Please note that this post is copyrighted. If you would like quotes or to speak further then please contact me at my email address. Otherwise, you have no permission to use this. The Daily Mail is specifically banned from using anything from this post, even if you reword it.
I am a UK national. British passport, lived in the UK since birth. 30 years later, I mived abroad to Switzerland, initially to work one winter, but I ended up staying there for 8 years. For personal reasons and because of my health, I decided to move back to the UK to be closer to my friends and family.
I am from Hastings. All my friends are there and in London. I decided to move back there as I am familiar with Sussex and wanted to feel comfortable and included. So i moved back in May 2012. I gave up my residency in Switzerland (which is an official process), booked my flight, posted all my belongings back to the UK and carried a very heavy suitcase back on the plane.
I had arranged accommodation with a friend of a friend prior to leaving Switzerland. It was 80 pounds a week, not including council tax and was a for a bedroom and shared bathroom. The only problem I had was that I didn't have a job.
I am professionally qualified, with a Chartered qualification but I'm not proud - I scrub toilets, I can work behind a bar, I can waitress. I have worked hard and have never been unemployed through choice. I had an extremely good job before leaving the UK and paid a substantial amount of tax. I tried to apply for UK jobs prior to leaving Switzerland but employers were not very encouraging as I was still abroad, despite me offering to do a Skype interview or fly over. Ahh well, I knew I wouldn't have any trouble finding a job - I managed to find seasonal contracts during my time in Switzerland and most of those were in a foreign language (German/Swiss German if you are interested).
So I left my happy little studio flat in the Swiss mountains and came back to the UK. It had been a bad winter workwise (I was running the nursery slope in ski school by then) mainly because of the poor snow conditions. This meant my hours were half the amount I would usually work during the winter (combining three jobs by the way) and so I didn't have a right lot of cash on me to bring back, plus I still had to pay some medical bills prior to leaving. (If you read my other posts, I am Bipolar and so was having to pay for treatment under the private healthcare system there). But I had enough to last about a week if I lived frugally.
I honestly did not realise how difficult it is to find a job in this country.
So, after I had registered for a doctor, dentist, bank account etc. I went cap in hand to the job centre. I tried to start my claim over the phone but they were having system problems so it ended up that when I attended my appointment (which luckily was the next day) I had to fill in a very long booklet to outline my circumstances. I realised that I would not be able to claim contribution based job seekers allowance and would therefore have to try and claim for income based JSA.
Now in my appointment with JCP, i had to complete an Habitual Resident Test (HRT). Another appointment was booked for me to attend following the weekend. I was told that it was a formality and although they couldn't give me a definite answer they did not think it would be too much of a problem - I was a UK citizen-right?
Wrong. I failed.
In the meantime, I tried and tried to get an emergency loan - I only needed 50 pounds, but I couldn't claim because they were still waiting for a decision on the HRT. So I waited for the decision. And waited. And waited. And waited.
By this time I was panicking a bit. My landlady was kind enough to give me meals (which were not included in the rent) and I managed to get food vouchers from the CAB. I applied for Housing Benefit, but they would not pay because they were waiting for the DWP (a decision I had overturned a while later as the council is not allowed to do that).
I tried the CAB. I tried another local charity. They all tried to help. They spoke to JCP. JCP were no help whatsover.
In the meantime, I was unaware that I was fraudulently claiming prescription charges. I NEED my psychiatric medication and had no means to pay for it. So I showed that I was registered for benefits and was able to collect prescriptions.
Next, there was an administrative error. By the time I found out was over a month after they had sent me my P45. Apparently I had not signed on when I was meant to. I had. I got proof that I had and who had "signed me on". The system was not amended and I had to go through the same battle every time I telephoned them.
I applied for so many jobs you would not believe. Soon, my A4 binder needed to be replaced with a lever arch binder. I kept records of every single job that I applied for in person, by telephone, by email. JCP never looked at it once.
By the time it became clear that it was failing the HRT was why I had been refused benefit (and that took the local MP to get involved - strangely enough she was told far more information than I ever was) and another visit to the CAB, it became clear that I had to reapply for benefits. Which I did. And I had to sit the HRT again. Even the two people I dealt with in the Job Centre were shocked that I had failed the first one and (even though I try not to be judgemental, was quite disheartened) that they regularly had people claiming who could not even speak English and were sent on courses to learn. She sent me on a food hygiene course out of sympathy (Thankyou! Thankyou!), although that would help me immensly find a catering job as my Food Hygiene had run out a while ago.
I had to walk everywhere. I had no transport and could not afford the train fare. I had to walk to the next town to the job centre, frequently to use the phone there to find out what was happening with my claim as I had no phone or mobile and 0845 numbers are not free from a phonebox. Not that it mattered too much - I am used to the outdoors and it is not like I had much to do! But it still took 2 and a half hours out of my day.
Having no internet was not a problem. The library have PC's, so I was able to apply for jobs online.
Anyway, the end of the story is that I finally passed the HRT because it was deemed I had been in the country long enough.
The story does not end there though. Whatever David Cameron's promises are, the UK is bound under EU law. And EU law counts Switzerland as being part of Europe for these circumstances. I have a tribunal hearing this Wednesday. And whatever the outcome, it can only be good for people in similar situations because if my case is found against me, I have the EU court on my side.
In Switzerland, you have to be resident for 2 years before you are able to claim benefit. I am fine with that. However, when it is your own country and you are in a position of poverty, who takes care of you?
(The end of the story is that I had no option but to get a travel warrant from the council, who were going to give me more expensive accommodation in St Leonards known for crime so the travel warrant was a cheaper option to get me off their hands, to move into a box room at my mothers).
If you would like to know further circumstances I am happy to provide that information (not the Daily Mail by the way). Because there is much more that I haven't covered.
Plus, through all this, my mental health suffered A LOT). But if you note, I haven't even gone into that.
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