30 Things About Me:

https://jdaviesx.wordpress.com/about/30-things-about-me/

This was a Twitter trend and I decided to write this up on a page instead of writing it all in a blog entry

Please get dressed first

Please Get Dressed before coming to your appointment (orange quirky news)

What is the world coming to when people think it is acceptable to attend welfare offices in their pyjamas?  Surely people should be treating their welfare appointments as if they are job interviews and wanting to make a good impression and show willingness.

I am under the impression that a condition of receiving welfare payments is to be actively seeking employment and not doing anything which could have a detrimental effect on being successful in gaining employment.  I also understand it that if someone fails to comply with the conditions that they have their welfare payments stopped.  Surely this scenario would come under the category of an action having a detrimental effect on gaining employment?  Should they then have their welfare payments stopped for not dressing in an appropriate way?

But where do we draw the line?  What is deemed acceptable?  I can remember a careers counsellor telling me that it wasn’t appropriate to wear blue jeans, as there is no place that you could work where it would be acceptable.  How wrong were they?!  When I worked in health care (adults with learning disabilities, mental health issues and challenging behaviour) we were actively encouraged to wear things like blue jeans so when we supported our service users in the community we wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that we were careers and they needed help.

Would we then have cases where people were told they couldn’t get their welfare payments if they wore blue jeans?  What would happen if a woman went in showing parts of her body and the interviewer was from a religion/ culture that expected women to cover up. (I’m not talking obscene, maybe just an ankle/ knee, or arms and low-cut tops) 

So what is the answer?  I honestly don’t know what the answer is, but I think it is very sad that notices like this are having to be put up in places and that people have so little respect for themselves that they really cannot be bothered.

Stephen Lawrence – Justice 18 years on

Stephen Lawrence killers found guilty after 18 years.

I cannot begin to imagine how hard the last 18 years have been for this family.