Step up to Social Work: Advice from current or previous students

Hi all, I'm hoping some of you can give me some advice. I studied Joint Honours Childhood Studies with Guidance and Counselling and I absolutley loved every second of my degree. I'm currently a careers adviser and I really like my job and love the people I work with but can't help feeling that I'm not working to my full potential. What I really want to do is help and effect change in people's lives who are most vulnerable and in need and while I was giving careers advice I narrowed it down to two careers either a form of counselling or social work. I have tried every trick in the book to make a decision and because the deadline for step up to social work was coming up I just applied thinking I don't want to miss the deadline and have the decison taken out of my hands. I've now been invited to the assessment centre and I'm really pleased but worried too.

The trouble is that I don't think I will do well in the interview unless I can show genuine passion and dedication to social work. My main concern that has me doubting if its the right path for me is that after my degree I did teacher training and the workload at home to the point where I was sacrificing relationships and sleep and health ruined me. I ended up feeling depressed and useless and incompetent and it took me a long time to build myself up again after that experience. I don't think I'm capable of going through a similar experience, so other than studying for the postgraduate, how much of the actual work is done outside of working hours? Can you still have a full life outside of work while doing this course?

I'm also trying to work out if I can afford my bills on this course so if anyone can also tell me if the funding is tax free or not that will help massively.

If anyone can help me out I would be so grateful, thanks in advance.