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Want more independence, but afraid

Hope

I am getting to the point now where I am outliving my support workers, and would like to be more independent. But at the same time I am very afraid about what the future might bring, because I only have a few friends (all with Aspergers, and no best friends), and I still have many issues that I need support with. I also fear change.

My goal in life is to get off benefits and have a full time, secure job. But the trap I am in is that I am prevented from doing many jobs due to the way my brain works. If I did not have OCD and panic, I would happily take a cleaning job or other repetitive  job - I have a strong work ethic and love routine and structure; as long as I am told what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by!.

I currently have a part time job, only 7 hours a week on  permitted ESA work, and I do a lot of volunteering, too. I envy 'normal' people who have proper jobs, like my brother. He also has a girlfriend, and although he still lives at home with my parents, he is more independent than I am, and I have my own flat!.

I have set myself a goal: work at my current job for another year, work on my anxieties, and then apply for other jobs. I hate being disabled because it stops me from working, and I love to work!. I also love my independence, but I am not independent.

I don't mind having Aspergers, and I like parts of myself that are probably connected to the Aspergers anyway, like my high level of motivation, willingness to work hard etc. But the negatives sadly negate the positives.

I crave 'normality': a full time job, no support, an independent income, and freedom from fear.

Parents

  • The staff at DWP aren't clever enough......

    What NAS could usefully do, or some other organisation, is contact the Sector Skills Councils. These are bodies (if they have survived the recent cuts) that set standards for education and training and recruitment in their fields. For example cleaning, along with estate management and housing, come under Asset Skills. Others cover health workers, caterers, construction industry, building maintenance, transport etc.

    These bodies set up skills frameworks and points systems for different qualifications. They are supposed to include disability, though I cannot say they always do. I worked with three Sector Skills Councils on foundation degrees and 14 to 19 diploma, but always did have a struggle getting across the disability considerations.

    But NAS could usefully approach the Sector Skills Councils about increasing employment opportunities for people omn the autistic spectrum. They would have to respond, and would be better placed than approaching individual FE colleges or individual employers. There is, or used to be a Sector Skills Councils website with all the different councils and contact details listed.

    Certainly more chance than with DWP, Job Centre Plus or any of the other joke organisations supposed to be finding people work - they are appallingly bad, substandard, wasteful and counter-productive, but no government seems to have the courage to sort them out. And there are people who work in those organisations, serving the public, who've no right to sleep nights, the shameful way they treat people.

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  • The staff at DWP aren't clever enough......

    What NAS could usefully do, or some other organisation, is contact the Sector Skills Councils. These are bodies (if they have survived the recent cuts) that set standards for education and training and recruitment in their fields. For example cleaning, along with estate management and housing, come under Asset Skills. Others cover health workers, caterers, construction industry, building maintenance, transport etc.

    These bodies set up skills frameworks and points systems for different qualifications. They are supposed to include disability, though I cannot say they always do. I worked with three Sector Skills Councils on foundation degrees and 14 to 19 diploma, but always did have a struggle getting across the disability considerations.

    But NAS could usefully approach the Sector Skills Councils about increasing employment opportunities for people omn the autistic spectrum. They would have to respond, and would be better placed than approaching individual FE colleges or individual employers. There is, or used to be a Sector Skills Councils website with all the different councils and contact details listed.

    Certainly more chance than with DWP, Job Centre Plus or any of the other joke organisations supposed to be finding people work - they are appallingly bad, substandard, wasteful and counter-productive, but no government seems to have the courage to sort them out. And there are people who work in those organisations, serving the public, who've no right to sleep nights, the shameful way they treat people.

Children
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