I’ve just applied for my 143rd job in a year. I’ve had 12 or 13 interviews but have not been successful so far. My last employment was in December 2016, and I really enjoyed it, in spite of the travelling. I was doing maternity cover in a laboratory at a company in Kendal, Cumbria, and responsible for testing raw materials that go into food and the finished product. I would get up at 3.30am on a Monday and drive 183 miles, then stay in B&Bs (and later a bedsit) for the week before returning to my home in Grantham, Lincolnshire by early evening on Friday. I was almost hoping the woman I was covering for would not return to work. But she did, and I’ve been without work since.
I get £73 a week in jobseeker’s allowance to live on. I’ve been to my local Citizens Advice, but they say tough luck: if you are single without children you are at the bottom of the pile. You had someone in a previous How I spend it column struggling to live on her £14,000-a-year income. I get a quarter of that. From that I’m supposed to pay for food, groceries, gas, electricity, water, and so on. I’ve soon got to find £200 for road tax and £200 for an MOT. I don’t know where it’s going to come from.
My mortgage is £30,000, on an interest-only basis. It’s so far in arrears that I’ve forgotten when I last paid it. I get some help with the interest, but I’ve been told the house is probably going to be repossessed. It’s worth about £150,000, so once Lloyds takes what’s owed to them I’ll have to find somewhere much cheaper.
I don’t have any savings. My former partner was giving me £500 a month but we broke up in October. Fortunately, I get a little extra cash as a gift from my father every now and then. I don’t how long that can last.
I nip into town by car on most days; it’s two miles and much cheaper to use the car than take the bus. I regularly check the jobs advertised in the local employment agency windows, after which I go straight to the reduced section in Morrisons. Then I wander round the other supermarkets, in their cheap sections. After shopping I might go to a cheaper cafe and have a coffee. It’s the only treat I give myself each week. Cafes have lots of old papers in them, which I pick up for reading material when I get home. I used to buy the Guardian every day but I can’t afford that now. I just buy it on a Saturday.
I worked for 17 years at Christian Salvesen near Grantham as a lab manager. I started as a microbiologist on £17,000 a year and when I left I was on £24,000. People would be amazed at how little scientists are paid in industry. It took another 20 years to get to a job paying £35,000. The work I’ve done has included tests on samples, things like frozen vegetables, making sure they were safe for consumers. I’m unusual that as a scientist I’m also very much into the arts; I like fine art, classical music, the ballet; I met my former partner at a classical music event. As a couple, it’s what we did a lot, going down to London, to art galleries, that sort of thing. I obviously don’t have the money for that now.
Because I’ve had bouts of unemployment I have never been able to save much for a pension. I think I have about £20,000 in total in my pension scheme.
But I’m fortunate that I have some very good friends locally. At the moment, I also help out at Grantham museum on a history project which will be part of Gravity Fields, a festival celebrating Isaac Newton. I’d love it if you could give them a mention, it’s a great event.
I still hope to find a job. I’m registered on many, many web sites and over 200 agencies and about 30 to 50 jobs are emailed to me every day. I used to be required to upload details of my job search to the Department for Work and Pensions every day, but now you can’t because of GDPR. I’m supposed to use the DWP website itself now, but it’s crap. The DWP once sanctioned me for missing a meeting – I had got there a few minutes late. They withdrew my jobseeker’s allowance for a fortnight. I’m an educated man with a lot of skills. I’m not a bitter or angry man. But I’m livid at the way the government treats people like me. I don’t think I ever raised my voice at work at work, but if I met Iain Duncan Smith, I’d have a few choice words for him – and believe me, my vocabulary is extensive.”
- This article’s headline was amended on 6 August 2018 to more accurately reflect the substance of the article
