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Anonymous100305
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Thumbs up May 05, 2014 at 03:49 PM
 
Hello Quebec: Okay, well... back when I was still a real person, I was a vocational rehabilitation counselor. So this is sort-of up my alley. First of all, your concern with regard to your disability status is a real one. Did you have an attorney during the application / certification process? If so, I would discuss this with that person. If not, then you might consider consulting another attorney who specializes in disability benefits. Chances are you can work up to a certain number of hours for a certain period of time before you'd lose your benefits. But don't go into this on supposition. Get the facts from someone who knows.

It is certainly understandable that you are uncertain with regard to what type of job you would want & what you could tolerate. My first suggestion would be to do some volunteer work. Perhaps start out with one thing, maybe 10 or 12 hours a week. See how it goes. Once you get comfortable, you could consider adding a second volunteer job for a similar number of hours per week. Or, if things are going well, perhaps you could, at that point consider a part-time job. The key here is to ease into this. Try a few different things a few hours per week. Get to know today's job market. It is different than it used to be. Look around at the various types of jobs people are doing & think about how you might fit in doing that type of work. Talk with different people you meet about the types of jobs they do & what they like & don't like about them.

I haven't looked, but I would guess there are some on-line job-preferences tests you could take for free that might begin to give you an idea of what you'd like to do. If you live close to a major metropolitan area (Quebec?) there are, no doubt, vocational counseling services available. Some may be available at little or no cost to individuals who are low income. There may also be some government-funded vocational rehabilitation services that would be available to you since you're on disability. I'd be a bit cautious about this, though. These people are charged with getting individuals who are not employed & on disability off of the disability rolls. This may, in fact, be your ultimate goal. But it may not be what you're ready for quite yet. Presumably there is also some type of government funded "Job Service" office near you. You can, when you're ready, also register there. No doubt job openings in your area are also listed on-line somewhere. Looking through these regularly will give you an idea of what types of jobs are typically available in your area.

Okay... that's enough for now. Feel free to message me if I can be of any assistance. One other thing: there is an organization called: "JIST". They publish excellent job seeking skills training materials. I would recommend that you try to get ahold of some of this. I frequently see JIST materials for sale at our local "Half Priced Books" stores. And, speaking of job seeking skills training, you're in all likelihood going to need some. When you are ready to begin looking for a job, you're going to face obstacles related not only to your disability, but also your length of unemployment and your age. Nowadays employers in most countries in our "post-industrialized" world are barred by law from discriminating based on race, age or disability status. However, we all know it happens every minute of every day. So you'll need to learn how to lessen the impact of these considerations. I would presume that there will be some job seeking skills training classes available in your area. Vocational / technical colleges often offer these as do "Job Service" type offices. Best wishes...
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Thanks for this!
Quebec01