When Sally Allcroft left her job as a carer in the community after 18 years, she was forced to turn to benefits and food banks for help. The 58-year-old tells Maryam Qaiser how hard it was to find new work and deal with a complex benefits system.
Earlier this year I left my job as a carer. The shifts were long, sometimes I was doing between 40 and 70 hours per week, but it was a job I loved. The long shifts became very stressful, I became very tired and things were getting on top of each other. When I left my role, I was unemployed for ten months.
I had to wait three months before I could apply for Universal Credit. I never thought I would be in this situation, it was my first time on benefits, it was frightening. You have to learn the juggle your finances because you need to make sure you have enough money to survive on until the next payement.
I have been to university but I still had to have a lot of support from the team at the Job Centre. The application was very complicated - this is one of the reasons people struggle with it.
In September I started a new part-time job as a telephonist at a marketing company based in Marple, Greater Manchester and I absolutely love it.
At the moment, I only work 23 to 24 hours a week but eventually I would like it to increase to full-time. This means I rely on my Universal Credit of £314 a month. From a financial point of view, I need to eventually go back to full-time work.
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We are retracing the journey George Orwell made in his book, The Road to Wigan Pier , to share your stories of working and unemployed poverty.
They'll appear in a regular series in the Daily Mirror newspaper and here, on our special anniversary website.
