Benefit Fraud

I've finally signed on, and whilst there's nothing wrong with that (aka...), i can't shake the feeling that there are people who probably deserve the 50 bones a week more than i do. Although, as i sat in the job centre debating whether to buy Ready Salted or Salt & Vinegar crisps once i left, i realised that without jobseeker's allowance i wouldn't be able to buy either, and that discovery shook me to my core... my hungry, unemployed core. I was then forced to sit and watch my 'jobseeker' (i don't really know what you'd call them) search for vacancies for a film director/script writer on the government search engine; constantly trying to say as politely as i could that this wasn't really how the industry worked. Alongside this, when being questioned about my eligibilty for jobseeker's allowance i was unable to shake the feeling that i was, in some way, commiting benefit fraud: "do i care for anyone? maybe i DO have a spouse? am i an immigrant, i am black, yes i AM an immigrant, no wait!". Even as i write this i feel as if i'm now under the watchful gaze of the thought police, and to a lesser extent, a pack of 'Devil Dogs'...

into the wild

Well this is the first blog entry, and the very reason that it’s the first blog entry is because I now have the time. Like most of the unemployed I need to find as many new and inventive, computer-based time wasting hobbies as I possibly can. And as I don’t have the stamina for online adult entertainment or the steady cash flow for online poker, blog entries it is. The first one is pretty much a cathartic way of moaning about the fact that, like many, I have returned to the position that I was in 3 years ago… at the family home, with no job, and in many ways no prospects. Having recently graduated I have discovered that finishing my degree is the equivalent of a ‘Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200’ card in monopoly. I’m sure that work will rear it’s beautiful head at some point, but in the mean time I shall return to wasting my time on the internet and watching ITV talk shows… exactly what I did when I was a student but without the excuse that ‘i'm taking a break from 'working'’.