BOARDING my yacht which is moored on the 5-star Ocean Village Marina in Southampton, I stop for a second to take it all in.
The smiles from my friend who I’m treating tonight, the bottle of bubbly waiting to be popped and the immaculate white leather interiors of this beautifully-finished berth.
Stood atop the yacht, it felt hard to believe the previous month I’d been fired from a job working for a small magazine and had literally been escorted off site.
And now on my mini-break, and unemployed, things were certainly looking up.
For starters we drank flutes of Prosecco, just the one bottle. Each.
We sipped on our drinks al-fresco on the outside decking area. There was good conversations to have here punctuated by the bubbles of our drinks and the crisp air of the 5-star marina.
We later dipped inside the white cabin for Mediterranean sharing platters with just a drizzle of olive oil.
I felt more like royalty than an unemployed job seeker – but as I returned home and back to reality, I had no plans to seek out a job at all.
I did some simple maths and worked out I was better off claiming an out of work benefits for people too unwell to work, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and also Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
I was entitled to all of these as a person with psychosis and, at the time, schizophrenia and it put me in a far better financial position than my £16k a year salary – so much so I was funding luxury yacht holidays.
Stress can be a factor in relapse with psychosis and my doctor had already mentioned he felt work was too much for me and offered me a sick note.
I’d been to see him a few months before because I always overslept and got paranoid with office politics.
I’d had unpaid sick days, around three a month, which meant my monthly income was only around £900.
My on-site expenses had soared in my final weeks working, too – the lunches with colleagues and Cafe Nero lattes all added up.
I was also taking £30 taxis into work as my medication made me so tired I would inevitably miss the bus more often than not, leaving me slipping into my overdraft every month, after rent and bills.
On the other hand the £440 a month Employment and Support Allowance, together with £200 Disability Living Allowance and £370 rent paid with housing benefit I could not only afford my tiny boat for two of us tonight – newly unemployed I had the time for it now, too.
I have lost two close, childhood friends and been called a loser, leech, parasite and scrounger en-mass, online
Erica Cartier
The one big drawback to claiming benefits is the reaction from other people.
I have lost two close, childhood friends and been called a loser, leech, parasite and scrounger en-masse, online.
Honestly, being open about my benefits on social media has seen me receive so much hate – you’d think I’d committed a heinous crime rather than have a disability.
It’s no wonder I’m paranoid.
But my doctor, psychiatrist and the State are big enough to recognise I’m unfit for work.
So, why can’t everyone?
It’s like as soon as I entered the benefits system friends decided I was a ‘lost cause’ and they severed ties with me even though nothing about me had changed. It has felt like daylight snobbery.
These often public reactions are a barrier for others with disabilities to claim what they’re entitled too. Some prefer to live in poverty or off mum and dad than claim the benefits they’re entitled to.
Being fired from my last full-time role during psychosis wasn’t easy, but I put in my claims for benefits and they were all successful.
I felt like an overnight success and rich all of a sudden as I now got over £1,000 a month in benefits and without the on-site expenses.
And when my psychosis lifted after a week off work rather than look for another job I booked the yacht break for a friend’s birthday.
So here we were living the high-life – it was the tiniest yacht we’d ever seen and extremely cosy but somehow two queen sized beds fit under the canopy – one each.
These yachts are expensive but small and on-budget especially for one-night stays like ours. I only paid £105, and it was cheaper than many 4-star hotels in the area.
There’s plenty to choose from around the UK coasts too – all mini-yachts for mini benefits budgets like mine.
I felt like an overnight success and rich all of a sudden as I now got over £1,000 a month in benefits
Erica Cartier
Look, we were never going to spot Phillip Green or Kate Moss in Southampton – but it was nice, it was quiet, just the gentle waves made by the breeze caressing our home for the night.
As our yacht is self-catering, too, we could save on meals out and have them on the yacht instead.
The most expensive part of the trip was the train fare from Birmingham to Southampton which cost about the same as the boat. Food and drink was all under £30 for two and we even got some bacon for baps in the morning.
It’s always worth seeing how cheap you can get things before deciding it’s out of budget.
