A Slice of Bread and Butter
The voice of The Bread and Butter Thing - with stories from the frontline of the cost of living crisis from one of the UK's leading food charities.
A Slice of Bread and Butter
From Social Worker to Service User
Lorraine Smith's journey from social worker to service user reveals the profound ways life can change when health challenges arise unexpectedly. After receiving six different diagnoses in six months, this Manchester-born professional found herself navigating the very support systems she once guided others through.
The conversation takes us through Lorraine's fascinating background – born to Jamaican and South American parents, spending formative years in Barbados, and eventually training as a social worker in 2008. Her dedication to supporting vulnerable families shaped her approach to her own challenges when health conditions forced her to step back from her career. With remarkable resilience, Lorraine applied her professional skills to her personal circumstances, methodically addressing financial constraints by seeking social tariffs and community resources like The Bread and Butter Thing.
What makes Lorraine's story particularly compelling is her forward-looking mindset despite significant setbacks. She's taking business courses, considering starting a podcast, and researching disability confident employers who understand invisible disabilities. Her candidness about financial struggles – living on less than £400 monthly through Universal Credit – highlights how quickly circumstances can change and the importance of accessible support services.
The discussion broadens to examine systemic issues around disability inclusion in employment and the concept of "hidden help" – support that exists but remains difficult to access without specific knowledge or persistent advocacy. Lorraine's experience demonstrates both the value of community support networks and the need for more transparent, accessible resources for those facing challenging circumstances.
Whether you're interested in social care, disability rights, financial resilience, or simply inspired by stories of human adaptation, Lorraine's journey offers valuable insights and a powerful reminder of how community support can make all the difference when life takes unexpected turns. Listen now to hear this remarkable story of strength and transformation.
Welcome back to A Slice of Bread and Butter with Vic and Mark and me, nina, from the Bread and Butter Thing. We're a charity that delivers affordable food to the heart of struggling neighbourhoods to help nourish communities and act as a catalyst for a change.
Speaker 2:We provide access to nutritious, affordable range of food, which means that our members can save money on their shopping, feed their families healthily, as well as access other support too, right in the heart of their communities.
Speaker 1:And this is where we share a slice of life of somebody involved in bread and butter and hear about how they connect with us, and this week we're chatting to Lorraine.
Speaker 3:I'm Lorraine Smith. I was born and bred in Manchester. Parents came here from my mum's Jamaican, my dad's South American, so they came over and they met here and then I grew up in Wythenshawe. In primary school my mum decided we were going to live in Barbados.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was amazing. We were going to live in Barbados. Wow, yeah, it was amazing. At the time. It wasn't amazing because I was just thinking of all my best friends and I remember the school singing to me Whoa, you're going to Barbados. I was crying. They were all excited and I grew up, did all my secondary school there and then I came back and I went to college here. I don't know if you remember the old City College in Northernden.
Speaker 4:I do. I live very close to it.
Speaker 3:Yep, health and social care but in the meantime I was doing like care work, manchester Autistic Society. It's always been those roles. And then one day I decided right, that's it. I just applied, changed my life and I've worked and had the experience of meeting wonderful families in all circumstances, of meeting wonderful families in all circumstances, for the most part working in London. It was amazing. I probably not do training now, but I wouldn't roll back the clock.
Speaker 4:It's just shaped who I am so how long were you in London?
Speaker 3:um, I did locum so I was back and forth um. I qualified 2008 and I couldn't get a job here because my DBS took forever, my first DBS. And then I applied for two jobs in the job centre them days. I kid you not, I didn't know where it was. One was for Camden and the other one was for Barnet.
Speaker 4:Were you living in Northendon at this point?
Speaker 3:I was living in Manchester. Were you living in Manchester applying for jobs in?
Speaker 4:London.
Speaker 3:I said to the job centre can you help me with my train fare? They did Wow.
Speaker 3:Got the train down, they were like, oh, we don't normally do this. I said, well, it's a job. And I never forget my first manager. She was wonderful and, um, it just kind of shapes who you are and people think, oh, you just do the training and that's it. But it's, it's beyond that. You know, going to court, the etiquette I didn't know nothing about. You can't just get up and go toilet, you've got to have permission from the judge, you've got to walk out backwards, and all this Honestly. But more importantly, it was the people who I met, and the children and the families and the impact that you made and they made on my life. I'll never forget them.
Speaker 4:Why aren't you working now?
Speaker 3:Health conditions. From January 25 till now, I've had six diagnoses with six new different things. So I'm adjusting, learning to live with things, knowing your limitations. Yeah, and I think that's tough.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because you're ordinarily the doer.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So you kind of don't ask for the help, although it's readily there.
Speaker 4:So you lost your job, your body, the help, although it's readily there. So you lost your job, your body's letting you down.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm, my body's not keeping up with my mind.
Speaker 4:But when you lost your job, did you know where to go for support and help?
Speaker 3:I did Only because of the job that I did.
Speaker 4:Oh, because of being a social worker, right Got it. So you'd already been advising all the other families Right.
Speaker 3:So you'd already been advising all the other families. I know all the signposting. This is what I did and all of a sudden I'm using those services.
Speaker 4:You've obviously got the experience, the training, the background to be able to actually understand all that support, so the families that you were helping and supporting in your job, then how did they find it?
Speaker 3:I think for the most part, sometimes, especially when the children were in school, the parents didn't want to ask for help because school have a lot of resources, a lot and a lot of them would feel if they asked for that help it would have a negative impact on them, on the children, so that was their fear.
Speaker 4:At school.
Speaker 3:Yes. So for me it was about eliminating that fear and saying no. These services are readily available for all of us working, not working low income. They're there to be used. Some of them, it would be eviction for no fault of their own. The house may be in disrepair, mold and you know all the rest of it, so they'd have to move. They're starting all over again. They've got no furniture. This I'd go with them, and then you do that kind of, I'd say, holding hand process and then afterwards what you don't want is for families. You're the crutch. You want them to be independent and to be able to make decisions and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:And I think that's a really important point to make, isn't it? Because, I don't think families would benefit from you being the crutch either.
Speaker 3:Most definitely.
Speaker 4:So what's life like after work? What have you been up to?
Speaker 3:oh, what haven't they been up to? Well, I've done a few online courses, business wise. I've also been thinking about doing a podcast, and I'm just continuously talking about it.
Speaker 4:Very nice dress rehearsal yes.
Speaker 3:I'm loving this Good training, but what I do want to do to be able to get back into the workforce. I just want to be able to work with a company and an employee. That's disability confident, because I just don't want to have this battle where you've got these invisible disabilities and then you're not heard and listened to. So I think that's going to be my journey.
Speaker 4:And how do you find disability confident businesses?
Speaker 3:They should be registered. You should have somebody who's a disability champion in your workplace. When you're looking to go into an employment, can they make reasonable adjustments? Your desk can you have a desk assessment? There's all these things and some people they'll say, oh, I don't want to share this, or I don't want to share that, it might go against me. Well, I'm not jumping out of a plane. Plane, I'm not going to be doing a parachute, you're doing a job and this is me, and I may need to go to physio once a month, or I think it's just about being open and transparent in the beginning. I know it will be in the field of social care, caring, supporting, which is my life since you've lost your job or become unemployed.
Speaker 4:What's it been like financially?
Speaker 3:really really tough, really tough. I mean I am fortunate. When I lost my job, I already had I would say, home, if that makes sense Things that I'd share with families. I was now sharing that, with myself being more frugal, but I was quite fortunate because I had herbs and stuff. I wasn't starting from scratch Food-wise and you're getting, you know, less than 400 pound a month on universal credits, and that's your surplus. You have to crunch and you have to drill down into what you can and you can't have. It's simple as that. At one point I knew that I wouldn't be able to pay certain bills, so I started contacting them all one by one. Say, can I go on the social tariffs? So that's what I did. Example your bill could be £39 a month. It was then £5 a week. So there are services, but I just don't think people know where to go. Citizens Advice it was like another job. I'm not joking, but it was a job on myself.
Speaker 4:No, we call it life admin. It really was Life laundry. Yeah, so many forms, and if you don't have a phone or a laptop or something, you're knackered.
Speaker 3:Yeah, literally. So I'd have tick lists and lists for everything, like how I would for work.
Speaker 4:I was gonna say I feel like you. You're treating yourself as a case I did.
Speaker 3:That's what I did. Is this child in these days? Is this? You're just really lucky that you had that training right, yes, yeah, so I did food banks and I don't have no shame at the time I did, but I don't have no shame in using them now. You know I have to live. I've contacted Citizens Vice a couple of times. Bread and Butter when I need to use something, I will. You see everybody there working, not working. It's hard.
Speaker 4:So tell me about Bread and butter. Then how did you find us?
Speaker 3:well, bread and butter was on my. I lived off the high street but it was on the a6 lemon tune inspire yes, inspire, it was the old bread and butter. Before it was all done up, we used to have to go at the back in a van it's close to my heart inspire. It was the third hub we ever opened I opened that, so, oh yeah, I love it so yeah, I do remember inspire.
Speaker 3:It's a long term and I do love the community in that place as well, and then we used to go inside and then there was the cafe, was lovely, and then, obviously, now you coop outside, you get your bags, we get that problem too much, because that that's a post-covid problem yeah pre-covid.
Speaker 4:We're all in the cafe right and they were doing like a deli number shouting the numbers out. So did you volunteer or did you just come and get the bags at?
Speaker 3:the time I volunteered pre-covid when I was working. I never actually got to volunteer because we went in COVID. I used it again afterwards and then the Sainsbury's herb van. I was picking up my spices and herbs and fresh herbs and she said oh, what are you going to make? So you know, they were having a laugh because I was going oh, I'm going to make such and such with this and I'm going to make blah, blah, blah. Oh, you'd be great. I said do you want a picture?
Speaker 4:so it was just a kind of joke in front of the van, and then I was asked if I'd be happy to do a podcast. That's what I'm saying. The next thing.
Speaker 3:You know you're doing a podcast. Be famous. I don't know about the famous, but yeah.
Speaker 4:Lorraine was really, really interesting for me because when I went to see Lorraine she was in social housing that was in the middle of some really swanky developments in Ancoats in Manchester and I struggled to find Lorraine at first because the social housing blended in so well. So that was a really good thing for me that you couldn't distinguish between the social housing and the development that was going on around them. So that was great. She was just amazing. There's a different breed of people that seem to be good at caring. Carers are just these unbelievable people that just go out of the way to do everything they can to help others, and she was just another one of those yeah, we have a lot of those in our members, don't we?
Speaker 1:yeah, the people I've met so far in this role just amaze me with just how much they do for their communities and how much they do day to day, working full time, looking after their family and then also caring for others.
Speaker 4:It's amazing yeah, lorraine's had to really re-evaluate everything that she does because all the diagnoses that she's had that have physically challenged what she can and can't do. And she can't, she can't work full-time anymore. She's trying to do other things. She's even trying to set up a podcast, so this will be interesting as well watch out, watch out, watch out Lorraine interesting as well.
Speaker 4:Watch out, watch out, watch out, lorraine. But when you, you're so used to being able to care for people and that's what kind of gets you out of bed in the morning, and then suddenly you can't. There's all the financial stuff as well, but the very fact that you actually have to just stop doing what you live for that's something that you've got to take time and adjust to.
Speaker 1:I think that's one of the things that you notice, though, with people that care for others is they often forget to care for themselves. It sounds like she needs to look after herself for for once, and which must be really hard for her, because she doesn't want to feel like a burden, especially with getting six diagnoses in what?
Speaker 2:six months? Yeah, I mean, that is a lot for anybody to adjust to and accept. I think it's a huge change of life, both tangibly and then emotionally, probably for her and financially, because now she's on less than 400 quid a week on universal credit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she's quite savvy, so she'll have been able to get on that and sort what she needed out as soon as possible, because she's got the experience of that. But lots of our members wouldn't know where to start and then that would be a bigger delay perhaps. So, yes, it's not enough money, but then it's also tricky to access if you don't know how to navigate the systems.
Speaker 4:So one of the things that Lorraine brought up as well that made me think that we probably haven't covered that much on this podcast yet either she's looking for disability-confident employment. That's not easy to find. Surprisingly, that is still a thing. Her words not mine to me was it's still expensive for an employer to be able to do that. There's not enough government support, should we say, to get people that have disabilities into work successfully. So, vic, you know I like a curveball so.
Speaker 2:Have you come across this much in your former life? In my former life I have. Yeah. So there is a program and I was literally just looking it up. Then there's a program called Access to Work and employers can so say someone needs a special chair or needs some different, reasonable adjustments that's going to cost the employer. They can apply to get the money back from DWP, from the Department of Work and Pensions, to be able to employ someone. But like all government schemes from my old experience they may have improved it. It was slow, tricky and just a bit opaque, especially if you're a small employer and you've not got an HR department and you've only got one employee that might need this. It's like you know, you're kind of working through the fog and that takes time. So it's almost prohibitive because it just feels a bit too hard.
Speaker 4:So is it just like so many things that we find for working families? Actually, it's hidden help again and it's there, but you've got to go looking for it and there's no support service, shall we say, to help you with it.
Speaker 2:No, so I remember years ago one of the employers that I worked with wanted to buy someone a special chair. They were on a six-month government supported contract, like ie, through a government scheme, and they bought the chair and then put the invoice into the access to work scheme and it took the full six months for them to get the money back for the chair. That's just nuts, isn't it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, by which time the employee is gone, you know. So it puts them off doing it again, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's one example. So I don't want that to be kind of like a government bashing, but they make it too hard.
Speaker 4:it's just not easy because you were thinking about chairs and things. I was immediately thinking about wheelchair access and ramps and making sure that everything's on one level and all the rest of it and the door frames are wide enough and all that sort of stuff, because that's expensive even being able to get to work.
Speaker 1:You know there's constantly stories in the press about how people that have been trying to use trains or use buses to get to work have been left waiting for accessibility help. Is it that we make it more?
Speaker 4:there's more access for working from home for certain roles yeah, it's a good shout, it's really interesting in it, because you've made me think about one of our old podcasters, james and braith, and if you've not listened to it, go back and listen to it. And I'm not just saying that to you, nina, I'm saying that to everybody, because it was a beautiful one.
Speaker 4:I love james and braith. So james is braith's dad and braith has all sorts of degenerative disabilities, is in a wheelchair, he has a medical support dog and they really have to plan a day out if they go out anywhere and they they said it themselves. You know it could take two or three buses if they go at the wrong time, to actually get on a bus that will allow the wheelchair on, because there's too many push chairs on it and then that's another cost on top, isn't it All those travel fees?
Speaker 1:Yeah?
Speaker 4:And carers don't travel free, even though his dad's a carer in Greater Manchester or in Trafford particularly. I think he was saying carers don't travel free on public transport.
Speaker 1:That just seems like a massive oversight. Doesn't make sense, does it At all?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 4:But this is the thing, going back to Lorraine Lorraine's, on a journey themselves trying to actually understand and navigate what a disability confident employer will look like, and I guess it must be the big, bigger companies that would be able to afford this with having the departments in place, like you were saying earlier, vic, having an. Hr department, etc. That it's just another thing that makes life very difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the job centre has a whole toolkit on how to become disability confident. But it's about that employer being able to invest the time to develop in that area and put extra funds into doing that. And especially when businesses are under pressure for NI and things like that, I wonder whether it's a nice to have.
Speaker 4:It shouldn't be a nice to have, I'm not saying that but whether it's one of those things that falls to the bottom of the pile because employers are just trying to keep afloat anyway and I suppose it's one of those things you just made me reflect, because as soon as you said that, I went back through my career of far too many years and just thought to myself you know, never once have I actually gone to the job center to ask for help and advice about recruitment or how to actually get somebody on board with needs. So what are the job centre doing? Or are they just sat there waiting for people to actually come and realise that they know this stuff?
Speaker 2:Love this. I was chatting to a civil servant who works for the Department of Work and Pensions the other day and we were talking just about that and saying that lots of people don't think about going into the job centre to work out what benefits they're entitled to. And why did it change its name from the benefits agency to the job centre? And does that mean that people just think if you're not looking for a job, you're not allowed in there? Because that's the criteria and there would never be a switch back to the benefits agency because many governments, not just this current government, believe that work is the way out of poverty and to be able to afford. We think perhaps differently, based on our membership base, but they would never go back to the benefits agency because the optics on that look like a backwards step. So it's how does the job center get out more into the community Job center? Guys, if you want to come to our hubs, you're more than welcome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm just trying to see stuff on social. You know, are they out there? Are they promoting this stuff? And it's quite hard for me to find if they are out there. So make that more available, please.
Speaker 4:Nina, welcome to our world. We keep saying that all this help is hidden. Hidden help doesn't help and and that's the truth of it. Right, they're not engaging with employers, they're not engaging with people that want to work, and this is the real challenge. The onus is on the recipient of the funding or the support, and yet yet I feel there should be a civic duty of government to actually go out there and say all of this is available, come and get it.
Speaker 2:Can I bring it back to Lorraine?
Speaker 4:Please do, because I can feel my soapbox is getting bigger.
Speaker 2:Because what really impressed me around Lorraine is, despite having a few kicks in the teeth over the last six months, in terms of all of that health issues and then how it's impacted her life she's still really future focused. So she's still wanting to do a business course, do a podcast. She's looking into disability. Confident employers like. The fight within her is alive and it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:That's amazing yeah, so I'm doing my thinking on the podcast now, but I think, nina, we should reach out to her and actually get her to do some of the intros and outros with us yeah, sounds like a great idea so if you'd like to know more about the bread and butter thing and what we get up to, you can find us at Team TBBT on Instagram, tiktok, twitter, linkedin or online at breadandbutterthingorg, and, if you have, any feedback or thoughts on the podcast or would like to come and be one of our guests?
Speaker 1:drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutterthingorg.
Speaker 2:Lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs, so if you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub on the become a member page of the website and please do all those things that podcast asks you to do.
Speaker 4:Like us, subscribe, leave us a review, share us with your friends, chat about us on social you know, I really like that at the end because you actually looked sincere when you were doing that. That plea for socials. Come on, guys please.
