Hello
This is difficult for me to write as I've always been very independent and self-sufficient but I am struggling to get my head around what to do. I'll try to keep it simple but apologise if I ramble, my heads in a muddle.
Back in March 2024 I was made redundant. At the time I felt nothing but relief due to the stress of the job itself, disability discrimination toward me, and not knowing for 9 months whether our jobs were safe or not (contracts/TUPE situation). Finally we were told a new company were taking over and our jobs were safe. I then found myself in a redundancy pool of 1 because the new company wanted all staff on 12 hour shifts which I couldn't do due to my disabilites as I'd already been struggling with the shifts. I accepted the redundancy not knowing they were acting illegally. More fool me.
I felt only relief at not having to go back to that toxic place and fully expected (and needed) to take a year break from work. My mental and physical health crashed and I've not been able to get my old self back. I have no motivation despite trying my hardest. Over the last year I've been applying for part time roles that I felt I could manage to avoid applying for benefits but have had only 3 interviews and no offers.
My redundancy money has all but gone and I am on my own and scared. I don't know what to do and can't get my head around the benefits system, (it's like my brain no longer functions properly). The jobs I could do would be very local to me or home based and low stress admin type roles but they are few and far between with hundreds of people applying. I would be subject to the bedroom tax on top so really need some advice and guidance here. I can't believe the job market is so difficult right now, I would much rather struggle on part time pay but it looks like that's not likely to happen. Any advice would be much appreciated.
