I've been back down to my job center went up to the computers pulled myself out of the wheelchair to try and use the stupid things, but they are to high for a wheelchair user. So I was asked if I needed help, and I said yes please, the chap went away came back and said you have to make an appointment.

Then that night I hear Labour saying they have spent billions putting in place help for the unemployed, yes but by appointment only.

The job center had a lot of people sitting talking chatting and moaning , so I asked whats the matter a women then said she had applied for benefits to be told because she has a slight disability, she was told that sickness benefits is her way forward, she said but I'm not really disabled, to be told yes but you are disabled.

Anyone think we are back at the Thatcher and Blair years of hiding unemployment by using sickness, this is the third time I've heard people say they have been told to see a doctor.

here we go again.

It has taken me a year to find out why my Job Center has told me or keeps telling me to come back later, I've been told now to come back in July , and I tried to find out what happens in July will we have more jobs.

Now I know a private company is taking over my job center , so why should anyone be interested in helping me when they think they might be out of a job. The new company will be paid by results they must find people jobs, I cannot wait to find out what they think I can do.

Last year my job center felt window cleaning was a great idea and taxi driving, of course to alter a car for me to drive would cost a taxi company about £20,000 that's how much it costs me.

So last year they suggested I try doing a course which I did and had to pay my share of the costs of £350 once the course was over I was told it would help me find work, the course was making tea and coffee in the work place, health and safety and how to talk to disabled people.

But I wonder what this new firm is going to do to get me back to work lets see yes open camps in which the end result is a lot of dead people gassed.

I watched a program this morning about a lady with a disability going to New Zealand, and I thought that's odd they turned me down three years ago, for being a burden on their health care, so I though it must have changed so I took a look and guess what! the BBC have done it again made a program for TV and bloody lied. New Zealand will not take anyone with a disability who will be a burden on their health care system, some bloody world of equality.

Well his week I'm looking to see if I can get into retraining something Labour has been spouting for a while now, I was turned down by the Job Center on the grounds of my age, straight out they said your to old and to be honest to disabled they quickly changed that saying your disability makes it difficult, well yes being disabled is difficult hence I'm not working.

So I get sent to another provider, I watched the place for twenty minutes having a cup of coffee it's empty, so I go in and notice a sign on the wall saying office staff needed training given, so I asked about the jobs.

Ah right the problem is our office is upstairs and we have no lifts or access sorry. This is from a government job provider training agency it has no access.

So I ask what about retraining I have this note from my job center, ah yes we need this for our record and to get payments for you.


Yes but I'm not sure your the one which can help us, yes but we will not give advice free, so I hand the note over and now this company becomes my provider for the year.

Ok what have you got to offer, ah nothing really we are looking around to get companies to work with us, but you have been here two years, yes but it takes time to work up a meaningful partnership.

Ok when do you think you might have a training regime in place, well perhaps sometime this year, and that's it.

They now get £190 for me joining and they said come back later on in the year.

This is Labour training program for the disabled and the unemployed little wonder nobody takes labour seriously anymore.

I've told the wife that's it's six years of doing everything I can to find work or to find training has seen me getting shafted from one stupid company to another and I've had it.

Nothing yet

Well this blog is going to be short, I've been told not to attend a further interview until July 2009.

So I've joined another private group who told me they would find me work within weeks because they have the pulse of the nation and the nations wants the disabled in work not sponging off the state. Nice to know I'm sponging, but I'm not I worked for 28 years non stop and then had an accident so the insurance part of my National insurance stamp pays for me, it's not my fault in labour uses that money for something else.

Sadly this week another 300 people have been made redundant in my area making it, in two years 9480 people laid off .

But Labour now has a problem does it not if it cannot spend more money to put more people into v cowboy training programs they will soon have more people unemployed then Thatcher did.

Jobs

It's Christmas most companies are looking for extra staff, what happened this year, Down I go to see if anyone wants a disabled person perhaps to smile and hand out Baskets, always a good one for cripples.


This year nothing, I did get one smell when again a charity wanted me to stand out side the shops rattle the tin asking please give, when they see my wheelchair their eyes light up, sadly they wanted me to do it for nothing this year saying they need to focus on the people they are helping, funny it's the disabled this time.

I then went down to the Job Center to see what they had, the security guard asked what do you want mate who do you want to see. I said any jobs going, he laughed and said of course your taking the pee, yes said I'm taking the pee alright.

I was then told that a job I had asked about within the Job Center had been given to a previous employee who needed no training.

Hell what chance have you got.

OK this is my first go at blogging being disabled like most things everything I

do is difficult, if it's not my legs and back which are hurting it's my hands and arms and fingers.

I worked in the building trade most of my life using power tools chipping hammers and many other things which shock me up a bit, I'm told I have white finger also that on a number of my fingers the joints are badly affected with wear and tear, so I've a habit of pressing two letters when typing so you end up with an extra letter in a word and the spell checkers thinks it's OK.

My disability is a lesion of the spine with serious nerve damage within the spinal cord and the nerves coming out from the bone within the back. Sadly on the day of my accident in 1991 I was left in the hospital for about three hours while they waited for an emergency, of course I was the emergency, then after an argument with a nurse about whether I had been drinking to much I found out the ambulance crew should have placed me in a neck brace and spinal board, but due to lack of training and a rush to get home they did not bother, telling the nurse my accident was due to drink and I had fallen over on the pavement, when in fact I had fallen about 45 feet.

Anyway the fact is now since my accident I've been looking for work, well before Labours New Deal for the disabled, or the Pathways to work or the Workfare.

I've used many of the Private charities and some private companies to find me work spending many hundreds of pounds in registration fee's, like Monsters so called employment agency, all that got me was hundreds of scams.

Then I went to the Shaw trust, I met them on a Tuesday they said not a problem bright bloke like me would be in work within weeks, I was given an address to go to each week to discuss what I wanted to do and how to go about it. what I needed to help me find work, all sounded really great. My first visit was good hello what type of jobs can you do , do you always use a wheelchair or is it for show, can you walk. I explained in nice terms I needed a wheelchair because my legs had been ravaged by MRSA and they had to cut out 45% of the muscles to save my life , the lady DEA which is Disability Employment Advisor said, oh I suspect your making that up a bit, so I showed her my legs, I never saw her again. The next time I went a young women asked are you the disabled bloke looking for work, I said yes, she said they left these for you. These were three jobs which they thought I could do and I kid you not, long distance lorry driver, driving taxi's, window cleaning, I just put these into the bin reason I cannot drive, and I cannot climb ladders. Then for the next eight weeks I went down and was told sorry they are not here, I phoned them up to be told the lady was on holiday, then she had finished, then she was sick, then finally the owners of the office stated they had left the site and had moved away.

I went onto the main office and tried to fill in the complaints section but it seems this does not work so I phoned then and wrote to them, obviously they are happy to get the governments £160 signing on fee but lack interest in the people they are supposed to help.

Then I was sent to the Remploy Interworks this is part of the Remploy group which is making money as an agency, this was a good move for me, it showed me how these companies use the youngest people so they can pay them the cheapest rate of the min wage.

MY disability advisor was nineteen straight out of school and told me I had a duty to work and they would ensure they carried out checks to make sure I was actually looking for work. I had to explain to her I did not need to do this as I was exempted from looking for work, she went out of the office at the Job center to check this information, coming back saying well I though you had to look for work.

SO I was asked what type of work I wanted to do, and I said I did not know what I could do or the type of work available to me, being in a wheelchair is difficult, let me explain if I work in a shop filling shelves well these shelves are higher then me. I was once asked if I wanted to be a helped packing peoples shopping but the counter was two foot about my head.

Then I was asked about doing voluntary work since it was obvious I could not be a carer, or taxi driver or long distance lorry driver, I was asked if I like to work in the British red cross, so I said ok then I'll try, it is supposed to get me ready for work, what happens the British red cross has three steps to get in and two more steps inside the shop, worse was to come when I was sent to work at age concern, I had to have five references one had to be from a religious person like a parson or priest one had to be from a Police officer and the others from well known people in the community being disabled the only people I know are my GP and nurse.

But over the past ten years I've done everything possible to find work asking to go on work experience to be told sorry nobody is doing that down here, then I was told your to old anyway, I asked about retraining and was told your to old, and that nobody would sign up to it. then I asked what about getting back into education and say retraining for a class room assistant, after a few minutes on the phone I was told if I paid for it my self yes that was ok but your to old, I was 47 at the time.

Remploy then left the area saying employers were not helping them and people just ignored the jobs they found them.

My last job offer from Remploy was medical Secretary to a consultant ten years experience and able to type to a good standard, I did not even bother going down and Remploy closed the office and moved away.

MY job center in July stated that I should not bother coming anymore until the new ESA regime was in place, and somebody else could have the hassle of finding work for the disabled I was told perhaps by then Labour would have some means of forcing employers to listen to them or us.

To date I've filled in 678 job applications and had four interviews, what will be the out come of the new medicals well my legs will not grow back so I'm always going to be disabled but my benefits will be cut to £60 a week perhaps labour will make begging legal again lets hope so.