Welfare and Work in Denmark.
Nov. 16th, 2015 07:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladydraceI'm on welfare. I have been so for over a decade now, and I don't see that changing anytime soon, my autism diagnosis made that pretty clear to me.
But the politicians in this country seem determined to label me and my fellow welfare recipients as lazy fucks who are just sitting around on our asses. To them I'd like to clarify. I work as much as I can, even though it costs me. It's costs me a lot of precious energy I could use elsewhere, and (hold on to something, pal, this might be shocking to you) it also costs me money.
Yes, I pay money to work.
My maximum weekly hour count was eight hours before my latest round of medication changes, and currently it's about two. But I still go. The tickets for the bus that takes me to those couple of hours cost me what amounts to a quarter of the money I have left after paying rent, utilities and other fixed expenses. I can apply for some of it back, and it's supposed to happen automatically every month, but guess what, it doesn't. And even when it does, I can only get about half of it back. So about twelve percent of the already slim amount I have for clothes, food, transportation, and other daily needs goes to just getting to work.
And I used to love this work because it felt like it was needed, that me and my fellow low-hour-count workers were an important part of the production line. But it definitely is no longer the case, and these days my supervisor struggles to even find work for us to do. That's really kind of a bitter pill to swallow on top of the two and a half hours of transportation I do per day to manage two hours of work.
So going to work costs me time, energy and money, and I spend less time working than I do commuting. And my work is pointless.
But I still fucking do it.
No love, me.
EDIT: I feel I need to clarify. I go to work for my welfare payments. I don't earn anything from this work. It's not a job. It's the welfare office trying to make sure I don't fall into some pit of uselessness. Not that it helps.
But the politicians in this country seem determined to label me and my fellow welfare recipients as lazy fucks who are just sitting around on our asses. To them I'd like to clarify. I work as much as I can, even though it costs me. It's costs me a lot of precious energy I could use elsewhere, and (hold on to something, pal, this might be shocking to you) it also costs me money.
Yes, I pay money to work.
My maximum weekly hour count was eight hours before my latest round of medication changes, and currently it's about two. But I still go. The tickets for the bus that takes me to those couple of hours cost me what amounts to a quarter of the money I have left after paying rent, utilities and other fixed expenses. I can apply for some of it back, and it's supposed to happen automatically every month, but guess what, it doesn't. And even when it does, I can only get about half of it back. So about twelve percent of the already slim amount I have for clothes, food, transportation, and other daily needs goes to just getting to work.
And I used to love this work because it felt like it was needed, that me and my fellow low-hour-count workers were an important part of the production line. But it definitely is no longer the case, and these days my supervisor struggles to even find work for us to do. That's really kind of a bitter pill to swallow on top of the two and a half hours of transportation I do per day to manage two hours of work.
So going to work costs me time, energy and money, and I spend less time working than I do commuting. And my work is pointless.
But I still fucking do it.
No love, me.
EDIT: I feel I need to clarify. I go to work for my welfare payments. I don't earn anything from this work. It's not a job. It's the welfare office trying to make sure I don't fall into some pit of uselessness. Not that it helps.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-16 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-16 08:26 am (UTC)