Faith N

I actually haven't received any valid employment support. I am actually having to look for work. I find that the Social Security office is really unhelpful, that my Universal Credit work coach is really unhelpful. It's really difficult being out of work for so long, like I'm talking ten years and then having to and kind of be left to your own devices. Things have changed in ten years. I'm in forty s now as well and it's really difficult to kind of be thrown into the deep sea and to be left to swim to shore all by yourself, so to speak. But I find that I'm struggling, I find that I'm under pressure, I find it difficult to try to fit things around my son who has additional needs but has no diagnosis, so I can't become his carer or anything. And it really just seems that they don't care that I have a professional background. They just want you to get anything and everything. But getting anything and everything still needs to fit in with family life. I'm a single mother, my father is ill and my mother works in the hospital. It's not exactly that I have anybody to help with childcare and childcare over. Northern Ireland is extremely expensive. More expensive than England, Scotland and Wales. And there are a lot of problems here with childcare facilities so it's like they don't really care. They will throw you - Universal Credit will throw you under the bus. They literally just have expectations and I think because I was an ex professional they just kind of expect me to just get on with it. And I am still a person, I don't put myself in a pedestal. And whilst I'm looking for anything and not necessarily a profession, I still need help, support and assistance and I'm just finding that that just doesn't exist.