It’s now been a month since I left my job as a support worker in order to focus more on caring for my mother, as I explained in my Easter post. And things are still going well on the whole, apart from both of us getting little injuries that have knocked us back a bit. But we are on the mend and there has been positive progress in other regards too. So here’s a little update on how things have been going lately.
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Work
As explained in my Easter update, I’m now working as an accessibility tester for Fable, on a zero-hours, freelance, self-employed basis. And that’s ticking along nicely. I’m not going to mention it in every post going forward, but as it’s still a new role I thought I’d give it another quick mention.
Since completing my training, I’ve been getting tasks offered to me fairly regularly. Several of them I haven’t been in a position to do for one reason or another, which is what I expected, and it’s entirely up to me what I take on, so there’s no penalty for not doing things. The tasks are simply offered on a first come, first served basis, so if I don’t take the opportunity, someone else will. But I have been able to complete a reasonable number to earn a bit of extra income.
Most have involved following a sequence of steps while using a website, and filling out a feedback form to highlight any issues as I go along. But I’ve also done my first self-guided task, which involves being recorded on camera as I explore and assess a website, giving descriptive commentary along the way about what I’m doing and how accessible I’m finding it. I was naturally a little bit nervous about doing it properly for the first time outside of training, as I wanted to be sure I was expressing myself in the way they wanted. But the facilitator recording me was very friendly, and was impressed with the way I did it, which was encouraging. She said she could tell I’ve done this kind of work before.
Other than that though, most of this month has been spent getting little jobs done around the house, helping Mum with various things, doing some blogging and enjoying various bits of entertainment, and I’ll be mentioning some of the latter in my upcoming Favourites post. So I don’t feel bereft or at a loose end now I’m only working a few hours a week at most.
Indeed, it’s felt rather liberating and relaxing not having the pressure of supporting two people at once, and the days are still passing by pretty quickly because I’m keeping myself occupied. I’m trying to make sure that I’m doing something useful or productive each day, whether it be in the house or for Mum or for myself, so I don’t feel like I’ve just been lounging around, although occasionally it’s nice to have days like that too!
Finally on the topic of work, if you’re wondering about my friend Emily from Fashioneyesta who I was supporting, I’m happy to say that she has found a new support worker, who she tells me is lovely. So I’m very glad to hear that, as I didn’t know how easy it would be for her to get someone after my departure. She still hasn’t heard back from Access To Work though, so she’s still stuck with only 8 hours of support per week, which is extremely limiting. But at least she has someone to help her for that brief period, and I hope that she has more positive developments soon.
Injuries
Mum is still doing very well overall, but she did have a fall this month. She was getting up from the dining table and without thinking she leant her hand on the back of her chair to steady herself, which made it tip over, taking her with it. I was in the kitchen at the time, so you can imagine that it made me very worried as I heard the crash and looked to see her on the floor!
Thankfully she doesn’t seem to have broken anything though. She’s just been getting little twinges in the left side of her back now and again, and they’ve been gradually reducing in frequency. And it hasn’t heavily knocked her confidence either, in the way that her falls had been doing last year. I think that’s because her mental state is so much better nowadays and her falls are much less frequent, this being her first tumble since she broke her wrist in August, which is very good going. So she’s still been moving around the house, doing chores, etc, just like she had been before. She’s just being a little bit more careful.
As for me, I’ve also managed to hurt myself for a change, and I’m pinning the blame on a pair of slippers I got from M&S. Normally the slippers I get from them are nice, but I hadn’t realised how thin and hard the soles were on this particular pair, and because I also wear socks I hadn’t noticed how much the fur inside the slippers had worn away. So after a while I was effectively walking around or standing on a hard, flat surface, especially in the kitchen where we have hard tiles (we do have a couple of runner mats in there too, but they only cover part of the floor space). The fact that I’m a bit overweight will also have been a factor of course, I know that. But when I looked at the slippers more closely it was obvious that they weren’t supporting me properly.
Consequently, the ball of my right foot suddenly became painful and difficult to walk on, and from what I’ve researched online, it looks very likely that I’ve got the common condition metatarsalgia. So I’ve bought a new pair of slippers from Clarks instead, taking advantage of a discount code from a carers website I use, and they do cushion my steps much better. And I’ve also been resting my foot as best I can. I obviously can’t just stop moving around the house entirely, so any walking I do inevitably slows the healing process down. But I’ve been avoiding any strenuous activities like long walks, or if I’m standing up I try and avoid leaning on that leg too heavily.
As a result, I can feel that my foot is very slowly improving, as the soreness is gradually going down and I’m moving around a bit more easily as the days go on. It’s not always obvious from one day to the next, but when looking back after a few days or a week, the difference is more obvious. So I feel hopeful that it will go away fairly soon, and then I can ease myself back into things again. It is frustrating not being able to go out much, but having been limited for quite a while anyway for other reasons, an extra month or two doesn’t make much difference at this point!
Other Updates
Here are a few other little bits and bobs I can mention this month as well.
Firstly, Mum now has a Taxicard, after her application was approved. That only took about 6 weeks from the time I posted everything off for it, which isn’t bad. It basically means she can get subsidised taxi travel here in London. We might not end up using it much, or at all – though if we don’t use it within 2 years they’ll cancel it – but we’ll see what happens. It’s very handy to have it available in case we need it, and it’s perfectly possible that such occasions may arise.
Having a Taxicard is also one of the automatic eligibility criteria for Dial-a-Ride, where you can book a spot on a community minibus to take you door to door in London. It means you’re travelling with other disabled people who are also using the service in the area at the same time, so journeys may take a bit longer, but that’s not a problem. So we applied for that for Mum as well, and it was approved very quickly. They just need to do a home assessment to ensure her wheelchair can get on and off the bus safely, so hopefully that will happen soon.
A man also popped round to do an annual maintenance check on Mum’s telecare system that we had installed last year, making sure her pendant alarm was still functioning at various distances, and checking the responses of the carbon monoxide and smoke alarms that are also linked to the system. So it’s good to know that’s all still in working order. It certainly came in useful last year.
I also finally heard back about my claim for Carers Allowance, with a letter asking for more information about my self-employment. And that’s fine, I was expecting them to do that. But considering I’m claiming from January this year, I’m rather confused that they’ve asked for my accounting figures from the 2024-25 tax year. So I rang them up and, to their credit, after going through the menu system a friendly lady answered straight away. She couldn’t explain why they were asking for those dates, but she advised me to send what they were asking for, in case it helps them to reach a decision. So there might be a reason for it, I don’t know how they assess it. I’ve filled out the form and sent them everything I have for that year anyway, and included a letter explaining that those figures don’t reflect my current situation. So we’ll see what happens.
Conclusion
So that’s where things stand at the moment. Our little injuries aside, it has been a good month, especially as I’ve settled into my new freelance work nicely, I don’t have the pressure of a support worker role to juggle my caring duties with, and Mum now has additional transport options available for when I take her out. So I’ll keep you posted as and when there are any further developments.
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