Job hunting over 50?: The Gallery

Job hunting over 50?: The Gallery: The Gallery is a place to sell and market items and services that I recommend, or feel might be useful,both things mentioned on the blo...

Freelance Working

Many of my readers are aware of the motivation behind my blog. After many successful years as a nursery nurse, I found myself in my 50's, with arthritis, other bone and joint conditions, partial sight which is deteriorating as I get older, high blood pressure and a heart condition. Unable to do my previous job, I have no training, experience or preparation of a different type of job, but am forced to find a job by changes to the rules for qualifying for welfare benefits, even though in bad winter weather and icy conditions I cannot leave the house at all, which even a Job centre adviser, whose job it is to bully me into work, admitted that in the UK can now mean being housebound from October until April, due to the run of bad winters we have had in recent years.

The blog evolved when I realised that sharing my journey might also help some of the thousands I know are in the same position as myself. It was also my way to try to break into the freelance work market, especially as a writer, a vocation I have been said to have missed.

However, freelance work, although ideal in principle, for disabled people forced to seek work, is no easier to get than a regular job and often more so.  The difference is in the application process.

A  budding freelancer registers on sites, in the same way as a job hunter would register on job boards such as Total jobs and Monster, they may well post a CV. I have versions of my CV which are not standard job application CV's, these are my homeworking and writing CV's, and then many such sites ask you to build a profile and portfolio to showcase your work.

The process of applying for freelance work is not much different to applying for mainstream jobs, only that the terms used are different, but the principle is the same, and certainly the competition is as great if not more so. I believe too that the freelance work market is going to become even more competitive with so many people deciding to try to put their skills to work as a freelancer, because they are being forced to look for work that they either cannot get or are not fit enough to do. On Freelance sites, an application for a job is usually referred to as making a bid, and it is just as important to learn how to do it to give you the best advantage ,as it is to learn how to fill in a job application form.

In this post I have put together some sites which can help you learn how to bid for freelance work and have the best chance you can of winning bids and being offered the work.

1. ) How does a freelance bid site work?

2.) How To Win Jobs On Freelance Job Bidding Sites
This site has lots of helpful advice including  the importance of treating each bid as a separate application, and not to make the mistake that so many do when applying for regular jobs, sending out the same CV and cover letter for each bid. Instead,  tailor your response to the task you are bidding for.The site has links to an hourly rate calculator to help you to calculate an appropriate hourly rate for your work. There is a resources page and a jobs board. Most of the jobs advertised are targeted to the USA freelancer, but there were a couple which listed UK jobs in the IT market, http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com/?search=UK and http://www.authenticjobs.com/#search=UK. There are recommended sites on writing and blogging and a huge archives database going way back to 2007, much of which remains relevant and current.

3. ) How To Win Bids on Freelancer.com, 
Although targeted at users of Freelancer, many of the principles apply to all freelance sites and bidding for work.

More to follow.....
Valerie

Focus on ....Anne Jagger Recruitment

Anne Jagger Recruitment... Tips on Job hunting  from the experts

The new Focus on articles will be articles about companies and services I have come across in my job search and articles connected to companies which can help with the many issues which arise for the unemployed, debt, benefit claims, legal matters and housing are examples of these.

Anne Jagger Recruitment is an agency with whom I registered my CV this week, and was very impressed with the transparency with which their website approaches recruitment   admitting that it is now a very complex business, and the strong advice and information they offer to the job seeker. Based in London and Witney Oxfordshire  They supply permanent and temporary staff in such areas as office and admin roles, customer services and call centres and sales and marketing.

Anne Jagger is one of the few agencies which actually publishes an article giving an insight into their approach to age discrimination in recruitment.  What's more hopeful signs of an enlightened equal opportunities policy are reflected in an article on accommodating Sharia law at work.

Other helpful advice, very relevant to the job hunter includes an article on time management, very useful when one is inundated with emails and job applications and deadlines, while perhaps also trying to deal with those other issues that can arise during unemployment. Even if you haven't really got the hang of time management, they will be very useful tips if you are asked about it at interview !! while on the subject of interviews  and that first impressions count, is an article on making the right appearance.

tips for accommodating Sharia law at work

Anne Jagger Recruitment

 Altogether Anne Jagger comes across as a refreshingly enlightened agency and I would well recommend taking a look around their website.

Valerie

Anne Jagger Recruitment

Anne Jagger Recruitment is an independent consultancy supplying permanent and temporary staff across a wide range of business sectors.

• Office & Administration
• Customer Service & Call Centre
• Sales & Marketing
• Accounting & Finance
• Distribution & logistics

- See more at: http://www.annejagger.com/aboutUs.php#sthash.OatMT4SU.dpuf

Anne Jagger Recruitment is an independent consultancy supplying permanent and temporary staff across a wide range of business sectors.

• Office & Administration
• Customer Service & Call Centre
• Sales & Marketing
• Accounting & Finance
• Distribution & logistics

- See more at: http://www.annejagger.com/aboutUs.php#sthash.OatMT4SU.dpuf

Anne Jagger Recruitment is an independent consultancy supplying permanent and temporary staff across a wide range of business sectors.

• Office & Administration
• Customer Service & Call Centre
• Sales & Marketing
• Accounting & Finance
• Distribution & logistics

- See more at: http://www.annejagger.com/aboutUs.php#sthash.OatMT4SU.dpuf

Job hunting over 50?: Jobs Board

Job hunting over 50?: Jobs Board:

 This is a page which will advertise jobs with a share button enabling me to share them with my readers, it will be a limited selection in comparison to major job boards but since many of them are home based which may well help people like myself who are not fit enough to work but unable to get disability benefits and older people having to look for work , I hope it may be useful.
Lots more jobs are directly shared to the blogs Facebook page...

Valerie 

The disabled forced to apply for jobs they cannot get to...

 Some time ago on a course I wrote a project on the subject of 'The built environment' ..not the natural environment but the built one and how accessible buildings are designed to be  for disabled people.I live in a city, London known to have one of the worst transport systems for disability access and certainly most of our underground rail is difficult to access, I for one cannot manage escalators. This is especially relevant now some years later when people with often limited mobility are being declared fit and well and having to claim Job Seekers Allowance.

If a benefit claimant with disabilities has been as quite likely they will be,  declared fit and well by ATOS and stripped of their sickness benefit, made to claim Job seekers allowance and look for a job, they will be considered able bodied and have to look for work as an able bodied healthy person would. I have a heart condition, high blood pressure, arthritis, sight problems and mobility issues after a fracture, but because I am on JSA and so deemed to be fit and well, I have to go upstairs at the Jobcentre to sign on and I cannot manage the stairs. Claimants only sign on downstairs if they are seeing a Disability Adviser, which the majority of claimants of JSA will not do.At  my last signing I was signed downstairs by an adviser who came downstairs , but this has only happened since the staff decided that if there was a fire, they could not get me down if I was upstairs....It has taken them two years during which I apparently wasn't safe, for them to decide this, and it is clear that the staff are not convinced of my inability to manage the stairs because I don't look sick.

Even when I did see a  disability employment adviser when I got incapacity benefit, she sent me on a course for writing CV's and cover letters in a building with no lift, I got there and had to go back home again,terrified that my money would be stopped because I had not attended the course ....That time I was lucky. The adviser was on leave when my next signing on appointment came up, and the adviser I did see didn't know or seem interested that I had been sent.

Recently, I applied for a telephone fundraising job, which I felt my skills, experience and interests were well suited to  and as it was desk based, I might be able to manage it. It may well have had something to do with my asking the interviewer if it would be a problem if I arrived for my shift and couldn't do it because the lift was out of action and the office was ten floors up. 

This sort of situation is happening frequently and will continue to happen because sick and disable people are being forced to apply for jobs that they can't even get to, because if they don't apply for them and say to themselves like I do,'Well, Its a job I might be able to manage as its desk based or on phones' they are terrified of facing sanctions on their benefits.

As for my most recent interview....I didn't even make it to the interview place.I got the first bus,then had to change at a big roundabout on the Croydon Road/ Purley Way, a huge roundabout and not designed for pedestrians, especially not those with slow mobility with  four exits and traffic coming at you in all directions. Its the road to Gatwick and eventually Brighton !!! and I didn't know it has no pedestrian traffic lights and you are at the mercy of the traffic if it stops or not. I got half way across and it didn't stop..and I thought just imagine trying this on my reduced speed in the dark when my shift finishes at 7.30 pm, and you can't see the cars coming at you..only lights....eventually I got across and went to the bus stop in the opposite direction....and went back home !!!

The days since have been spent frantically applying for anything and everything so that I can prove when I go to the Job centre to sign on that I am meeting my Job search agreement to apply for jobs and shouldn't be sanctioned ....

Not just in Wales....

This is an adaption of a status update posted on my Facebook page this week.... On Wednesday

 I'm dreading today...don't know what the best is, except that I'm not going to get it .... i.e the claim for ESA that should have been awarded according to even the Work Programme and the Job centre, but my GP won't write a medical certificate, .. I have no choice but to go with whatever transpires. Many of you know and even read my blog about having to look for a job with a heart condition, high blood pressure, partial sight, arthritis and a bone condition that makes me prone to fractures, and in my ankle I have six pins and a metal plate and can't go out in icy weather in case I slip ...I live alone so don't want to risk ending up back in plaster..I also avoid going out on wet autumn evenings when I can't always see wet leaves and might slip...... There are many staircases I can't manage so the layout of buildings can be difficult...but as the Jobcentre lady said...Valerie, you have been declared fit for work and you must do as you are told !!! ie look for a job..... I reminded her that since I haven't even been let near an ATOS medical yet alone attended one and been assessed I actually haven't been found fit for work, I just have no option but to claim JSA, because the GP won't write a certificate and when he was writing them the Job centre told me that they were useless and it is ATOS who decide now if you go to work or not, not your doctor and I would be put straight back on Job seekers allowance if I tried to claim ESA.....would you believe..I have an interview . I contacted an agency and sent my CV about what looked like a job I might be able to manage in a call centre marketing role...as so often happens when you phone an agency about a job, they then announce that either the job has gone...or you would be better for another job. This happened to me, but although the job is far from ideal ending at 7.30 at night with dark nights coming and I doubt the wages will cover cabs.....if I want to keep my home I have no choice but to take it if I am offered it ....so...I am being very brave, going for the interview and if I am offered the job...I will of course take it...at least it gets the Jobcentre off my back......

All in it together..No help from your GP

Recently I have come across several articles about GP's in South Wales particularly, being advised to stop writing letters supporting benefit appeals.

 GP's in south east Wales are being advised not to write letters for patients who are appealing benefit decisions.The Bro Taf local medical committee (LMC) sent a letter out to  the  GPs in its area instructing  them to concentrate on seeing ill patients instead..   However, when the implications of this statement are closely looked at, it suggests that the health authority concerned is supporting the government and ATOS, after all since the health authority managers responsible for the letter would not see the GP's patients, how do they know if they are indeed ill or not ? But they are saying that the patients are not ill.

It is not possible for a sick or disabled person now to make any application for sickness benefits without a certificate and probably more evidence from their GP, and certainly the medical evidence is needed for appeals against ATOS decisions that a sick person is fit for work. Their GP is going to be the first person a claimant will approach to get the required documentation, and in effect this policy stops them from making a claim or appealing against a decision from ATOS that they are fit for work. If the GP won't help, then there is nowhere to get the evidence from...which is of course what the government want.

Meanwhile,  the DWP state that  'all decisions about benefits eligibility were taken after "thorough assessment and after careful consideration of all the available evidence"......so how come in that case, so many have died and are dying each week as a result of being forced to seek and accept work ?..Even my own local job centre advisers tell me that they have themselves signed terminally ill people as being declared fit for work and these people have to comply with the Job Seekers allowance rules that they look for work and apply for jobs.
The DWP go on to say that "GPs have been clear that they do not want to be responsible for making decisions on people's benefit entitlement, which is why we have processes in place to request the appropriate information from GPs to enable us to make those decisions."....

The outcome of this is that the DWP write to the GP for the required evidence  using ATOS to do so...The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) says that if further medical evidence is required for a benefits application, it will be requested by a healthcare professional working for Atos Healthcare.....who of course have already decided that benefits will not be granted and that an appeal will not be successful, the patient is fit to work and must claim JSA.

 The Bro Taf local medical committee (LMC)has given doctors a draft letter for them to give to patients needing medical evidence for benefit claims . It says"GPs need to have a consistent approach to this issue and colleagues who do this work make it more difficult for others to resist and it spreads the belief with patients and local authorities that GPs are happy to take on this non contracted and unfunded work. This is saying that if one doctor supports a patient then others will find it hard not to and suggesting that if a doctor does support patients then they are betraying their colleagues and making things difficult for them, so this policy needs to be a common one for doctors in the area....in other words they need to be all in it together.

Tales From The Job centre

 Tales from the Jobcentre

Well, that's the job centre done for another fortnight.....

The adviser gave more scrutiny than many of them do to my job search record and I held my breath feeling my blood pressure rise as I thought ..she's going to sanction me for not doing enough job applications. Her expression changed though as I started to explain that I have a heart condition, limited sight, arthritis and mobility issues and that I apply for every job I just might be able to get to and do , and a lot that I know I can't, but have to apply for just to get the Job seekers allowance, which is all the income I have.

In fact, I'm running out of jobs to apply for, many of them are jobs that seem to be advertised week after week, I wonder why that is, such as charity fundraising. I think the agencies that handle such vacancies must recognise the regular submission of my CV and think I must surely have got the message by now. They don't want people with a love of the idea of working for charities, who need a desk job on phones,they want people who come from a sales and target reaching background because charity fund raising is all about targets.I did once get an interview, but I never heard anything, possibly to do with my having asked if they could accept that if the lift wasn't working I wouldn't be able to come in to do my shift....ten floors up.

When the adviser heard my list of health conditions she asked, Do you want to claim another benefit instead....ESA ? Employment and support allowance for people with health barriers to getting a job ....not surprisingly I thought ...been here, done this and explained that firstly the doctor won't give me the necessary medical certificate to claim ESA and secondly, her colleagues have told me that even if I did submit the certificate and an application, as soon as my work capability assessment was done by ATOS, I would be declared fit for work and put back on Job seekers allowance. I told the adviser that I have several opportunities for freelance self employed work but cannot afford to take it, because there is no help available while I build up an income, so I need to comply with the requirements for Job seekers allowance....

The response to this was silence and she signed my job search book....

photo credit: Bods via photopin cc

Tales from the Jobcentre

Tales from the Jobcentre..Upstairs Downstairs

 

Worrying as I get ready to go to the jobcentre about whether I will be able to sign on at all, or as a friend once said to me....go to beg the government for some pocket money.

Last time I went to sign on, I was as usual put in the lift downstairs and someone met me upstairs to open the doors to the signing on office. As I am considered fit and well in spite of a heart condition, sight issues which affect my balance on stairs and mobility issues, I do not see a disability adviser downstairs and have to go upstairs in what is really a staff only lift and through security doors which only the staff can open...so much for disability access, especially since so many Job seekers allowance claimants are going to be disabled as they have lost their sickness benefit and been declared fit for work, having to claim Job seekers allowance.

It used to be that a member of staff went up in the lift with me and came down with me, however there now seems to be fears on the part of the staff of perhaps attack, maybe by frustrated claimants , or ….accusations of inappropriate touching, and now I just get put in the lift downstairs and met upstairs....or I did...

last time I went to sign on, as I was let out of the lift, I was asked if I really could not manage the stairs , I insisted this was so and the staff member explained that next time I came I must ask at the reception for my adviser to come downstairs to sign me on. This is because if there is a fire upstairs they cannot get me down. I was very alarmed, since it has taken them two years of my being on Job seekers allowance to come to this awareness. He then asked that I go to my doctor and get a letter to confirm that I could not manage the stairs. Well, that would be a case of looking for a needle in a haystack to get such confirmation from my GP, who refuses to write or sign anything that seems to support me the patient over the Department of Work and pensions, and in any case he has probably never seen the Job centre stairs and would just suggest I go for some physio ….

Sensing that I would need the letter from the GP or possibly risk not being allowed to sign on and get the Job seekers allowance, I contacted my Member of Parliaments office ,who contacted the job centre manager. The Job centre manager assured the MP's caseworker that there was no problem at all...I could go up and down in the lift !!!,,,and of course I must , to get the Job seekers allowance.

However, there IS a problem....the jobcentre staff, are refusing to guarantee to get me downstairs in the event of a fire. The manager, I have no idea of his or her name , or what they look like and all I know is the manager is upstairs and unseen, a figure like Big Brother....

I replied to the MP's office that since the manager was refusing to assure me that I was safe upstairs but insisting I go, I was going to write to the newspapers !!

When I went to sign on today, the adviser due to sign me came downstairs......

photo credit: erix! via photopin cc