I used to be part of the working class. Now I’m part of the working poor

theguardian.com:

I come from a long line of battlers who toiled away all their lives and gave everything they had to raise their families. Yet today, having received an eviction notice on my rental property, I’m part of the largest growing demographic in the poverty cycle; women over 50. So how did I end up going from working class to broke and soon to be homeless?

Sixteen years ago, on my way to a protest meeting about teaching award negotiations, I slipped and badly broke my leg. The teachers’ union ended up paying my wage when I very quickly ran out of sick leave and intervened on my behalf when school management tried to push me into doing more tasks on my very long re-entry back into the workforce, despite being in a wheelchair and having a nurse come to school daily to change my intravenous drip.

I looked for other work and ended up accepting a job in Turkey, teaching English at an international school. I worked in overseas countries for nearly a decade, until more ill-health forced my return to Australia.

Since coming home in 2017, I have applied for over 20 jobs a month to gain a lousy $320 a week on unemployment benefits. Struggling to survive on below poverty line payments while receiving hundreds of rejection emails is a real slap in the face.

I had to move in with my pensioner father to be able to afford to live.

As devastating as the first year of the pandemic was, the bonus Centrelink payment helped me buy essentials like new shoes, underwear, medication and a wheelchair, as well as topping up the pantry with staples.

But kowtowing to job providers nearly broke me. Most were box-tickers who just fed you through the system to get their payments, but one who was particularly vile made my life a misery. Every fortnightly visit