Benefit Hate

I didn't ever learn to cope with it whilst I was in the UK, not really. I graduated in 1981. Monetarism and Thatcher's 3 million, including graduate unemployment.

It always seems to be in the government's interest to find someone to blame, someone to scapegoat, when times get lean. But I seem to remember that the austerity drive of the 2020's had never truly been necessary.

And now the current party are doing the same old, same old. All about decent working families, they say. But the coffers are empty and someone's piggy bank will have to be raided.

I remember the director of one of the languages I worked for opining that many sick people could not be really sick if they were well enough to enjoy expensive holidays abroad. He thought it was pensions that needed to be protected, as it was honest, decent working people who had paid contributions all their lives who were more deserving.

Only now they, are going after pensioners.

After a disastrous return back after my first Real Job at a chool in the country where I am based now, I never returned. My mother or some odd reason thought I intended to come back just to sign on again. I didn't see my family again for over two years. I hope they were pleased at that result.

Being treated, seen as a scrounger, is like having acid thrown at your face. In the early 80's though there were thinkers who questioned the validity of the work ethic if work in general were to become more scarce. I attended art courses, but discovered there all other kinds of gatekeeping. 

I'd tried working a Sunday shop at 16 and got humiliated and fired pretty quickly for 'not being quick enough.' I did fear getting bullied in the workplace for not fitting in, but discovered that can happen in unpaid jobs too, if your work is tied to accommodation. I couldn't deal with restart interviews and claimant adviser interrogations. I got the chance to do the Tesol course in good time, and while it was not a match in heaven, it did give me a living for nearly three decades, and hurrah, I did pay my taxes, all very worthy.

I didn't ever learn to cope with it whilst I was in the UK, not really. I graduated in 1981. Monetarism and Thatcher's 3 million, including graduate unemployment.

It always seems to be in the government's interest to find someone to blame, someone to scapegoat, when times get lean. But I seem to remember that the austerity drive of the 2020's had never truly been necessary.

And now the current party are doing the same old, same old. All about decent working families, they say. But the coffers are empty and someone's piggy bank will have to be raided.

I remember the director of one of the languages I worked for opining that many sick people could not be really sick if they were well enough to enjoy expensive holidays abroad. He thought it was pensions that needed to be protected, as it was honest, decent working people who had paid contributions all their lives who were more deserving.

Only now they, are going after pensioners.

After a disastrous return back after my first Real Job at a chool in the country where I am based now, I never returned. My mother or some odd reason thought I intended to come back just to sign on again. I didn't see my family again for over two years. I hope they were pleased at that result.

Being treated, seen as a scrounger, is like having acid thrown at your face. In the early 80's though there were thinkers who questioned the validity of the work ethic if work in general were to become more scarce. I attended art courses, but discovered there all other kinds of gatekeeping. 

I'd tried working a Sunday shop at 16 and got humiliated and fired pretty quickly for 'not being quick enough.' I did fear getting bullied in the workplace for not fitting in, but discovered that can happen in unpaid jobs too, if your work is tied to accommodation. I couldn't deal with restart interviews and claimant adviser interrogations. I got the chance to do the Tesol course in good time, and while it was not a match in heaven, it did give me a living for nearly three decades, and hurrah, I did pay my taxes, all very worthy.