I’ve been battling the evil of Universal Credit for the past six months.
My son left college in February, and has had no income for six months. See this blog
This is before I even contemplate how Universal Credit is going to completely destroy my own career, it has already plunged my second son into total despair as he enters the workforce. As you can imagine, the stress levels are at a critical point, and Carers UK are currently campaigning merely for Carers to get vital respite funds.
I’m lucky enough to receive some respite funds, although I haven’t actually had a break all summer, because they have been late, and originally, I was awarded £900 annually, but now it’s reduced to £600.
Of course, I know I’m a slave, so it’s little respite, when I return to unpaid bills, abuse from the DWP and the council. Recently they insisted I am “not an official carer”, because they won’t let me claim Carer’s Allowance.
So as it’s #suicidepreventionweek, and it wasn’t The Samaritans that my son rang when he was suicidal, it was the police, who rang me to ask if he could come back home, which I’d been trying to get him to do for roughly three months of hell, but don’t worry, I’m not a carer :-s
There aren’t enough Swear Trek gifs in existence for this level of pure negligence.
But the good news is, I’ve been awarded a bursary to attend the Carer’s UK AGM and Carer’s Summit in London coming up on 10th October 2019.
So the issue of carers being unpaid will be strongly contested!!
If any artists here have experiences or comments to include on how caring has affected your career, please let me know!!
I’ve also been invited to an a-n event just before, so it would suit me perfectly if this can be the Wednesday, to combine both events :-)
I’ve made a very guarded return to my arts practice, in that I may have found a way to break the economic abuse.
I was paid to participate in a sleep lab experiment, so I’m using the data to create some new sound art
