Richard Tice the Reform MP thinks the unemployed are all sat at home watching television all day. But I don’t think so. After five years as a live-in care worker. I decided to try to find another job so that I could get involved with the community and find some friends. Live-in care work although rewarding can be isolating as you have to live in the house 24/7 for four weeks and then have two weeks of which can be difficult to build relationships.

I decided to look for work assuming it wouldn’t be that difficult. I am 56 years old. I worked in technology as a desktop engineer for fifteen years. And I have a BA Hons in Creative Writing. So I have some skills to rely on but in my quest this all meant nothing.

After living in Campbeltown, a small remote Scottish harbour town, I moved to Birmingham. The point of moving to Birmingham is that it was the largest city outside of London and it was still in the north. This meant that there should be cheap housing and plenty of jobs. The housing wasn’t as cheap as it could be. I was lucky to find a shabby but clean small one bedroom studio for 550GBP per month. It has a nice bedroom. A nice shower room and a decent sized kitchen. It was a 20 minute walk from the town centre so easy if I found a local job and save money on transport.

Applying for jobs in Birmingham

I started applying for jobs. The jobs I applied for were a mixture of customer service roles, administrator roles. I applied for recruitment style roles. I applied for a job at Timpson who employ ex criminals. I applied for a bus driver role. And I received ZERO response. I wondered what could be wrong. I signed up to a charity that helps people with prior mental health problems. I received no response from them. In the end I received an email with offers of care work but I was trying to find a job in an office with a large company so I could grow into something technical and earn more money.  After six months unemployed in Birmingham I decided my face didn’t fit. Maybe there was too much competition. Maybe my name wasn’t Mohammed. I know that sounds racist but in an ethnically diverse area like Birmingham maybe my CV was just thrown away. I would expect at least one interview.

I decided to move to Lincoln. My reason for Lincoln was that I had worked nearby as a live-in care worker and liked the area. It was a smaller town so I thought maybe less competition. As lovely as Lincoln is the problem with housing is that most housing stock is two bedroom houses or apartments. So it’s difficult to get a cheap one bed room flat. But I stayed in a student room which was comfortable enough.

Again I started applying for jobs and this time I was quite lucky and over the course of six months I received three interviews but was unsuccessful. These jobs were not hard they were all telephone based that a monkey could do but I just didn’t get through.  On one specific job the water company had requested that they wanted mature people over 50 because the telephone calls dealt with vulnerable people. The unemployment centre sent us on a week- long course to better our CV’s and learn about interview techniques. We finished the week with a mock interview. And then I took the actual interview and did not get offered the job. When I spoke to the person at the dole office. She said they employed no one? And then I saw the same job advertised in the local papers. How weird.

Employment charities

I also got in touch with a local charity that has connections to businesses in the area. I waited for weeks to be seen and then I would visit this person every two weeks. But he was looking at the same websites I was looking at. I was too embarrassed to say anything. At one point he suggested a part-time job but I thought this would not make me enough to live on but he informed me I would get extra universal credit. This is hardly the career changing job I need. After a while I asked about the businesses with connections and he said another woman dealt with that. I gave up hope and thought even if I did find a job I would be unable to find cheap accommodation.

I packed my bags and went to Liverpool. Why Liverpool? Other than I looked after a man with dementia and he went on many walks around Liverpool which was nice. There is lots of great architecture, plus the old docks and Sefton park. Of course the Beatles and its proud history.

Lucky in Liverpool

The great thing about Liverpool is that housing can be cheap. That is I can find a modern apartment twenty minutes walk from the town centre at 650GBPper month. That’s a fair price. I started looking for work asap. As if by luck when talking to the employment adviser she mentioned looking on the civil service website for jobs. This is important but because some times we get stuck in loops. When we are looking for work we may go to the same websites. Fire off lots of applications and then receive lots of rejections. I looked on the civil service website and found a customer service role at HMRC. I applied for this role and as if by a miracle I got the job at 25k per annum. That’s a lot. However when we talk about the unemployed doing nothing the onboarding process took six months! That’s a long time but that’s the government for you.

Now there is another story about me starting the job and hating it. I did not even think about what HMRC stood for and when I realized I would be processing tax documents all day long I honestly thought I would die. I needed a job with variety in it. I don’t care how much you pay me but if it is monotonous I get depressed. I must admit I quit the job and headed of to Thailand with one intent to find a job as an English Teacher. This is probably another story but again I applied for jobs for three months and received zero response. I surveyed the teaching landscape scenario and realized I was just too late and too old. With my tail held firmly between my legs. I returned to Liverpool because at least they have good housing. And as if by magic the first job I applied for I got. I guess I am lucky in Liverpool.