Dean feels flush now he's cleaned up!
Dean has a long term mental health diagnosis which had meant he had never worked before. After a recent work experience placement he knew how to work in a warehouse and had some heavy lifting training.
When he started seeing his Twining Enterprise, Employment Specialist they began looking together for a suitable warehouse role. Dean's brother told him about some cleaning positions in the evening at his bus garage. Although this wasn't the kind of work that Dean had been looking for he had been searching for work for three years so he decided to apply. This was his first job offer in over three years so he decided to take it to see what it was like, thinking perhaps it would lead to better offers once he was in work.
He was on the old fashioned kind of financial benefits so when he went into full time work his benefits would have come to an abrupt halt, and if he failed his probation he would have to come back onto Universal Credit. Dean was really worried about how all these changes would affect his ability to pay his bills.
So after 10 days in his new role Dean came back to visit his Employment Specialist and said he wanted to stop working because he was very anxious about his benefits. Fortunately, all of our Employment Specialists are well trained in supporting people to navigate the complexities of benefits and tax credits when they return to work.
"I supported him every week until he was much less anxious and we had solved his benefit problems." Employment Specialist
For the next two sessions he was really stressed, had not slept very well as he was drinking energy drinks late at night to stay awake whilst he was working.
But with our support, once he was paid he began to say he felt much better. Without additional financial worries he slept better and felt much less tired. Together with his Employment Specialist he rang all the relevant benefit people and arranged to pay his rent out of his pay.
Today he is still meeting with his Employment Specialist, she is supporting him to manage a repayment of his benefits over payment as well as to excel in work and to pass his probation period.
It is amazing the reality of actually how positive being paid and being better off than he was has made my client feel. Employment Specialist
