Workplace Bullying, Confidentiality leaks and Redundancy

I am in need of a little advice.

I was made redundant at the start of this year, I have tried to do my own thing by the way of Freelancing and also searching for suitable jobs however for one reason or another this hasn’t worked out.

Now the months previously to me being made redundant I was the victim of bullying and mobbing at work which came out of the blue, being a company of gossip and little confidentiality even amongst bosses things quickly spiraled out of control and pretty much the whole company jumped on the bullying band wagon. Therefore I knew I was going to be made redundant once it was announced.This left me feeling devastated at the time.

I think much of the reason I have had problems trying to search for further work is my motivation, the bullying was hard to swallow and has also left me with depression which I have been battling with all year, Meditation a CBT course and natural remedies have helped although I have stayed away from anti depressants.

Now here is the difficult part that has hit me hard this week, it has only come to my attention that there maybe a few other scenario’s working against me.
About 3 months ago I signed on for redundancy benefits (JSA), the reason I didn’t do so any earlier was because I didn’t realize I was even entitled to it because I have a lot of money in savings. However I was informed by the DWP that in fact I was entitled and also to National Insurance contributions for my pension. So I started signing on, after all I was entitled to it.

After realizing whilst job hunting that a lot of red hot leads were suddenly going stone cold I decided to ask the DWP whether they contact anyone regarding my JSA and it turns out they contacted my previous company to verify my redundancy. Now this has rang alarm bells with me and it all makes sense as I had a few strange emails from ex colleagues around that time. As mentioned the company were bullying me, not the most confidential and turns out me being on JSA has spread like wildfire through the company and probably my city as my profession is small.

All this of course must be damaging my reputation and career which is incredibly unfair and breaches confidentiality as well as giving my self esteem and mental health another major hit. I don’t deserve this!

I need to repair my reputation, self esteem and motivation. I’m not sure whether to write and let me previous company know my views or whether I will be stoking the fire. After all they bullied me whilst there and now they wont even leave me alone since they made me redundant. I need to get out of this situation and move forward in life.

Thank You.