Agencies and full time work!

[NothingToSeeHere]

Have you made a complaint about this supposed discrimination?

 

[Mr Allen]

What type of work are you looking for Rich?

Part time retail.

I seem to be being sent towards call centres in the type of emails I get from employment sites, but that's a BIG no because I wear a hearing aid,

 

[Starfire]

I need to keep benefits, otherwise I've been told I would have no choice but to work 60 hours a week just to break even on a week's expenses such as rent if I lose Housing Benefit

60 hours x 7.50 (min wage) = £450 - %20 tax = £360. (That is without additional overtime rate which would be payable after your contracted hours of usually 37 hours per week)

Do you really need £360 per week to break even? I find it hard hard to believe that your benefits are £360 a week. If they are then I would happily stay at home for that, and I wouldn't look for a job or complain about no one giving me one. If you're entitled to the money, take it and be grateful I know I would be.

 

[Mr Allen]

60 hours x 7.50 (min wage) = £450 - %20 tax = £360. (That is without additional overtime rate which would be payable after your contracted hours of usually 37 hours per week)

Do you really need £360 per week to break even? I find it hard hard to believe that your benefits are £360 a week. If they are then I would happily stay at home for that, and I wouldn't look for a job or complain about no one giving me one. If you're entitled to the money, take it and be grateful I know I would be.

I cannot physically work full time.

I have said this all along but people aren't listening.

 

[Starfire]

No Rich, I'm listening very carefully. You want 16 hours per week of retail work on top of the approximately £360 per week you receive in benefits based on the numbers you provided.
16 x 7.50 = £120 - %20 tax = £96
Therefore the £360 + £96 = £456 per week after tax. Can you see how absolutely unrealistic this is to achieve for two days retail work per week?

 

[xudo]

UK housing benefit system is designed to force a claimant to rent out a spare room. Or move. it was dubbed "the bedroom tax".

It wasn't designed to force you to sublet. The bedroom tax only applies if you are in a council owned property. The intention was to get people who had moved into a 3 bed house from the council with their 2 kids and partner 20 years ago to move somewhere smaller now that their kids have moved out and they have 2 bedrooms not in use.

There is a massive need for council/social housing for families, because most of them were sold off under right to buy schemes. Now councils have (albeit still not many) more properties which are suitable for single people and couples without children, but more families need houses.

We rent our house privately, and have a spare room and we're unaffected by the bedroom tax. You would also need permission from the council to even be able to sublet a room in a property.

 

[xudo]

probably won't even reply to my email.

Of course she won't, she's the Prime Minister.

Most people don't even get a reply to correspondence from their MP. Usually it's an aide who replies to stuff. They must get hundreds if not thousands of emails, letters and phone calls every day.

 

[Gracey]

I'd err on the side of caution Rich
, if you are able to work 16hrs a week, then it may be questioned why you're not working in an attempt to support yourself. Not by me but those that decide what benefits you're entitled to.
(If you're fit and able to work 16hrs)

A couple of hours work each day doesn't appear to exist any longer. (Unless you're a cleaner.)
Those 16 hrs will be worked over two, 8 hour long days.
Can you handle 8 hour days? A 15 or 20 minute break overall?

If you're bored, volunteer, join a club with social opportunities
If you want more money, sell stuff on fleabay, buy and sell and the free sites.
But if you're caught not declaring income, that's your lookout. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Have you already been in to see the benefits agency? Did they say you're allowed to work 16 hrs before it would affect your entitlement?

 

[Mr Allen]

I'd err on the side of caution Rich
, if you are able to work 16hrs a week, then it may be questioned why you're not working in an attempt to support yourself. Not by me but those that decide what benefits you're entitled to.
(If you're fit and able to work 16hrs)

A couple of hours work each day doesn't appear to exist any longer. (Unless you're a cleaner.)
Those 16 hrs will be worked over two, 8 hour long days.
Can you handle 8 hour days? A 15 or 20 minute break overall?

If you're bored, volunteer, join a club with social opportunities
If you want more money, sell stuff on fleabay, buy and sell and the free sites.
But if you're caught not declaring income, that's your lookout. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Have you already been in to see the benefits agency? Did they say you're allowed to work 16 hrs before it would affect your entitlement?

Officially I was signed off as "too sick to work" to get ESA (MY Parents' decision, I don't support it) but I've been told from the Job Centre (who I trust as far as I could throw one of their "advisers") that I can earn £120 a week based on ideally less than 15 hours a week of minimum wage work.

Would these people kindly make their minds up FFS!

 

[Starfire]

No, it's not the Daily Mail Rich, they are calculations based on the figures YOU provided! I presume that comment was intended as an insult and to reflect my political opinion of which you know nothing. The reality is Rich, 'the system' which you endlessly moan about is actually serving you very well and giving you a comfortable standard of living under the circumstances. You have a higher income than someone who works full time on the minimum wage. Perhaps you should post in the Sheffield forum about how the governmen pays you benefits which you happily accept for being "too sick to work", when in reality by your own admission you are perfectly capable of work, you just don't want to take responsibility for yourself!

 

[xudo]

8 hour long days.
Can you handle 8 hour days? A 15 or 20 minute break overall?

If you were working over 6 hours in a shift, you're legally entitled to 20 minutes of uninterrupted break time. However, I don't know of anyone who works an 8 hour shift who doesn't also get 30 minutes to an hour for lunch (unpaid).

but I've been told from the Job Centre (who I trust as far as I could throw one of their "advisers")

I've posted countless times the link to the GOV.co.uk website page about this issue. The governments own website states that what the job centre have told you is correct.

If you're so distrusting of the job centre and the people who work there, then why would you base your job search on the information they have provided you? (Just to clarify again, they are 100% correct.)

 

[Starfire]

For the record Rich as you have now sunk to attempted character assassination, I do not read the Daily Mail, or vote conservative or begrudge you the benefits which you are entitled.

I was also on what was at the time known as sickness benefit and considered too sick to work and signed off the dole, for years. When I eventually came to feel up to, and able to work, like you I applied for everything and got nothing. That's how it came about that I registered with agencies. Eventually I was offered a job, welfare operative on construction sites, i.e building site toilet and canteen cleaner for £3.50 per hour before tax! I took it, and my income dropped like a stone but I coped and had no life luxuries. The next job I took was general labourer £6 per hour before tax. It was while doing this job that I became fascinated and obsessed with plastering, the smell, the feel, the sound it made when it moved against walls and ceilings I found the skill involved hypnotic. I registered at night school and went two evenings a week for three years in order to become fully trained in all aspects of plastering. I made it my business and obsession to be the best I could be, and when I had completed my course I was then earning £15 per hour as a minimum. Agencies called me and companies called me to encourage me to move to them and I was fought over, but I started my own business instead, all in four years! I still didn't have a driving licence.

I have been NHS diagnosed, and have very poor eye sight which can be corrected by glasses so I have my difficulties too.

So, before you attempt to play the victim or the downtrodden, or judge or belittle me or anyone else for doing what you don't have the courage to do, take a look in the mirror Rich, and accept that you are the master of your own fate.

 

[The Midge]

I cannot physically work full time.

I have said this all along but people aren't listening.

I hope, Rich, that you do what you can.

I work in the public sector. Maybe you don't understand how tight finances are right now. There isn't enough money for us to do our jobs well. That probably applies to Autism and other disability services.

If you can work a little bit (and that will result in less benefits) you contribute to the economy and that makes public serves a little bit better off. Then eventually Autism and disability services can improve.

You also have to view any job you get with the long view. If you have never worked or have not worked in a long time you are going to have to start at the bottom, on minimum wage, and that means that you are not going to be much better than on benefits financially. But you will be better off in the terms of experience and training that you gain and feeling better about yourself.

Have you ever tried applying to the CO-OP or similar? They have a very good track record of employing people with disabilities and are usually not as big and intimidating as places like Tesco or Asda (Walmart to our American Cousins).

[Now I'm going to walk the dog and think about starting a thread on underemployment. I'm on a day off not because its a perk but because I can't get a full time job that uses my skills and expertise, even with a Masters degree and 30+ years experience in my field, just in case you think I've got it easy].

 

[Mr Allen]

I hope, Rich, that you do what you can.

I work in the public sector. Maybe you don't understand how tight finances are right now. There isn't enough money for us to do our jobs well. That probably applies to Autism and other disability services.

If you can work a little bit (and that will result in less benefits) you contribute to the economy and that makes public serves a little bit better off. Then eventually Autism and disability services can improve.

You also have to view any job you get with the long view. If you have never worked or have not worked in a long time you are going to have to start at the bottom, on minimum wage, and that means that you are not going to be much better than on benefits financially. But you will be better off in the terms of experience and training that you gain and feeling better about yourself.

Have you ever tried applying to the CO-OP or similar? They have a very good track record of employing people with disabilities and are usually not as big and intimidating as places like Tesco or Asda (Walmart to our American Cousins).

[Now I'm going to walk the dog and think about starting a thread on underemployment. I'm on a day off not because its a perk but because I can't get a full time job that uses my skills and expertise, even with a Masters degree and 30+ years experience in my field, just in case you think I've got it easy].

Co Op? Meh, I once had an interview for the local Co Op in Hillsborough, Sheffield, and the Manager told me to my face that she didn't want to employ me and shop work was "beneath me" as I was "overqualified".

Seriously I am THIS close to doing a 2 fingered gesture to the Daily Fail readers on Facebook and giving up, everywhere I turn I get numpties like her blocking my efforts to get ahead.

 

[The Midge]

Hi Rich. Said CO-OP manager probably reads the Guardian or Mirror. I prefer the former if I buy a paper or more often get it free from the local Waitorse that serves as my corner shop. There are plenty more CO-Ops to try. Trust me this has nothing to do with who reads the Mail- disgusting rag that is not fit for recycling as loo roll that it is.

Qualifications: what do you have?

 

[Starfire]

Have you considered going self-employed and working for yourself Rich? From what you wrote I t sounds like you have lots of qualifications. That would solve the problem of finding someone to work for, work for yourself! You can work the hours the want to, and you can choose to work for who want to. You must have a skill or special interest you could turn into an income, pretty much everybody can do something. It's a very good option for Aspies, it was certainly the best employment move I ever made.

 

[Mr Allen]

I have NVQ qualifications in retail at level 1 and 2, which I did at Sheffield College from 1995 to 1997, plus last year while working for Mind, the mental health Charity, I did and passed an NVQ level 3 course in customer service. I also have a GCSE in English language and literature at grade A, and also typing qualifications at RSA level 1 and 2.

I also have customer service experience having worked in nearly every Charity shop in Sheffield and admin experience having done IT work for a few local Charities.

 

[Judge]

I have NVQ qualifications in retail at level 1 and 2, which I did at Sheffield College from 1995 to 1997, plus last year while working for Mind, the mental health Charity, I did and passed an NVQ level 3 course in customer service. I also have a GCSE in English language and literature at grade A, and also typing qualifications at RSA level 1 and 2.

I also have customer service experience having worked in nearly every Charity shop in Sheffield and admin experience having done IT work for a few local Charities.

Again, I seriously doubt that prospective employers are dismissing your qualifications per se. Though working as a volunteer is different dynamic than working as a paid employee where optimal performance is expected in the eyes of private sector employers.

Consider how you appear to them in your attitude. To focus on and project only one thing. What you can do for them, rather than what they can do for you as a disabled person to be accommodated. Sell yourself as an asset ready to work- and not as a charitable contribution. IMO avoid even mentioning being on the spectrum, and downplay your disabilities in as much as is possible relative to the job itself.

You simply cannot maintain the same interview strategy with respects to a paying job that you would with a volunteer position. Critical to keep this in mind in your next interview. Again, it's all about what you can do for them. To dwell on what they can do for you will likely kill any prospects of being hired. It may not be fair, but it's a basic reality for much of anyone wanting a job in a competitive, paying work environment.

 

[Mr Allen]

Again, I seriously doubt that prospective employers are dismissing your qualifications per se. Though working as a volunteer is different dynamic than working as a paid employee where optimal performance is expected in the eyes of private sector employers.

Consider how you appear to them in your attitude. To focus on and project only one thing. What you can do for them, rather than what they can do for you as a disabled person to be accommodated. Sell yourself as an asset ready to work- and not as a charitable contribution. IMO avoid even mentioning being on the spectrum, and downplay your disabilities in as much as is possible relative to the job itself.

You simply cannot maintain the same interview strategy with respects to a paying job that you would with a volunteer position. Critical to keep this in mind in your next interview. Again, it's all about what you can do for them. To dwell on what they can do for you will likely kill any prospects of being hired. It may not be fair, but it's a basic reality for much of anyone wanting a job in a competitive, paying work environment.

As it happens I have an interview next week, I got an email about 3 hours ago from Syrac Inspirations, they want to see me at my earliest convenience as they've seen my CV on a job site and were suitably impressed! Not bad for a CV I created myself in Word Online and took about an hour to create a 2 page document.

It's not the first interview I've had of late either, it's at the same place in Town where I had an interview for a local Marketing firm called Mojico back in July, but it's a different company, I wouldn't apply to Mojico again, contrary to popular belief even I'm not that daft.

 

[Judge]

As it happens I have an interview next week, I got an email about 3 hours ago from Syrac Inspirations, they want to see me at my earliest convenience as they've seen my CV on a job site and were suitably impressed! Not bad for a CV I created myself in Word Online and took about an hour to create a 2 page document.

It's not the first interview I've had of late either, it's at the same place in Town where I had an interview for a local Marketing firm called Mojico back in July, but it's a different company, I wouldn't apply to Mojico again, contrary to popular belief even I'm not that daft.

Sounds good Rich. I think your CV speaks for itself with regards to your experience in retail in general. However that leaves you to sell YOU rather than your work experience alone. Good luck with the next one.