Staff at The Yorkshire Job Centre fears funding drug users
Staff member at The Yorkshire Job Centre admits she fears making recovering drug addicts’ situations ‘completely worse by funding their lifestyle’
- Pip, from Leeds, works with Social Justice Team in Southern House Job Centre
- Appeared in Channel 4’s Yorkshire Job Centre and tried to help ex-addict Wayne
- Pip assisted Wayne by linking him to a charity who could furnish his empty home
- Said he was overjoyed with new belongings including bed, cooker and a bike
- Weeks later, Pip was shocked when she learned the bike was missing from home
- Said her ‘automatic thought’ was ‘he’s sold it and he’s back on’ drugs
- Was left wondering: ‘Have I just made his situation worse by funding his lifestyle’
A staff member who appeared on The Yorkshire Job Centre last night said she feared she was funding the lifestyle of drug users and is often scared of clients ‘self sabotaging’.
Pip, from Leeds, works for the Social Justice team at the Southern House Job Centre and appeared on the Channel 4 programme on Tuesday night as she sought to help ex-addict Wayne, 40.
The recovering drug addict had recently been released from prison and Pip helped him by linking him up with a charity which could furnish his empty flat where he lived without a bed, cooker or fridge.
But Pip was left stunned when she learned a bike donated to Wayne by a charity had gone missing.
Staff member Pip who appeared on The Yorkshire Job Centre last night said she feared she was funding the lifestyle of drug users and is often scared of clients ‘self sabotaging’
Pip, from Leeds, works for the Social Justice team at the Southern House Job Centre and appeared on the Channel 4 programme on Tuesday night as she sought to help ex-addict Wayne (pictured), 40
She said: ‘The automatic thought goes, “Oh my god he’s sold it and he’s back on”.
‘There was a real sinking feeling. There’s always that thought in your mind: “Have I just made his situation worse by funding his lifestyle and by taking from a charity where someone else could have benefited from it?”.’
Manager of the social justice team, Becky, explained: ‘It is very challenging, never the same, it’s not for us to judge.
‘It’s the fact, they are where they are and we have to try to support them as much as we can to turn their lives around.’
Pip said she had initially felt ‘naiive’ about people with criminal records, and admitted to finding clients intimidating.
She met with Wayne who had recently been released from prison after serving nine months for theft.
Pip was left stunned when she learned a bike donated to Wayne had gone missing
Viewers said they were rooting for Wayne and hoped that he made the most of the second chance he’s been given
She said she wanted to find out a little bit about Wayne, who said he started carrying out petty thefts in order to supplement his methadone and crack addiction.
He explained: ‘I’m not proud of it like, but it is what it is.’
He added that living in the council flat where he’s been for the last four years had become challenging, saying: ‘I’ve got no cooking facilities, no fridge, no cooker, no carpets. It is quite bare.
‘I’ve got no bed, it’s just a mattress on an old camp frame. I’ve got nothing.’
Pip said that before she could help him seek work, she needed to help him set up a proper home, telling the camera: ‘Some people would say “Bloody smack head, gets this, gets this.” Does he not deserve more than a mattress on the floor?
‘Did you want him in the gutter? Would that be more appropriate for you?’
Pip said that before she could help him seek work, she needed to help him set up a proper home, telling the camera: ‘Some people would say “bloody smack head, gets this, gets this.” Does he not deserve more than a mattress on the floor?. Pictured: Wayne’s flat before it was re-furnished
Pip was with him when Wayne got a new furniture, a washing machine, fridge and even a bike
‘I suppose yes, it would be easier to focus on people who are ready but they don’t need my help.’
She added: ‘How do we know that if we weren’t in that situation we would be strong enough to stop that circle?
‘I couldn’t guarantee it with me and I couldn’t guarantee it with a lot of people.’
She added: ‘I think it’s really important that everyone gets a second chance. Maybe not a third, fourth, fifth but a second.’
Pip began working with a local charity who provide donated furniture and goods, and told Wayne they had found him a washing machine, bed, fridge and even a bike.
Pip began working with a local charity who provide donated furniture and goods, and told Wayne they had found him a washing machine, bed, fridge and even a bike
Wayne looked transformed when he was seen in his flat with his new belongings
Pip was in tears as Wayne picked up the donated furniture and pieces, as he said: ‘This is well more than I expected. I wasn’t expecting this.’
He said: ‘It’s all going to get used. I need to get on the right side of life.
‘I’m trying to kick the habit of both prison and drugs. You been in for that long as I was, it’s ingrained in you.
‘But maybe if I got an opportunity, they’d be able to see I’m not just an ex criminal or an ex addict.’
Viewers on social media were generally supportive of Wayne after his bike went missing
Meanwhile Pip said she’d been moved by his reaction, saying: ‘His face, he was like a kid again. If you’re in that position, choosing life. Life is hard. It’s really hard at times.
‘So what would you rather choose something easy that blocks your mind out and you’ve got no worries or go down the hard route and “live a normal life”?’
Months on, Wayne said he had sorted out his flat and decorated with cushions and curtains, calling it ‘nice and homely.’
Pip said: ‘The issue is, when you’ve got everything on a plate for you. You can either go that way or that way.
Wayne insisted that he had lent the bike to a family member, saying that he hadn’t sold it
‘Wayne has said in the past where he has got to stages before where he’s knackered it all up for the sake of a hit and then it’s right back down again.’
And it’s not long before Pip receives a devastating phone call from the charity who informed her that Wayne’s bike has disappeared.
She said she had a ‘real sinking feeling’, adding: ‘With any kind of addiction, a person’s natural reaction is to sabotage something when it gets too much.
‘That’s the first point when I started to worry about Wayne that maybe he is self sabotaging things.’
She said: ‘The whole point is that…give someone an opportunity to be trusted and keep trusting them until they prove you wrong. So we’ll wait and see.’
Pip went to speak to Wayne face-to-face to find out what as happened to his missing bike and asked him directly about it.
Pip said: ‘I do believe him. I’ve got no reason not to believe him. Wayne still gets tested every week for his heroin’
But he insisted that he had lent the bike to a family member, saying that he hadn’t sold it.
Pip said: ‘I do believe him. I’ve got no reason not to believe him. Wayne still gets tested every week for his heroin.’
Meanwhile Wayne said the accusation ‘p***** him off’, saying: ‘You’re trying to live a normal life, sometimes you think why bother? There’s not many people who’ll give you the opportunity or time of day.’
Pip met with Wayne again, and with his home life more settled she explained she has been working to get him back into employment.
She said she managed to get him some experience in the kitchen of a local Hilton hotel, with Wayne saying he was ‘buzzing’.
She said: ‘I think this is a whole new life for Wayne, the only limit for Wayne is Wayne himself.’
Wayne added: ‘It would be nice to work and to know I’ve earned it. I can work , I can invest time positively and be a productive member of society.’
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