Sorry it's a long one:
As a graduate who worked hard and I say HARD in capitals because trust me my 3 years in university was an emotional rollercoaster, but that’s another story. As someone who worked ‘damn’ (and yes I will curse as I believe that I have the right to) you can understand how I felt when I was forced to claim benefits. Yup I said it the dreaded word ‘Benefits’, it’s not only bums and scroungers that claim you know, some of us hard workers go through a time period where we need some assistance, and due to the fact that we are all entitled to a lil help when times get hard I don’t think there should be anyone out there judging me.
Let me tell you a little bit about my background. I’m the typical stereotype. I am from a single-parent working class family (cliché I know). I am the first person in my immediate family that went to university; an accomplishment I know and I like to pat myself on the back every time I remember this. My mum works in the local supermarket so our family isn’t exactly making top figures in the money department, if you get what I mean. Basically let’s just say Lil Zee isn’t exactly experiencing the finer things in life.
When I was younger I never understood the extent to which I was in financial strain. I guess when your young your blind to everything. But as soon as I hit the soil of ‘higher education’ it hit me with such a force, I didn’t know how to handle myself. I learnt that life itself was very expensive. You to have to pay bills, rent and buy food, and don’t get me started on personal upkeep.
All I’m saying is that Student Loans and Maintenance Loans are the devil; they disguise themselves as your saviour, they are the key to your university education and hide behind the lies that they are there to help you and as soon as you graduate they come back to bite you in the bum when you least expect it. They write letters to you like bailiffs telling you that you owe them money and when you see the interest it’s enough to send you scuttling into a hole.
Students don’t be fooled when you open up your bank statements and see that large sums of money have been deposited into your account and think ‘yay I can go off on that holiday now’ or ‘new wardrobe shopping spree here I come’. My advice to you is to be sensible and to put some of that money into a savings account, because if you are part of the unlucky majority that come out of university to unemployment as soon as you step out of the safe bubble of student discounts and grants, the real world will hit you like a ton of bricks and you will not know what hit you. Take it from someone who knows, especially if you are someone like me who is a person of ‘ahum’ acute poverty. I found this new source of income a little lifesaver, which I never thought would end, but yup 3 years later it did and I ended up in a situation that many who attend university never think they will end up in… unemployment.
Once the money dried up I found that the life I had become accustomed to I could not uphold. Gone were the luxuries; the new technology, clothes, contact lenses, frequent trips to the hair salon and branded food; even the driving lessons that I craved so much.
A friend advised me that there was a scheme called Job Seekers Allowance (JSA); this would help me find a job and support me with £50 a week whilst searching. £50 a week may sound like a little to many, but it’s better than £0 so I did it thinking I’d only be on it for a few weeks and then I’d be in my job… hmm I thought WRONG!!!
Job Seekers Allowance is another devil disguised as a helping hand. As a person that has no other means coming, you become so dependent on it that you actually become a prostitute for the money; no I don’t mean you start giving sexual favours in return for money, but you start doing anything that they throw at you just so you can keep getting your £50. Seriously I found myself doing crazy things like going on courses that I was forced to attend, because if I failed to go then they would revoke my money.
Okay your probably thinking, why is this fresh out of Uni graduate, attending courses when she has a qualification that should open more doors than a course about getting back into work. You tell me, because I had no idea why I did this. These courses were like concentration camps where they held the unemployed and kept us trapped at computers and newspapers spending pointless hours scouring for jobs. And oh no you had to apply for every job; there was no being picky on these courses. It felt like a prison/school, there were so many rules, you couldn’t talk, you couldn’t eat, you couldn’t do anything. I remember once I got reprimanded for wearing the hood of my jacket up, when I was having a bad hair day.
This institution was filled to the brim with all types, and they did not care about you, to them you were just a number. I got talking to this man who had been a successful businessman; he had done business with princes and had flown on first class whenever he travelled. The only reason he was there was because he had suffered during the recession, ask me what type of jobs they were forcing this poor man who probably was the most qualified person in the room to apply for, retail jobs. I felt like crying for him; we bonded because we knew that this stupid course was so unnecessary for us and that we could do better.
I finally decided that I would stop claiming after this course forced me to apply for, go to an interview and accept a job offer from a job that I didn’t even want. I became so confused and delirious that my friends intervened and snapped me out of my JSA coma; they could see that I had reached an all time low of depression and I was not my normal self anymore, all I could see was gloom and I felt like my life was going nowhere. I felt so trapped in this JSA nonsense that I had started telling myself that I had to do what they told me or I would be penalised.
Now that I’m free, I feel more positive, though the money is not flowing in like I would like it to be, I feel free to do more. At the moment I am discovering myself as a person and in terms of jobs, I am working on a freelance basis so it’s on my terms and not the Jobcentre’s dictation.
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