Jane and Sadia, two of our new Commissioners will be blogging each month, sharing their thoughts, experiences and what it means to be a Poverty Truth Commissioner.
In the fifth of the series, Jane talks about the 3 Working Groups looking at Mental Health, Asylum and Cuts and Assessments that have been set up.
"Now we move into 3 groups, each of which focuses on a particular
issue.
I have chosen the group that will look at cuts and
assessments.
This is something that really matters to me.
I have seen friends and family fearful, anxious and
extremely worried at the prospect not just of losing their benefits
but of the process of being ‘assessed’. What a cold,
frightening word.
And what exactly are the criteria for that assessment?
As for the forms involved, I have never met a single person
who understood how the form should be answered.
And all of us know the feeling of trying to complete a form
you don’t understand. You feel sick, stupid and very vulnerable.
If you try to explain how a condition can vary from day to
day, and that’s the truth of many chronic conditions, you’re likely to lose in
what seems like a game of snakes and ladders – except this particular board
game has only snakes, spiralling down.
Our role in the new group is to gather evidence. We,
as the commissioners, are the evidence. So personal stories are what we
will gather.
I’m aware that what we pull together and how we focus this
is of huge importance. It feels exciting to be underway with this work
but again, I need to keep listening to others.
Now that we can reveal our roles and jobs outside the
commission, I can own up to being that thing called - a journalist!
I have worked for many years in broadcasting and as a
freelance writer.
So I will hope to find ways of drawing attention in the
media to the work we do over the next months.
Outside the Commission, I am continuing to volunteer with
the Welcoming Charity in Edinburgh.
It welcomes asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants
to Scotland, offering classes in English, outings, musical events - you
name it, they try to arrange it. This month a beginner’s group for joggers
began.
I volunteer at the weekly conversation café, where anyone
with a bit of English can come along. Each time I go, I am overwhelmed by
the enthusiasm and commitment of those who are learning English.
I watch them launching into sentences on all sorts of
subjects as if they were leaping off the top diving board – plunging in, so
keen to try.
I spoke to one young man from Cadiz who had trained as a
social worker. I said that I thought the unemployment rate in Madrid was
around 25 per cent. He replied, ‘In Madrid, yes. But where I live,
in the south, or in the rural areas, it’s nearer 65 per cent. I will
never work as a social worker where I am from. I have to learn English
and speak it fluently to find another job. I want to become bilingual.’
He’s working as a kitchen porter and loves being in
Scotland.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my fellow
commissioners a while back, who arrived in Scotland as an asylum seeker from
Somalia. She was offered classes in English when she arrived but wants
further classes to be offered for those in her community.
To make real progress in the job market, you need to be
fluent in English.
There is so much to be done and I am looking forward to the
next meetings with the Commission."
