Sincere apologies to anyone who has been waiting for more Adventures in Welfare Reform with the staff and clients of the Solent Welfare Rights Project. I had high hopes of spending this summer getting last year's novel-by-blog proof-read and turned into a proper book and of writing revised prefaces and making minor corrections to the old tales, before launching into another saga, not least to reassure myself that I had got all my character's ages, relationships and histories firmly implanted in my mind before subjecting them to another slice of austerity.
So what happened? Well, for one thing, we had a really hot, dry summer (despite this being North Staffordshire) so I had to spend a couple of hours most evenings trundling round the garden with watering cans trying to stop my crops and best flowers from dying, before trekking down to the allotment, accompanied by Himself towing a water barrel, to repeat the process.
The biggest problem, however, has been the actual roll-out of Universal Credit in my patch. It's meant having to do more hours training, writing info leaflets, going to community events and generally helping the front-line fire-fighters on the advice side try to figure out what the actual bloody hell is going on with the DWP. Mercifully - and perhaps unexpectedly - we've had some funding for this from local MPs (not the Tory one) who have realised just how unprepared their constituents actually are for what is coming.
It's also made me realise that there are more dire pitfalls with this pathetic excuse for a Social Security system than I ever envisaged from listening to other people's accounts and reading blogs and reports. Every day we seem to be confronted with some new twist, some completely unexpected idiocy. It's hard to believe that after five years of a so-called "Pause and Fix" approach, there are still so many major bugs in UC. It is an utter disgrace.
So, when I finally stop being too depressed and angry to turn any of the real stuff into inspiration for stories, I will have no shortage of material. In fact, I think we'll probably begin soon with a conversation between Hilary and Daphne, as the latter tries to pick her own way through the mess slowly engulfing her home town - and mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment