At The Jobcentre

13th February 2012

I have been called for an interview at the Jobcentre. If your partner is claiming unemployment benefit - which my husband is - they want to help you to go back to work.

I feel nervous about it - I don’t think in all my life I have ever been inside a Jobcentre. I arrive hot and sweaty and five minutes late. I couldn’t find it even though I’d checked the address on Google before I left. I discovered I’d walked right past it on the other side of the road. It’s light and bright inside with carpets on the floor - all open plan with individual desk stations and waiting areas with comfy seats.

The young woman on the other side of the desk who talks to me is sweet and sympathetic and says there is no pressure to sign on at all - especially in the light of our circumstances. Instead she gives me some forms and booklets to take away about Disability Living Allowance and about being a carer. She is so lovely I want to hug her. I thought I would have to start looking for work as a cleaner - or on the tills at Tescos. But I imagine I wouldn’t even qualify for that - my neighbour’s university graduate son can’t even get a job at Tescos.......

I haven’t looked at the Disability Living Allowance forms yet. All day my husband has been in mouldering depression. He says he doesn’t recognise his life anymore - with so many yawning gaps in it. Ones that money can’t fill.