Shall I jump now or I wait until I am pushed?

What a lovely morning I have just had.

As I said yesterday I would go to Working Links and see what wonderful things they have to offer outcasts like me.

I explained my circumstances, ie on IB but under IB50 review. They said as I am on Incapacity Benefit they can help. I said from previous experience that there is the possibility as I may have to go to a medical soon and I may well end up on JSA. We all like to know the Atos doctors like to reach their targets and get there commission.

In true James Purnell style the receptionist said "we look at what you can do not what you can't". they said they could help me while I am on IB but if I end up on JSA then I am no longer classed as disabled but fit for work, they said that Working Links would not be able to help me but I would have to go to the office upstairs.

This office upstairs is the one that someone has just come through the door slamming it very hardly making me jump and turning me into a nervous wreck, not though that I wasn't a nervous wreck to start off with. How the glass stayed in the door I do not know? I have experienced this effect before at the jobcentre, its no wonder I contact the DEA by email.

It is true what I said before that if the DWP deem you fit for work even if you have a disability then if you end up on JSA your disability doesn't exist anymore.

Working Links said that they could help me for 6 weeks regardless if I sign up now and do I really want to go back to work? I said I would think about it.

I said yes I would love to go to work but I have things which restrict me, you know effects of brain injury. The receptionist said that a consultant/whatever they are called can look at my work history [that's going to be fun] and what type of work I am interested in and even some people have turned hobbies or interests into work. I thought I am not a f***ing imbecile you know.

Just at that moment some council worker walked in off the street and stood virtually next to the receptionist which I found quite intimidating. I gave him my annoyed look and I wanted to ask him if he wanted to listen to every word in my conversation with the receptionist or tell him to p**s off but I left it as I did not feel like my normal jolly self at this juncture.

I was right when I thought it was all a trap. It turns out it is a even bigger trap now than what I first thought.

So where is all this government help to get you back to work? I did not know that it had conditions attached like you have to be on IB.

If you are not on IB but the DWP think you are fit for work even though you are disabled, it looks like you are on your own then.

Shall I jump now or shall I wait until I am pushed?

Working Links

Pre-empting getting a medical and being passed as fit for work I contacted the DEA via email [the wonders of the internet] to find out what options there could be for me

This is the help I can look forward to:

Hello Brainblogger

There is a new programme which started on 28/04/08 called pathways, the sole provider of this programme which has effectively replaced new deal for disabled people are Working Links.

Hopefully this 3 year contract will be more radical in its attempts to help individuals who wish to move off incapacity benefits and back into paid employment.

I think it is unlikely that you will end up on Jobseeker’s Allowance or in some low paid employment, the aim is to make you better off in work financially, not worse off, as this is counter-productive.

Your health condition is still treated as a disability under the DDA.

Thanks

DEA



To me it basically looks like the jobcentre ain't bothered and would rather just farm me off to Working Links. I have not read good things about working links. It does not fill me with confidence.

Shall I go to working links in town and see what they have to say making sure I do not sign my life away and report back on my blog?. What do you think fellow bloggers?

How reassuring it is to know that my health condition is covered by the DDA,

My Philosophy is that the government don't give a monkeys what I want in terms of a career and as long as they get me off the Incapacity Benefit books and start collecting the savings.

Since my head injury I have not had a full-time job and my cv only has periods where I did therapeutic work [now permitted work], does therapeutic work count, part-time work filing catalogues and then the rest is voluntary work and then littered with gaps where I have been in hospital and done rehabilitation etc. I am sure my CV will be appealing to any future employer even though I did get help to do a groovy new CV.

When I left hospital all I did was go back to the Neuropsychologist every few weeks and then months and then three months etc, with numerous visits to the GP to get super headache tablets. you can see where this going.

I did try and go to back to my job again at the carpet distributor [this was one of my 3 jobs before the accident], critics of people on IB please note: I wanted to go back to work even though I only been out of hospital a few weeks and it was blatantly obvious to everyone except me that I wasn't well enough to go to work

I think at work the people in the office were all very nice to my face but I think they saw the mess I was in and it was all going to end in tears and trying to work wasn't going to last much longer. This was due to the fact I could not remember things , one side of my face was paralysed, [try eating roast dinner when one side of your face is paralysed] speaking was also a problem as I could not think of the words and I would get really frustrated. This is all typical effects of a brain injury. If I was an animal they would have put me down.

One morning I received a letter through the post & a P45 from the M.D after being on sick pay for a while basically giving me the boot suggesting I should get an alternative source of income from the government. No we wish you get well soon or anything, the heartless bastards [excuse my language]. I am not embarrassed to say but I literally cried my eyes out for hours.

I suddenly found I had a lot of time on my hands. I remember going to a special needs centre in town but there was no Jeremy Kyle then it was Kilroy

This is when I first met Incapacity Benefit but it wasn't called IB then I think it was called Sickness Benefit or something like that.

Where did it all go wrong?. If there had been proper support to start off with I would not have ended up in this situation.

Radical attempts to get people back to work, we have heard all about the radical attempts to get people back to work.

Did there not used to be a green card system many moons ago and employers had to have a quota of green card workers? I don't know where that came from but that's been in my brain swimming around.

How am I going to be better off in work financially when I do not have the capacity to work full-time?. This is where people like me feel anxious about finding work and plunging into the labour market.

I still feel trapped and I still have a IB50 to fill in. 23 days still to go