Mr. Darren Reid:

I have been out of employment for ten years, ever since I graduated from college. I am a qualified social care worker but I have never been able to get a position in that field. I have tried to get work in other fields but at every turn I have been told the employer did not have the capacity to offer me employment at that time. I am either not qualified enough or the technology is not available. Whenever I tell them about it, they say they cannot afford to get the technology. On one occasion they said the technology does not exist. I told them it did but they would not do the work to find it. They were not aware of any avenue they could go down. I have been offered a position in the Civil Service, for which I had to go through two years of competition. It is not the avenue down which I wanted to go but it is a job I am now able and willing to do, because I want to work and to contribute to society. It has been seven months since I was offered the position and I am still waiting to start, because of clearance and such issues. When I am given a start date, I will have to wait for a further period before they put the technology in place. It is not ideal and employers need to be aware of what is available for them to do. The Government needs to get the word out that what has been done so far is not acceptable. We want to work but 75% of us do not. We are sitting around wasting taxpayers' money, not ours. I am very fortunate to live at home with my parents, though I do not want to do that. I want to be on my own but I cannot be. Please sort this out - members have the opportunity to do so.