Plan to cut £30 per week from sickness benefit

Posted by Parliament, the REAL benefit street on Thursday, 2 July 2015

A better you… while you are job hunting

Title: A Better you… while you are job hunting

Word Count: 964

Summary: The psychological effects of unemployment are well known, is your self-esteem at a low ebb?

Keywords:

Self-help, self-improvement, self-growth

The psychological effects of unemployment are well documented, the effects of low income on personal appearance and self-confidence and the social isolation that comes with low income and no job, resulting in having only very limited, if any contact with others. Also, debt issues resulting from low income has a huge effect on your position in social circles and your confidence as well as your financial standing and credit rating.

There are of course many situations that can lead to lose of confidence and self - esteem, but there are ways that you can help yourself to minimize the damage from the beginning of hard times.

1.)    Try to keep a sense of purpose...you do have one!!!

Do you feel that without a job and an income you have lost your sense of direction? Identify from your character make up and situation now, what your purpose is and what your goals are, remember them and you will not lose your sense of direction

2.)    Identify your values :

What is it that you value most? , make a list, some examples could be your home, your family, education or your faith. Target and focus yourself by checking if your goals tie in with your values  

3.)    Know what your needs are :

Unmet needs affect both your mental and physical health .Do try to take care of yourself. It can be very difficult indeed on a limited income from benefits and having no job, but it can become a vicious circle if you let yourself go. We all have even basic needs and if yours are not being met then check out what help may be available in spite of the many cuts to welfare that there have been in many countries around the world. Check out your benefit entitlement , apply for what you can and use advice centres such as the Citizens advice to help you make the applications for  the best possible chance of success, a lot of help and advice can be found online too . Don’t look down on things like the food bank if you are eligible to use it, do not be too proud. If you use things like the food bank, freeing up money to pay other bills clamouring to be paid like the mortgage, you will do wonders for your blood pressure...take all of the little help there is out there, check out charitable grants.

Go out and be with people, go to job clubs quite often run by community centres and libraries and use their free internet and heating instead of your own and be with people. Very often people help each other to get a job or find work they can do, it’s indeed often not what you know but who you know …

4.)     Be aware of your passions :

What fires you up? Being unemployed with no money can be very depressing, but do not lose sight of what inspires you. Lack of enthusiasm for life and self-doubt are evident to others and off putting, which is something you don’t want to seem to be, especially to those who can help you. Remember too, to be grateful to those who have and do help you on your journey , honour them, the best advice I was ever given came late to me in my life and from an American lady I quite likely may never meet, but who has and does inspire me more than she will ever understand ….I have worked in management almost all my adult life , I have hired, fired, counselled and promoted , I  don’t like to say too much about myself  and I always find it best to listen before embarking on your next quest .

Embrace silence, maybe you are not comfortable with it, but it is a wonderful thing to be able to just sit and think and take stock…be still. Enjoy nature, a walk in the park is free and thee days so much music and so many books are also available online for free…enjoy the classics of books and music , educate yourself …check out free online courses . Music is sound yes, but very soothing and inspiring

5.)    Recognise your strengths :

If you do not know your strengths, then take time to identify them, it does wonders for your self-esteem and will certainly help you with your resume and job applications and interviews. What are your positive traits? What are your special talents? Can you as I can write? Are you good at crafts? Many skills can be turned into an income and new career. If you really cannot identify your strengths then ask people who know you to help you out and while you are at it, be brave and ask them to tell you your  weaknesses .

6.)    Help others :

OK, you have no spare cash and cannot make donations to charity, but even so everyone can do something to help others. Do some voluntary work and help yourself at the same time as it can so often get you a current reference and help you to get a job. If you are disabled and cannot do active things get involved in online campaigning for things that concern you and others in your position such as disability rights. There are many groups and organisations needing support online and on social media such as Facebook. Share your talents and passions with others, the rewards are so worthwhile and connect you to others…. No man is an island says the famous quote and how true it is. 

Valerie Hedges

Secrets of a sales campaign

Whether your business is a product or a service, you are selling it and selling yourself and you won’t make any profit unless you know how to sell. Whether it be a product or service, you cannot sell without ‘talking ‘in some way or other with prospective customers, you have to get your message out. This may be by email, telesales, sales letters, newsletters or other means.  

Whichever you use, a winning script has the aim of convincing the potential customer that you have what they need, it creates this image in their minds. You convince the potential customers that what you have will improve their lives

While there will of course be some personal touches, a winning sales script follows basic principles. …..get attention, get people interested and wanting to see what you have got for them , make them want it, and make them do the necessary to get it …sign up and press the button right away, so that they get the deal you are offering .  

Of course, if you circulate your sales literature online, then you don’t have to pay for postage, but you may well have to pay for a bulk mailer that permits you to send enough emails for a business, though I have used free bulk e mailers with ease and success. Some would say that on the internet, using email for sales, you don’t have to worry about letterhead stationery, but even so a good email sales template can really grab attention and can be found for free. A general guideline for your sales page on your website is that it should be the length of a mailing. A sales letter should always use headed paper, including your logo and a slogan or motto if you have one for the business.

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Whichever method you use for your sales, the aim is to sell, i.e. to close the deal. You actually do the selling and sealing the deal with your sales talk in your sales letter, whether you send it by email or snail mail.

There can be a lot of debate about just how long a sales letter should be, do people even take the time to read them, or do they go straight in the recycling bin or the trash file if sent by email? But…people do read sales material, there is a natural curiosity in humans to know if you have something that will benefit them.

Make your sales material visually attractive and the script interesting and persuasive. Emphasize the benefits your product or service will give the reader, and grab attention so that the reader wants to read to the end …and buy the product.

A lot of whether or not people read to the end of what you send them depends on its visual appearance and if it is easy on the eye. Use paragraphs, make the sentences short and have lots of white space. Good appropriate use of images helps a lot too.

Use your name, address or whichever other contact details you wish, email certainly and phone number, either landline or cell phone but increasingly cell phone numbers are used for business and a company logo. The aim is to have you look like a business, especially when you are starting out and need to build business, you want to look professional, not just another person selling something from home. You need to inspire confidence by looking like an established business.

Many people starting a business from home, understandably worry about using their home address. One solution if affordable, is to use the services of the organisations if you have them in your area, which help startup businesses. You can often at low cost get a desk space, internet services and a mail address. This also solves the problem that your household insurance or lease may not permit the property being used for business purposes. A problem with using a box number as an address is that it can give an impression of being a temporary location and that your business is not stable. Apparently, you can get a box number from a supplier that has a street address, and then your box number address would read like the number of e.g. an apartment. If your sales letter is purely via email and not a postal campaign, then put the contact details you want to use at the bottom, more often than not you will be contacted by email or your contact box on your website, but it makes you look reliable if possible customers see that you are willing to supply an address, at least of some sort.

Of course, you also need a means for customers to place orders, or request your services. Make it as easy to complete and return to you as possible whether this be online or via a marketing letter  and in the case of a book that is delivered as an e-book , or software to download then there aren’t too many necessary options anyway , just pay and receive the link . Keep it simple and make paying as easy as possible with several options, PayPal always works well as a popular payment system online and do try to set yourself up to take card payments. Make your ordering system too complicated and potential customers just won’t bother, they will look elsewhere …have a successful sales campaign…sell yourself and good luck!! . 

Valerie Hedges 

The Election 2015...A dark day ...

On May 7^th, the British people elected the most vicious right wing government and leader in our history and gave it an increased majority with a full mandate to govern needing no coalition, giving full reign to 12 billion pounds more welfare cuts for the poor, sick and disabled. With disabilities myself I have got to make some serious plans and changes and do some serious thinking to safeguard my future as this is a five year government of misery for people like myself and we will suffer. Already heart rending posts and personal stories of fear are appearing on Facebook.

Well done my own wonderful Labour MP who increased her majority  , but Labour as a party needs to get its act together , and be seen and felt to really support and fight for the people who make up its voters which I no longer feel they do....and this is not just as they keep spouting . ..Hard working families.

 At the heart of Labour’s electorate are the low paid, the unemployed, the sick and the disabled hounded to death and even suicide by welfare reforms, the pensioner alone and afraid to turn the heating on and the millions like myself who do not have young children leaving school and needing jobs but who are older and often sick and if going to be forced by welfare reform to get jobs, need jobs available that that they can do and help to get them.

We have had five years of misery under the Tories already and this election result is a grim future for the vulnerable in the United Kingdom. Australia is going the same way and so is the USA and other nations, with the poor, sick and disabled being blamed for their country’s budget problems and recession. It’s a scary time for the world!!

However, it seems that in the UK at least, the people have spoken and they want more of the same austerity, attacks on the sick and disabled, after all this is what they voted for. We woke on Friday 8^th May to the hell that will be five years of a Tory Government with a majority. Those on low wages, the unemployed, pensioners and the sick and disabled will now have to live in further fear of the cruel spite of the Tories. I was amazed that after five years of what the Tories managed to do to the vulnerable in Britain, even though they did not have a majority and were part of a coalition, Labour did not manage to beat them …but then again, in spite of the risk of sounding disloyal, I was never sure that they would.

Why was I not confident of a Labour victory? Because Labour seems to have become just a paler version of Tory blue. They no longer can be relied on as the party that will help the vulnerable and underprivileged, and these people make up much of the basis of their voters. It is I admit hard for a well-intentioned Labour cabinet, who mostly just like the Tories, are from wealthy backgrounds, went to private school and university, never have to rely on the NHS or endure an appointment at the job centre and a work capability test and have more money than real common sense, to have any real idea what life is like for many of their core voters who have been lifelong Labour supporters and feel a loyalty to the party and want to vote Labour but feel let down. We did not want a Labour government saying they would reform the work capability assessment...we, the sick and disabled needed it to be scrapped, so that we need no longer live in fear of it and that it would be enough that our doctors would be believed when they write a medical certificate saying that a person should not work. However, I and indeed thousands of others these past five years have had job centre staff say that it is not your doctor who decided if you are too sick to work anymore, it is the government: and many have dropped dead or committed suicide as a result of it. Labour was not strong enough, not loyal enough to its electorate to offer an alternative to welfare reform that we could trust to support us, instead. It was had they been elected, going to be more of the same.

 I can in part understand this , Labour lost the last election in  2010, and the media have portrayed them as being to blame for the country’s debt and deficit , in no small part due to paying welfare benefits to too many people, most of whom are so the electorate are told ,  idle lazy scroungers . Of course Labour wanted so much to win ,  So, they said  that they too would make  more  severe cuts in public spending and would be even 'tougher on benefits' than  the Tories !!! Had it not been for a personal vote for my MP, I really didn’t want to go and vote at all, 

Labour no longer supports me and there is no real alternative with any chance of winning a general election. For all of us so desperately needing an end to welfare reform done in the way that it is, we could see we could not count on the Labour party…Maybe some stayed at home and maybe some voted for the Green Party, with not a hope in hell of actually forming a government, but they did say they would scrap the work capability assessment. The Green Party also said that they were keeping the Independent Living Fund, increasing spending on disability living allowance and ending the bedroom tax. They had no chance of forming a government to do it, but I was very very tempted to vote for them and around a million did …how many were Labour voters?  The horrendously right-wing UKIP...UK Independence party came second in over 90 constituencies and many of those had been strong Labour seats.

The then Shadow and would have been work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves said that “We are not the party of people on benefits. We don’t want to be seen, and we’re not, the party to represent those who are out of work,” Labour are a party of working people, formed for and by working people. ”trying to sound like Labour’s version of her Tory opposite  Iain Duncan Smith who has seen many benefit claimants go to their graves as a result of his policies . Well, Rachel, if Labour is not the party for support of people out of work, I would be interested to know which party is and I might be tempted to go and join it. Also, it needs to be noted that many people claiming a benefit are actually in work. To be fair Rachel Reeves did say that Labour planned to increase the minimum wage to £8 per hour and increasing wages must surely help to lower the number of people needing top up benefits such as housing benefit to help to pay rent.

Labour needs to rebuild, that is for sure and build a party that is really and truly seen to stand up for its grass roots voters, the working class, even if they are not working. If they are not, perhaps because they are disabled, then they need targeted help to get into jobs that physically and or mentally they can do and for those jobs to be there. Sometimes the best solution to work for the disabled is in schemes such as Remploy. However the Remploy factories employing many disabled people were closed and the part of the company that survived, a specialist disability recruitment company has been sold by the Department of Work and Pensions to an American company that just happens to also do some of the work capability assessments for the department …

Another route to employment for sick and disabled people and indeed older people now being forced to work until they are at least in many cases 70 before they can claim retirement pension, which can be as good as impossible to do for people in certain professions that are physically demanding such as nursing and my previous career, childcare, also for men in such roles as building and engineering is self-employment from home, making use of the many opportunities that can be found online. However, there is practically no financial help available now for people to make the transition from claiming disability benefits to entering work since the government during the last administration removed the job grant which used to help with the transition from benefits to getting your first salary or payments . Labour would have benefited from promising schemes that would encourage people to try to take jobs, rather than doing as they did, which was to make it clear there would be just as much, even more austerity with them as there would be with the Tories.

Something that may well help to restore confidence in Labour amongst its core voters is that in the five years of hell ahead for vulnerable people Labour are seen to defend and fight for them. It won’t work if they just sit back and tell us everything will be just fine when they win the election in 2020.

Labour needs also to return to what it was, I for one and I know many are tired of the endless debate about is the party Blairite or Brownite, New Labour or Old Labour…all of those terms are getting a bit of a joke and what Labour needs is to be a party, not just for the vulnerable, much as they do need a party that supports them. Labour also needs to be what it was...a party of ambitions and opportunities …cut the deficit by taxing the rich, not punishing the poor and sick, continue the jobs guarantees and promises of jobs and training opportunities for young people ...and end tuition fees , so that once again university is achievable for everyone, not just the rich . Yes, there are student loans, but the low paid and those on disability benefits already dread debt and not being able to pay it, while it is true that a student loan only has to be paid back by the student once earning over £21,000 I know that my parents way back in the 70’s never allowed me to even consider university, my mother furiously accused me of jumping out of my class, and this is going to happen again. It has come full circle that just as mine did, parents will feel the need to force their children to drop ambitions of going to university because they are terrified of the resulting debt and as my parents did …desperately need their child’s income in the family budget, so force them to take whatever job they can get. I had the thrill of beginning my degree with the Open University, but like many Open University students have had to stop at least for now as I am not in a position to take on a student loan.

Provide more job opportunities for young people by restoring the state pension age to 60 for women and 65 for men. People like myself worked for years and paid taxes expecting as we were told that this was the age we could have our pension. This money is not the governments money to do as they choose with , it is money that we have paid in having been told what we would get in return for it and when . Is it right to force women who by that time may well have health issues, to still work in such professional as nursing when they are 70? Which is what will happen in time, or for men to work on building sites …? If older people could get their pension then they would not need to claim Jobseekers allowance or disability allowances if they were unable to do their job in later years.

How to pay for all this? Well, any British government that really cares about British people working or not, would do no harm by tightening our borders and the rule that means just because you come from a European Union country you can come to the UK and undercut a British worker in the job market by being willing to work for peanuts, and not only can you get a job but a council house as well. There are just too many people here and the country does not have the resources to support them all on the National Health Service and the state if they don’t find a job.

My Labour led local council, has managed not to pass on the cuts to their budget from central government by increasing council tax. However, many councils, including Labour ones did pass on the cuts to residents by increasing council tax and cutting council tax benefit.

 Vulnerable people were already scared witless and exhausted by five years of the coalition, and yet it seems that they didn’t all rush to the polling station to vote Labour, surely if they had really felt that Labour was there for them...they would have done so ? A problem that I feel about my relationship with the Labour party now is that when I was fit and well and working, I really felt they were for me. Now, they too when it comes to the low paid, sick and disabled have the same policies as the Tories, just different methods of going about it…the same but different and I and thousands of other vulnerable people need it to stop …cut the deficit by taxing the rich and their mansions, not by driving sick people to their deaths and suicide by forcing them to work or leaving them with no money for even essentials.

 Yet might it be also, that Labour need to take a long hard look at their election campaign machinery? After all it can’t all be a lost cause for Labour, my own Labour MP has increased her majority for the past two elections …it can be done . Labour needs to go out and listen to its voters and show they care ...just like she does ….