Confessions of the.. unemployed

This post may seem silly to some people, but to me it's important. For the first time ever last year I unfortunately had to claim 'jobseekers allowance'. It was a LAST resort for me, I hated the idea of claiming it, I like to be earning my money and to be generally active. When I first started claiming the so called 'benefit' I got the usual jokes of 'you're a bum' 'get a job' etc. Luckily my friends and family knew how badly I wanted to be working, and knew I was claiming the money because I actually needed it. 

The job centre I had the pleasure of visiting (please sense the sarcasm here!) were less than helpful really. They were genuinely shocked to hear I had an education and that I actually wanted a job. They couldn't fathom the fact that I didn't just want the free money.

On the other hand though they seemed to want to make my life hard? At one of my appointments they asked: 

Do you have a full driving license? - yes

Do you have your own transport? - yes

So from these answers they deduct that I'm going to drive 20 minutes each way to a job which is 16hours a week, for minimum wage. Does that even cover petrol costs these days?

When I said that was impractical for me, they threatened to stop my 'benefit'. So my question here is 

"how do people manage to con this system day in and day out?" 

Because I wanted nothing more than to work! And I'm made to feel like I'm being unreasonable because I won't drive 40 minutes each time for around £95 a week. 

As someone who was desperate to work I was doing everything possible to get a job, I had delivered CV's to the local shops/businesses, I looked on the internet everyday for work, my CV is on more recruitment websites than I've eaten hot dinners. I even have the job center app on my iPhone. Every Thursday my local newspapers are released and I was scanning the recruitment pages of them both. Yet I'm made to feel like I wasn't doing enough.

So as much as people may think not having a job is great (lie in's everyday and free money) - it's not. I was on the 'benefit' from when I returned home from working away October 2010 - March 2011, with a break in between where I had a temporary job for a month. 

I do understand where the stereotype comes from because in my visits to the job center I have come across people who are the definition of it. But, despite what people may think when I say I claim jobseekers allowance, I don't enjoy getting money for nothing, I'd much rather be in a workplace, earning it. One of the best feelings is treating yourself after pay-day has finally arrived!

This week I've had to swallow my pride (majorly!) and claim jobseekers again. I've been looking for work since October 2011 now, I've applied for goodness how many jobs, I've received 3 replies. 

1. Replied to me after 3 weeks, offered me an interview for the following day, I went they told me I'd done really well, they took a month to tell me I didn't have the job after telling me I'd know within a week and the contract was due to finish the week after they told me no (guess what I'd figured that one out already!)

and replies 2 and 3 just gave me the generic 'Sorry you're not suitable'. Please explain WHY I'm not when it's  for a customer service role and that's where ALL my employment history is.

I guess for myself and jobseekers allowance

(in the words of the Example song)