Mary takes about how difficult it is to budget especially before Christmas. She is only able to do agency work at the moment as she hasn't been successful to secure permanent hours. She would love to have more security and work regular hours.

What's life like for you at the moment? Bit of a struggle. Why is that? Financially. Yeah, financially struggling. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Um, Yeah, it's just uh. Cost of living, everything seems to go up, you know, but driving, food. Jobs are not as many as they used to be, so it becomes quite difficult

Yeah, you're looking for a job or I'm looking for a job, yes, not because I've been on working as agency staff, and yeah, the jobs are becoming fewer and fewer, so yeah, it's a struggle. Yeah. So how are you managing this Christmas? Very, very tight

I've had to limit a lot, a lot, cut down a lot. Yeah, like normally I would send. A lot lots of presents before back home, but this year I've had to really cut down and I've just promised people some of my nieces and nephews I've had to buy them like, you know, put credit on their mobile phones, not like

When I could be able to send lots of gifts, clothes and send them in advance but this time I have, yeah, yeah, she's an adult, not dependent on me, but still she she works from home, lives with me, yeah. Like she's she's also been struggling to get a job, yeah, since she finished uni, so it's quite, quite a struggle. Would you know where to go to uh to get help to find a job in Stockport? Yes, I know

I would, I know where to go to, but mostly I do it myself. I'll go online and look for, you know, apply for jobs, register with agencies, yeah, do as much as I can. Yeah, but it's still really tough

It is, yes, I think there's a lot of competition, lots of people looking for jobs and also the agency. Yeah employers cutting, you know, not having enough clients, yeah, because clients are cutting back on agency staff, so they'd rather hire, of course, which is, you know, much cheaper for them. So yeah, just for the tape, sort of what, what work do you do currently, yeah, I'm working right now as a support worker with um learning individuals with learning disability

Yeah, and that must be hard for them as well. For their clients. It is, yeah, it is very hard because once you get to, because I've been lucky to have worked with two clients for a long time and they get familiar with you, you know, it becomes easier to support

You're able to help, you know, do things together, they grow with you and you know, you have that bond. They sort of become like your family, you know, but they're all. All of a sudden they can't see you for 3 weeks or you know, a month

That upsets them a lot and why they can't see you, is it because you're doing agency work? Yes, because there's no jobs coming up. The companies are not asking for agency staff, so that's actually that's really interesting because it does affect the clients. Doesn't it when you haven't got the continuity of permanent staff

Definitely, definitely, yeah. Why do they prefer agency staff rather than permanent? The companies want permanent staff, but at the same time there's not enough permanent staff to cover the shift, so they will, you know, call up agency staff to fill in those. But because everybody looks like uh everybody's tightening their belts now, you know, everybody's trying to cut down their spending, so there's, yeah, less work for agency staff

Oh thank you. Which just quick, which part of Stockport do you live in? Thank you. You're welcome

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