wage ALL employers exploit people.
If someone (as long as they're legally entitled to work in UK) chooses - and Yes, I do mean CHOOSES - to work for low pay, then I believe they and the employer should be legally allowed to do so.
How can anyone improve their lot in life if they can't start at the bottom of the payscales?
Legislation in the UK today has crippled all hard work and self respect.
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To get my last PAYE job, I wrote 350 letters, received 180 replies, 10 requests for my CV, 2 interviews.. and one came through. i stayed just under 2 years, then started my own company, still going strong after 11 years... I'm even thinking of retiring at 50!
IF you REALLY think you are the best choice around, start your own company doing whatever you do.. and prove it!.. to yourself first, and then to your client base..
OTHERWISE..
Don't surf newspapers, don't read the same tired ads in the jobcentre.. go to the library, research your area, think how your skills might fit other industries and markets, note down company names, addresses, phone numbers that are relevant. Phone up, ask for the name of a contact at HR... then address the letter to them.. keep it short, but strong, leaving them WANTING to find out more about you!
PLEASE do NOT put "Curriculum Vitae" as the header on your CV.. they know what it is.. they need to know WHOSE it is... put your name in the header, so it shows on every page!
Write it in the 3rd party.. so even though the reader KNOWS you wrote it, subliminally, they feel it is someone else talking about you.
Use the Job-Club to cover postage.
Phase them at no more than 50 letters a week, or you will not be able to manage the response, interview offers, or job offers!..
CV layout... quick paragraph personal profile, tailored for the role being apllied for, directing the reader top relevant experience later in the CV.. then a checklist summary of skills on offer, then expanded details, and LAST put your contact and other personal details in a text box.. that way when you provide an electronic copy to an agency, they can delete the contact details, without messing with the page layouts throughout YOUR document.. plus, you don't waste 'first impression' space on the stuff they won't be interested in unless you got their attention!
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A friend of mine 'never' finds it hard to find a job and cannot understand why I do ..but he has something about him that people always take an instant liking to and I am sure that when he goes for an interview it's his charisma that wins him the job far more than his abilities or being the best person for the job......on the other hand I am a very shy, retiring sort of person that doesn't make friends easily....I cannot change the person I am so I will always struggle with finding jobs and being the one chosen at interviews.
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I get £5.60 per day not an hour out of that I have to pay all untilties clothes food I have to ask others to help me I have a car which I need as I live were there is no real shops of chose I dislike supermarkets and I can not walk very well. It is cold now and I have the heating on for a couple of hours daily and I have rowed with the companies who pot pre paid meters in, as they charge more for them if I need anything I have to go cap in hand and never get enough to buy what I need the benefit agencies are told to make sure we do not have a life. I worked from the age of fifteen in low paid very hard work
as a career when I divorced I was even further down the pecking order but my husband was not because he hide his money, and looking after a family means nothing in this country like the families.
So there are days when I have to ask a friend for help which I hate but as I have diabetes my body does not deal with weather changes well. I will be a 60 seen and I can not wait poverty and old age.
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I live in Gordon Brown's constituency and have just signed on after the expiry of a 6 week fixed-term contract with M and S. Although I completed a P46 via M and S, the Tax Office have not received it so M and S taxed me on emergency code, so a straight 20% tax deduction. I have been told this afternoon that I cannot reclaim the income tax overpaid until 5th April 2009! Of course my local council will wait for 4 months for me to pay the last instalment of my council tax (roughly equivalent to the overpaid income tax - I think not. And Gordon Brown has the effrontery to promise people the help that they need now. If Gordon's idea of "now" is 4 months, then heaven help anyone who has a non-pressing problem.
With friends like Gordon I need an enema.
Back to the job search.
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I am currently 29 about to be 30 and have been made redundant 3 times already. twice in the last year alone. I have worked none stop since i left college with no more then 2 weeks at tops between jobs. I have just been made redundant as of the 31st of dec by one of the company's mentioned. I have not once received a bad review yet still i am in this position yet again. As I have never been able to afford with my partner to purchase a house of our own i can not see a time in my future when this will ever be possible. I am about to be 30 already and have worked since i was 18 yet it is impossible for me to get on the housing market and going forward even more unlikely due to not being able to afford the mortgage if i wanted too even if i could get someone to loan me the money. Soon it will be too late for me to buy, as i will not be able to pay this off by the time i retire. Which lets be fair is going to be hard enough to live without the cost of a mortgage. It is impossible to save with such high cost out goings even when living the way our government perceive as socially correct. It is impossible to invest in property for our own use to set up a family. It is impossible even to get health care unless i am a single mother or pregnant which i am not (I have actually been refused for this and was told that although they had places these were reserved for single mothers and pregnant women from over 5 NHS dentist while suffering from wisdom teeth issues. I ended up in casualty one night as it was the only way i could get someone to see me. What i don't understand is, if i am doing everything right such as not getting pregnant at a young age, holding down a relationship with my partner for 5 years, not relying on government hand outs, Educated and worked responsibly, paying my national insurance, council tax, tax on my wages ect.. Why is it impossible for me to live a decent life. I can not even consider getting married or having a family as i just can not afford to do so. I can't afford to secure myself a home, I can not get an NHS doctor or dentist to see me . Even though i have educated myself and worked hard it is impossible to keep a job. I do not in any shape or form think that we should not be giving money to single mothers or others who need it. We should! but i just don't understand why i should feel like a second class member of society and not be able to get myself the same securities when I have worked so hard to do things the right way. What the hell has gone wrong and as i am sure i am far from the only person in this boat, why is no one addressing the needs of my generation.
Lisa from Basingstoke
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I am 53 years old and disabled.
It is not that I do not want to work, it is that, in the present climate of the "Credit crunch", I am "Unemployable". What happened to equal rights for all?
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I can understand how people feel but I dont agree that you may as well be on the dole (as the couple in the article). If a person on min wage (age 20) can earn approx £160 working 40 hours a week surely this is better then £48 per week?
My advice go for any job however low, you start low to aim higher.
I started as a data imputter when I was 16 moved up to superviser, moved to customer care, went from that to sales to sales manager, from that to project manager!
I too gave up full time work after finding myself a single mum but now work part time around my son (he is at school).
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I've been made redundant twice before as well and luckily both times it's been OK. However, last year our company needed to pull in the strings and put pretty much our whole department and risk. Two people doing the job I do and one of us had to go unless we could come up with a solution. We did and now I do three days a week and my colleague does two. Ok I get less money, but frankly the extra time I get at home is worth much more, especially if you're in the higher rate tax band, it's surprising how little difference it actually makes and as I'm now classed as 'low income' my daughters Uni grant has gone up which has softened the pill.
Biggest impact at work though is that the 'risk' of putting everyone at risk is that the staff will then be forced to look around, see what they can get and then leave. Which is exactly what happened.
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I think all well paid jobs should be shared........why have one person doing all the work and earning 'all' the money when an equally capable person is unemployed and doing nothing.
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I graduated from university in 1977 in surveying. I was made redundant in 1978 and was unemployed for 20 years until 1998. I have been successfully self employed for 10 years but am now looking at the prospect of being without work and income. I have nothing but contempt for those who think the world owes them a living.
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I didn't want to go to University after College, I've always been a par academic but wanted to pursue those skills in my own time, whilst working an entry level office job.
Get out of my parents house and into a place I could call my own, be thrifty for a few years before I could afford to work on qualifications - perhaps out of the Open university.
After six-months of searching for any job at all and with mounting pressure from my parents I just went to Uni instead. I'm working a placement year away from Uni in a respectable international IT company.
The total cost of this? I'll have spent over £15,000 in Tuition when I qualify and aren't likely to find a job immediately when I do.
I see myself, a year and a half from now, back in the doll office - Degree in hand - Wondering what the hell next.
Thanks UK, thanks for looking after those of us interested in a better life. Instead, the no-hopers and druggies get all your cash and live care free.
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my husband was made redundant in october, we have 4 children and a mortgage but have been told all we can get is £94.00 per week jobseekers and £42.00 per month child tax credit does anyone out there know if this is correct as when we go to the goverment websites for help we keep hitting brick walls. also my husband has been ok for the last few months but very worried about him over the last few days he is very down which is not like him, he was a director for an american IT company based over here and has applied for over 100 jobs. any advise would be wonderful as we are now at worlds end !
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It's never easy becoming unemployed. The first ime for me was 1990 when I was living in London. Some of the comments on PM this evening really struck home.
It's wasn't the lack of income that affected me so much, having always been on the lower rung of the earnings ladder, more the lack of scocial contact.
Friends were kind to start off with. But when my situation became long term I sensed they were avoiding me.
I don't want to whine about how bad things got, but I had to start again from scratch.
It took me about three years to get back on my feet but I managed it.
You learn a lot about yourself and others in times of adversity, not all of it nice. But in a way, I'm glad I went through it.
I've done a lot since that time and have had several jobs. I don't expect a job to last for life and try to keep all options open.
Now unemployed again I know what to expect.
For anyone finding themselves idle after
continuous employment you'll discover how many hours there really are in a day.
Consider voluntary work, you never know where it may lead.
Excercise. You may be entitled to concessions at local facilities. Running and cycling cost nothing.
Don't skimp on nutrition. It's a priority.
Go to your local Library.
Try to maintain human contact. Isolation is a killer.
There are a lot of free lectures and learning opportunities on the net.
.Try to be optimistic. This won't last forever.
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Someone I know has been out of work for many, many years.
Why is this? He's not stupid, by any means - nor is he in the least lazy. He has committed no crime except - oh yes - he's disabled.
He's not that disabled, either. He can walk, he can talk, he can do lots of things - in fact, he's extremely talented. But nobody wants to know, because his disability means he can't do things as quickly as can other people.
I'm writing this not only on his behalf, but on behalf of the many thousands of people out there who have got lots to offer, but who can't get people to see beyond the wheelchair, or the white stick.
You'd think that, being discriminated against on the grounds of disability wasn't illegal...
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