When Thomas lost his full-time grounds maintenance job two years ago, he says it was “the end of the world”. Now his short-term job as a parks gardener has gone as part of the city council’s 28 per cent budget cuts. He is searching for work and volunteering weekly with his old employers, doing his old job for free, because he enjoys it and wants to be the first back in if there’s an opening. His eldest children, aged 21 and 23, haven’t found work since they left school at 16. In an area of high unemployment, Thomas says, “It’s normal for their generation. It’s like that for every family around here. Very few of their kids have got jobs.” Thomas is living below the poverty line, with £7.30 to last him for the next ten days, until his benefits are paid again. He says he sometimes feels wobbly when he does the 45-minute walk to the job centre, because he hasn’t eaten enough. “Sometimes,” he says, “I’ve had to stop because I’ve had the shakes, dizzy.”