Up until Ellie became really unwell I used to work in the Imaging department of our local hospital. I'd started out there as an HCA (Healthcare Assistant), but when a position as a Trainee Assistant Practitioner in Plain Film and Fluoroscopy came up (which basicly meant I'd get to learn to how to take X-rays) I applied for and was offered the job. I started in September 2011, it required me to attend university up in London one day a week, and then train on the job in the hospital the other four working days. Even though I spend most of the week in work, taking X-rays, I was still considered a full-time student, as most of my education took place in the hospital setting. It was a 2 year course and then all being well I would be a qualified X-ray Assistant Practitioner.
Ellie became ill in May 2011. She went into hospital in June and I missed an important exam, but managed to resit that later in the year and muddled along until September looking after a sick child, running a household and doing a full-time job and a shed load of uni work. I passed the first year of the course but it was becoming pretty obvious that working, studying and looking after Ellie was untenable, and the decision was made between myself and my employers that the only realistic option left open to me was to defer uni for a year and start working part-time. After a month or two of this I was signed off sick with emotional exhaustion and eventually I had to admit defeat, Ellie was not getting better and there was no other option than for me to be her full-time carer. Work are keeping my job open for me, I have up to five years to return to my post, and the university still class me as a full-time student and they'll accomodate me to complete the course unless I officially withdraw from it, but that would be burning my bridges when it comes to my job. As long as I stay enrolled as a student I have the chance to do the final year of the course and complete my training and gain employment as an Assistant Practitioner at the hospital.
So this is where our benefits system kicks in yeah? Ellie has been registered disabled at the highest componants of both care and mobilty, the next step for me, as her carer, is to apply for Carer's Allowance, once I am awarded this (a pitiful amount but the label of "carer" is required so....) I can claim Income Support and Housing Benefit. Except I've had my application for Carer's Allowance turned down, twice. The reason for this is because I'm still officially a full-time student, even though I don't attend university and unfortunately there is a good chance I may never be able to finish the course, but while there is still a chance I may finish, I'm not happy to give that up.
So what are my options? If you aren't working but you don't qualify for Income Support then you can apply for Jobseeker's Allowance. But hang on, I already have a job, It's being kept open for me in the hope that one day this nightmare will all be over and I shall return! Rolling up to the Job Centre with a kid in a wheelchair once a fortnight to show proof that I've been actively looking for work while I'm still formally employed by the NHS, well, I doubt that's going to be an acceptible compromise for either myself or the DWP. So what is the only option left open to me?
Basically, in order to claim the benefits I need for us to live off of while I am unable to work, I must officially quit my university course and in doing so I will also lose my job. Maybe in six months, or a year, or perhaps even two or more from now, if (and it's a big if, but I'm keeping my fingers like a Liberal Democrat voter at the last election - double-crossed) Ellie is well enough for me to return to work again, it won't be to the job that should've been waiting for me, the job I'd already dedicated a year of hard study towards, a year of study the local government had funded, and the beginning of my career in the NHS.
So, what with the unemployment figures being as they are, the chances are that instead of having a job, univeristy course and the foundations of a career in Radiography to return to when my daughter is either well again or old enough to manage her own illness, I will probably just be signing off of Income Support and onto Jobseeker's Allowance. It all makes such great sense....
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