Hi Just found this PDF on above interesting read:

http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/final-report-commission-living-standards/ A report on the low to middle income families. I think there may be alot of people similar to this sample case study: http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/portraits/sara-and-mark/

Hello everyone, I will try and keep this fairly brief, I would be interested to hear people constructive views on these issues I have had at work, some are actually things that I was totally unaware of that came back to stab me in the back six months later as no one had pointed it out at the time! I have worked in Local Govt (LG) for 25 years, after 21 years we had a restructure, as lots of places do, this was the first one they had ever had. My team was being totally abolished but we applied for jobs as the waives came in, we all were successful, 2 people left as they were almost at retirement age so it all worked out ok. I however, happy in my new job, skills were correctly matched etc, then after 2 years redundancy came, 2 people in my team went voluntarily which made me and my other colleague safe. Then after another year our section were told we were merging with another department, a very operational department and not in the Town Hall Building, it was half a mile down the road, this is ok. We moved and I was put into a team of people where the job for me was not a job match, but hey, I adapted and was ok. Sadly I had a death in my family of a very close person, I dealt with that on my own with no help from anyone, work became awful, I hated the job, I felt i was being singled out, people were definitely different with me. I was also at risk of redundancy for over a year, however when I asked for redundancy my Head of Service said no. I was off with stress, the doctor took one look at me and knew, I couldnt even hold a cup straight, in total I was signed off twice, 2 lots of 4 weeks. I went back and people were ok with me, things started getting better, then we had wind of another change so I asked if redundancy could be an option for me but I was told no. My service head then spoke to me offering me this agreement where he would offer 3 months salary, I said i couldnt possibly leave on that but why did he want me to leave. His response was they knew I had applied for internal jobs so assumed that I was unhappy, he even tried to say I had made mistakes, i asked him to tell me what they were and they were petty things that people do every day and I have seen far worse errors that other colleagues have made that I have put right for them but stupidly I didnt tell him that. My other boss then said they could probably stretch to more than 3 months if I wanted to go but said they were not trying to push me out. I said if i did, the most i could possibly afford would be 9 - 10 months given the state of the job situation outside and the fact I have a mortgage and a huge loan. They came back to me with the offer of 10k which is nice and I was very thankful but I had to turn it down as during that time I had a new contract which meant I was at last not at risk. I let my brain do the talking and not my heart and I am now staying. However since getting our contracts, the few people in my team seem a lot more relaxed and i feel different too and would like to give it a go. The sad thing is I have been given this reputation of not putting my best into my work because of applying for internal jobs and being off sick, which I reiterate has been certified. Also I had a written warning for being off sick, even though my Doctor signed me off and they have included the stress and anxiety caused by work in this category of amounts of time off sick within 12 months. My service head also took a duty off me which was a health and safety coordinator role so I now have no chance of promotion, his reasons were because he felt I couldnt perform in my new contact centre role (which is something I would never apply to do, I was put into it), I also bumped into someone from our HR section and she was horrified that the last 2 jobs I applied for I had had no feedback as to why they didnt interview me. While I was in the meeting with my service head and managter about this compromised agreement thing, my service head asked how many interviews I had had for all the jobs I applied for, I said all of them except the last two and he said it was because I was seen to be applying for many jobs in a desperate attempt to get out of this department I was in. This is to a degree true, yes I did and still would like to get back into the Town Hall and not be stuck in an operational unit with people and culture different from me, I am used to getting dressed up for work, not swearing and laughing out loud and people not taking in what I am trying to explain. When I was in the town hall, people would let you explain without joking around and they take their work more seriously. Where I am at the moment, they make out they are messing around all the time yet then stab you in the back for supposedly making errors. By the way, I never was told what these errors were. Sorry this is long, if you havent fallen asleep yet I would be interested in hearing what people make of this. The compliments I get are from members of the public who call in and ask for me or thank me for what i have done but I only hear that if I speak to them, if it goes to a colleague, I dont hear about it neither does management. If someone calls in and praises our refuse collectors, I make sure they and the manager know! D x