What unemployment is actually like
Hello everyone, I am back with a new blog post and it is about the reality of one of the most misunderstood situations ever. Unemployment seems to be a thing in the UK that people never understand until it happens to them for a long period of time. I will discuss some of the common misconceptions people have and I will mention what it has actually been like for me and what it is currently like due to everything going on in the world. I would love to know what you guys think of unemployment and if you have ever experienced it. Let’s get right into the blog post.
Common misconceptions
Here are common misconceptions I see online fairly often:
- It’s easy to be unemployed
- All people on benefits are lazy
- People do nothing all day and always stay at home
- Getting a job is easy
- It’s easy to get benefits
- People get loads of money for nothing
- You don’t need to do anything to get benefits
- You get paid them immediately
All of these are so unbelievably wrong and it frustrates me because I know the struggles inside out and I will now go on to say what it is actually like.
What it is actually like
Unemployment is so tough to deal with. Waking up each day with no job is very painful because you just don’t know when you are going to get one. I have applied for 7000/8000 jobs in my life and I’ve only ever had two. One of the main reasons for this is due to getting ill at the wrong time. After college, I was very ill for around 18 months so I immediately lost out because employers have very stupid expectations of how much experience people actually have. It’s like they expect you to have 5 years’ experience even for entry-level jobs these days and sadly even for some apprenticeships they even expect you to have loads of experience despite the whole point of an apprenticeship is that they train you.
When it comes to benefits it’s actually extremely tricky to get them. I don’t qualify for anything other than Disability Living Allowance which is £185.70 a month due to my girlfriend working full time and my sister being a university student. Even she got less this year due to not living with a parent. The only reason that is the case is due to my mum dying last year. People who think it is easy are just really ignorant. So many people have mental health issues due to money worries and poverty is so common in the UK. There just isn’t enough jobs for everyone who needs one and sadly that is where the government fails massively.
What it is currently like
It is extremely scary right now even for me who is extremely calm on a normal day. These are very weird times because I know I need to save constantly in order to make what I have last. I’ve read so many peoples’ stories about how they are struggling and I think a lot of it came from the government taking so long to help people. So many employers were just getting rid of people for no reason and it’s become so hard for people who would actually qualify for benefits to get them as it’s taking weeks to get telephone interviews about them and then it’s normally 5 weeks before you get paid even after you are approved for them. It’s looking like a minimum of 9/10 weeks just for people to be paid. This simply isn’t good enough and putting people in poverty or starvation because bills have not been frozen either.
I hope my post has opened your eyes to the reality of unemployment in the UK and how tough it is. I hope you are all safe and financially stable. Thank you for reading my content and have a great day.
Here’s my previous content if you missed it:
PaulMcGV3 
I totally agree – when I went back to school and switched careers, I found myself weighing the pros and cons of finding a job or working for myself. While I eventually chose the freelance/self-employed route, I was searching for a job for quite a while first and was blown away by the expectations that many employers had for experience. I can understand for bigger roles like management level, but an entry-level job is just that for a reason – it’s supposed to be the roles that you can qualify for when you’re just entering into a career!
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Yeah it’s so bad. I got 2 college qualifications that took me 3 years of hard work and I barely feel like I’ve used them. It’s not like business and accountancy qualifications are easy to get while ill either lol
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Yes Paul!
You mentioned many of the things I have experienced.
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Yeah it’s such a nightmare and too many people just don’t get it
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I was out of work for 2 years and it was hard. So many folks don’t understand what it’s like. Sure you can get a job, but you want work that is fulfilling. But then again fulfilling doesn’t always pay the bills.
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Yeah I agree with this so much. It’s so rare that both come in one job immediately
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