Sharon's story

Criminal record

The biggest problem I faced when trying to get work was my criminal record. No one ever asks about being in care – and you never have to tell people anyway – but you have to be honest about convictions.

I’ve got arson on my record. As soon as any employer sees that they think “nutjob”. If there are ten people going for the one job, I’m the last person they’ll pick. Who wants an arsonist working for them?

This means I’ve got to try my hardest to make a good impression at the interview, and that’s not always easy to do when you’re nervous.

The thing is no one ever admits they’ve been put off by my criminal record – they just lie, or avoid you.

I’ve been for loads of interviews, and been rejected loads. In all that time, I’ve never had a letter. No one’s ever called to explain. I even chased it up on a couple of occasions. They would say my interview wasn’t good enough – they wouldn’t even mention the criminal record, as though they were embarrassed to admit that was the reason.

Opportunity

Because of these difficulties, the offer of doing work experience was just what I needed.

At no point did I think, “Oh it’s two weeks work without being paid, I’m not interested”. I realised I needed an opportunity to get some experience, to have something to put on my CV that shows people I’m a good, reliable worker.

I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to do it. I got my travel paid for, I got meals paid for, and I got work experience. That’s got to be better than sitting around. It was much better to have some kind of structure.

If I hadn’t been on the work experience, my day wouldn’t have any structure to it, I’d have spent my time being lazy. Getting up at stupid o’clock, watching TV, being a bum. That’s not who I am, I want to get up and do something useful.

The work experience made me feel better about myself.  I thought, “you know, I’ve done something good. I’ve done two weeks and I’ve stuck at it.”

There were other girls on the course and they didn’t stick it out or they didn’t attend every day. I did. That was an achievement for me, to go in every day and smile.

At the end of the two weeks they offered me a job.

Losing benefit

To accept the contract I had to come off my benefits, lose my right to the JSA and housing. But I thought, “Wow I’ve been offered work, I’m a big girl now, I can do it.”

So I signed off my benefits and took the contract. The problem was they couldn’t offer me full time work or guaranteed hours, so they put me on something called a ‘zero hours contract’.

I didn’t really know what this was. So I was left in a right mess. I could work full time one week, and then have nothing the next.

Suddenly, I’d gone from being on benefits and just about scraping by, to having a job and not being able to afford my rent. I’m on £25 a week. That’s got to cover my bills, my rent and my food.

No one helped with any of this stuff. No one told me you could still claim benefits if you worked up to a certain number of hours. So now I’m spending ages trying to sort everything out – phoning the Job Centre, Citizen’s Advice, waiting to hear back from people.

In the long run, this has cost me more time and money than if I’d stayed on benefits and not bothered with the job.

Even when work did have hours to offer me, I couldn’t afford to come in because I was off my benefits, and didn’t have money for the bus fare.

Trying your best

I’ve been very upset by this. I’m quite a confident, together person but a lot of care leavers might have found it really difficult and upsetting. You’re trying to do your best, you’re trying to get a job, and it feels like you’re being punished because you don’t fully understand all of the details about contracts.

I think that’s my only real criticism. The chance to get back into work has been amazing and has done me so much good, but I think there are things that could have been explained to me.

Despite this, I don’t regret doing the work experience. I’ve got loads out of it, and the problems I’ve had aren’t really because of the placement. It’s just a question of providing better support once the placement is over.

News

• Young Person-led APPG a success! - 30-Apr-2012
• Government policies on access to further and higher education abandon care leavers to the whims of localism, says report - 16-Mar-2012
• The Trust calls for Government to look wider than adoption - 14-Mar-2012

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