Job Centre Plus is not working
Keith Parkins | 17.08.2009 14:33 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements
Job Centres do little to help the unemployed other than treat them to degrading and humiliating treatment.
Broadcast Sunday night on BBC Radio 4 (a repeat from You and Yours the previous week), an excellent Face the Facts programme by John Waite on the failings of Job Centre Plus to help the unemployed, but excellent as the programme was, the situation at Job Centre Plus is far worse than he described, he merely exposed the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m0k5f
According to the programme, Personal Advisers (ie the front-line staff who sign you on) are there to help the unemployed. If they are, then they have not yet got the message.
It is a sick joke to say the Personal Adviser is there to help the unemployed. I do not think anyone who is unemployed would recognise that statement, certainly no one who I have spoken to. This would also apply to New Deal Advisers.
The interview is to find ways to stop benefit, nothing else. No help is provided. If you ask for help, you do not get it. Some advisers try to help, they are the exception not the norm. Most are indifferent. Too many are pathetic sick bastards who take a perverse delight in stopping benefits, a highlight of their day.
I have had my benefits repeatedly stopped for no apparent reason. I am not even told. The first I know is when my money stops. I then have to chase the Job Centre to try and learn what is going on. You will then receive a four page letter, mainly waffle, tells you that you can appeal, but no explanation is given of the reasons for stopping benefit, this you then have to ask for. It will then, after much stress, be reinstated. No explanation, no apology, is ever given. If you go to Tribunal you win.
Seek help, it is not given. Ask for problems with a claim to be resolved, they refuse. You are instead referred to an 0845 number which they know you will not be able to get through. If you do get through, you are put on hold for anything up to an hour, often you are cut off, and have to start all over again. When you do eventually get through, you find the problem is with the Job Centre and you have gone full circle.
Unemployed will be told to apply for jobs that do not match their background or experience, this is especially true for professionals or anyone with qualifications (which the staff do not understand, if they did, they would not be working in a Job Centre). The job description you are given will say little about the job, never enough to make a sensible application. One had the job title, nothing else. Another said technical support, but failed to say technical support for what.
You are told to apply for x number of jobs a week. Whether there are x number of jobs to apply for or more importantly x number of jobs for which you would be qualified or have the relevant experience is deemed irrelevant.
Periodically you will be pulled in for New Deal. This is a complete waste of time. Ask what am I getting out of this, and you will be ignored. You are there to answer their questions, not to ask questions. All what takes place is a mindless box-ticking exercise, and if you refuse to jump through their hoops, benefit will be stopped.
Asked what qualifications the New Deal Adviser has, she refused to answer the question. But how can she advise if not qualified to advise, refuses to even answer the question?
Complaints are ignored, never recorded.
But it gets worse. Unemployed are sent on training courses run by companies like Working Links, A4E and CDG (Careers Development Group). These are an appalling waste of public funds. For any professional or qualified person they are a de-skilling exercise and amount to humiliating and degrading treatment, a clear breach of the Human Rights Act.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Careers+Development+Group%22+CDG+site%3Awww.indymedia.org.uk&btnG=Search&meta=
At CDG unemployed sit around all day bored witless. Bullying is institutionalised. No access to local newspapers, trade journals, national papers, thus worse off than a trip to a local library. Some people have been sent to CDG at least three times!
Job Centre Plus has been asked to investigate CDG for running what amounts to little more than fraud on the public purse. Job Centre Plus know what is going on, but prefer to turn a blind eye.
On the other hand, these bloodsucking leaches on the public purse are quick of the mark to try to shut down critical comment and will quite happily fabricate false allegation to get 'troublemakers' kicked off their scam training courses. CDG threatened to sanction anyone reading critical comment on Indymedia UK.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/435064.html?c=on
The Face the Fact programme referred to the stress of the Job Centre advisers, how they go home in tears. What of the stress on claimants, many who are driven to point of suicide, many who are driven off the unemployment register because they cannot handle the strain of signing on, which no doubt is the intention. Benefits may get stopped, but bills do not stop dropping through the letterbox.
The Minister interviewed on the programme clearly did not have a clue what happens at Job Centres, how the unemployed are treated as though they are garbage.
websites
http://newdealscandal.wordpress.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m0k5f According to the programme, Personal Advisers (ie the front-line staff who sign you on) are there to help the unemployed. If they are, then they have not yet got the message.
It is a sick joke to say the Personal Adviser is there to help the unemployed. I do not think anyone who is unemployed would recognise that statement, certainly no one who I have spoken to. This would also apply to New Deal Advisers.
The interview is to find ways to stop benefit, nothing else. No help is provided. If you ask for help, you do not get it. Some advisers try to help, they are the exception not the norm. Most are indifferent. Too many are pathetic sick bastards who take a perverse delight in stopping benefits, a highlight of their day.
I have had my benefits repeatedly stopped for no apparent reason. I am not even told. The first I know is when my money stops. I then have to chase the Job Centre to try and learn what is going on. You will then receive a four page letter, mainly waffle, tells you that you can appeal, but no explanation is given of the reasons for stopping benefit, this you then have to ask for. It will then, after much stress, be reinstated. No explanation, no apology, is ever given. If you go to Tribunal you win.
Seek help, it is not given. Ask for problems with a claim to be resolved, they refuse. You are instead referred to an 0845 number which they know you will not be able to get through. If you do get through, you are put on hold for anything up to an hour, often you are cut off, and have to start all over again. When you do eventually get through, you find the problem is with the Job Centre and you have gone full circle.
Unemployed will be told to apply for jobs that do not match their background or experience, this is especially true for professionals or anyone with qualifications (which the staff do not understand, if they did, they would not be working in a Job Centre). The job description you are given will say little about the job, never enough to make a sensible application. One had the job title, nothing else. Another said technical support, but failed to say technical support for what.
You are told to apply for x number of jobs a week. Whether there are x number of jobs to apply for or more importantly x number of jobs for which you would be qualified or have the relevant experience is deemed irrelevant.
Periodically you will be pulled in for New Deal. This is a complete waste of time. Ask what am I getting out of this, and you will be ignored. You are there to answer their questions, not to ask questions. All what takes place is a mindless box-ticking exercise, and if you refuse to jump through their hoops, benefit will be stopped.
Asked what qualifications the New Deal Adviser has, she refused to answer the question. But how can she advise if not qualified to advise, refuses to even answer the question?
Complaints are ignored, never recorded.
But it gets worse. Unemployed are sent on training courses run by companies like Working Links, A4E and CDG (Careers Development Group). These are an appalling waste of public funds. For any professional or qualified person they are a de-skilling exercise and amount to humiliating and degrading treatment, a clear breach of the Human Rights Act.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Careers+Development+Group%22+CDG+site%3Awww.indymedia.org.uk&btnG=Search&meta= At CDG unemployed sit around all day bored witless. Bullying is institutionalised. No access to local newspapers, trade journals, national papers, thus worse off than a trip to a local library. Some people have been sent to CDG at least three times!
Job Centre Plus has been asked to investigate CDG for running what amounts to little more than fraud on the public purse. Job Centre Plus know what is going on, but prefer to turn a blind eye.
On the other hand, these bloodsucking leaches on the public purse are quick of the mark to try to shut down critical comment and will quite happily fabricate false allegation to get 'troublemakers' kicked off their scam training courses. CDG threatened to sanction anyone reading critical comment on Indymedia UK.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/435064.html?c=on The Face the Fact programme referred to the stress of the Job Centre advisers, how they go home in tears. What of the stress on claimants, many who are driven to point of suicide, many who are driven off the unemployment register because they cannot handle the strain of signing on, which no doubt is the intention. Benefits may get stopped, but bills do not stop dropping through the letterbox.
The Minister interviewed on the programme clearly did not have a clue what happens at Job Centres, how the unemployed are treated as though they are garbage.
websites
http://newdealscandal.wordpress.com/
Keith Parkins
Homepage:
http://newdealscandal.wordpress.com/
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
related blog
17.08.2009 16:20
"share our gripes and all the nonsense we get at the Jobcentre. With record unemployment people all around the country are dealing with the same shit and getting treated badly on a daily basis. This is a place we can share our stories, work out ways to support, defend one another and develop a united voice."
LCAPer
for the good of the labour party
18.08.2009 21:16
Normally, i'm not too tolerant of people who claim they cant find a job. I always think life is what you make it, you adapt/change yourself to fit the market. I've been left with completely unwanted skills but rather than moan about 'no jobs', .... i looked at jobs that were being advertised and learnt the skills there was a shortage of. Took a while but is pretty foolproof
Everything you say about the job centers, the system and its advisors - I completely believe. Anything where the government is involved is a disaster (the NHS is my personal classic for blatant lying. Did you know that once you make an official complaint against the NHS you are no longer allowed help from their support advisers... b****s). I can only dispair what it must be like.... you've got bills, your trying to find a job, your rundown and beat up about it and then you've got to deal with mindless beaurocracy and jumping through pointless waste-of-time hoops so that Labour's figures look good on the reports.
The system is set as it is to achieve one single objective..... They are only interested in generating good figures to assist in the survival of Labour as the ruling party. Everything labour does is for the "good of the party". The country and the people comes a clear 2nd.
Remember that letter from all the MPs to Gordon Brown asking him to resign.
".....However we are writing now because we believe that in the current political situation, you can best serve the Labour Party and the country by stepping down as party leader and prime minister....."
Notice how labour party comes before the country because it is more important?
Stuff them. Don't give up. Keep hammering out thoses CVs. The more shit you throw against the wall, the more chance some of it will stick. Look at retraining if possible to something there is a shortage of people for.
You can't rely on Labour helping you so you are on your own. Once you accept that you can move forward without letting them f*** you up so much. Don't take anyone's advice who is paid to advise. Its not rocket science, they will just end up wasting your time. When you put your mind to it, you'll realise you are 10 times smarter than them because you actually give a shit about getting a job where they just spend their time massaging the figures to make Labour look good.
tex
Tex
19.08.2009 14:58
@narchist
never employ an anarchist
19.08.2009 21:07
Madman
Work or starve
20.08.2009 13:55
There is a new scheme/'interpretation-of-the-rules' that is being rolled out in offices, where the dole officer will nominate the least suitable jobs each week and if you don't apply, interview and accept then you're penniless for six months. It's a way to boost their metrics (no. of clients applying for each job) while cutting claimant numbers.
For people who've never claimed the difference is perhaps subtle but this the biggest change since New Deal. If you've never claimed then I'll explain. Normally you base your jobsearch on applying for an agreed amount of relevant jobs each week. In short if you were qualified, capable or suitable in a particular area of employment then you were encouraged to concentrate on applying for those roles. The Jobcentre staff in general were actually trying to fit square pegs in square holes. Not now. Now a qualified plumber will be made to interview as a security guard or face utter impoverishment, regardless of many many valid plumbing jobs he is applying for. It's a big step closer to slavery and no one seems to have noticed outside of the trial job centres, maybe because nobody has put a name to the project as far as I know
Danny
box-ticking
21.08.2009 14:13
It is about box-ticking, meeting targets (on which pay depends) and massaging the figures.
To get a job, or stand as good a chance of getting a job, you have to match what you can offer to what the employer is looking for. If there is a mismatch, you are wasting your time and the employer's time. Worse, if you apply for a job that you are clearly unsuited for, then later apply for one for which you are suited, you will be seen by an employer as a tosser.
Forty-five graduates are applying for each graduate job, ie the probability of getting the job (all applicants being equal) is 2%. Go down the skills scale and a few hundred may be applying for a job, placing your chances of getting a job at less than one percent.
In June, when a retailer took over an old Woolworths in Boston and had around 26 vacancies, over 600 hopeful applicant were lined up outside the store.
A New Deal Adviser asked how many graduates were applying for each graduate job, did not know the answer, even less understand the probability of getting a job. But should that New Deal Adviser not know, if not not why not, as otherwise she is wasting the time of every single client she is dealing with?
Job Seekers are being forced to apply for any job, no matter how unsuitable. If they refuse, benefits will be stopped.
One of the biggest allies are employers. They do not like having to sift through unsuitable applicants. It is a waste of their time and resources. Call them up (Job Centre does not like you doing this), ask them about the job, what they are looking for. Detail your experience and background and qualifications. If there is a serious mismatch, apologise and explain that you are not taking the piss, but that you are being forced to apply by the Job Centre, because if you do not, benefits will be stopped.
Keith
Pay out times
21.08.2009 14:14
At Farnborough payout times are 11-30, 2-30 and 4-15.
Monday
No one had appeared by 4-50.
Tuesday
No one appeared until 4-57, no explanation, no apology.
Keith