What does job centre/society actually expect this woman to do?

[steppemum]

I support a lady (friendship through a charity) I'll change some details to make it less identifiable.

She has a son aged 5 and in school and so the job centre are giving her a lot of hassle to get into work. But I just cannot see how she is supposed to do this:

• she is a single mum. Her partner is not son's dad and doesn't live with her.


• she lives on a large council estate out of town. Very little work on the estate. 20 minute bus ride into town. Some work in town, mostly in shops (which I doubt she would get, she's not likely to get a customer facing job) most work is then a further 20 minutes on the bus from the bus station in town.


• there is no breakfast club or after school club, or holiday clubs at the school


• there are no childminders on the estate. The closest ones are about 1 mile away, and don't do school drop offs or pick ups


• she does have local family, but they are not willing to do any childcare, either before/after school, or in the holidays.


• she is only likely to get a minimum wage job as she has no qualifications.

So, she could only work day time, from about 9:30 - 2:00 in order to do school run, no weekends and she has no-one to look after her son in the holidays.

Job centre has told her she is being too fussy and she must be more flexible with timings.

Am I missing something here? I just don't see HOW she can get a job! She would like to work actually, but is also pretty scared about ending up with less money.

So before you critique OP have you had much experience in areas where there's not a great eating out scene? In area's where even the local Wetherspoons has closed down? There's not that many pot wash jobs in derelict towns. Unless you were selling shuttering to board up all the empty local shops and crack houses then you would be minted. At least OP is trying to help.

stepuporshutup

I guess you missed the bit where I said I was encouraging her, driving her to interviews, helping her see what she would be good at etc.
I agree a pot washing job would be perfect. Unfortunately every job of that description that she has been for has only wanted people who can do evening work. Lunchtime eating out trade is pretty non existent round here.

And I don't understand the sentence about getting UC for childcare. I have no problem with it, and never said I had, the problem is that there IS NO CHILDCARE AVAILABLE which I may have said about 50 times.

This mythical daytime pot washing job would provide such a low income she'd need top up benefits. It's barely worth it in terms of what the government will save money wise.

She is taking on board suggestions that are viable unfortunately they are few and far between which she probably knew already. A lot of privileged people on here are making suggestions that bear no resemblance to the life this women is experiencing because they don't see it and and they don't understand it. Your comment is about as helpful as the jobseekers staff who suggested she be more flexible with her hours.

I work in this field. This lady sounds like so many. No work, never going to work, always going to claim full benefits and theres no way out. Yes there are difficulties but what's the answer? To just live your whole life that way and no one else can ever say anything about it? Working people have to tailor their choices to their lifestyle.

Working people have to tailor their choices to their lifestyle

What on earth does this mean?

it sounds like benefits have been linked to finding a job for a while, not sure if the woman has worked in the past. But at some point do you get moved onto another system? Eg after five years of no success

maybe you don’t and it is indefinite

I'm not a expert but I imagine it's indefinite and you just have to continually prove you're actively looking for work...which for many people who are long term unemployed with little prospects is probably just a bit of a charade..

I'd just also like to remind people that despite the disadvantages, she has been for dozens of job interviews in the last 6 months and volunteers in a charity shop to get experience.
She does want to work.

Also, just to say, my involvement with her is part of a friendship scheme, I am not involved in the logistics of the job searching, other than as a supportive friend.

And yes the job centre has put her on several schemes, like restart. Which is helping.

But there is another rub. £4 return bus fair to restart. Plus a visit to the job centre every week, another £4. Those fairs are not refunded.
£8 is a big hole in her weekly finances.

I think one type of job seeking benefit is based on previous NI contributions and has a limit. But it’s possible another isn’t

There’s a couple I think (not sure though)

Well done you OP for sticking with her - one of the things that people in her situation get used to is people giving up on them. Just by being there you are helping.

The answer is a society that looks after its vulnerable.

You sound wholly suited to the current exclusionary system, a job centre pen pusher no doubt 😂

How can she train with out childcare ?

I was like this once, but I had my dh around and he worked. I didn’t have any other kind of back up and if I’d been on my own I don’t know what I would have done. This was in he 90s. I wasn’t claiming any benefits, but if I had been I’m sure I would have been suspended. It isn’t easy with childcare at all and you have the holidays to think about as well.
She is in a cleft stick and its hard as nobody to help out and the job centre want her off the books.

Restart can reimburse the bus fare and although the job centre cannot for her regular meetings, if with Restart she should usually only be attending job centre once a month and can ask to synchronise her appointment with the Seetec one where possible .

except how do you do that when you have to drop off/pick up from school/childminder/nursery (even assuming you can get a place in the first instance) by whatever time they open/close? It's no good taking 3 buses for 1 1/2 hours if you need to be at work at 9am and the nursery doesn't open till 8, is it?

Predicably, the usual 'just get any job'/'be a cleaner'/'be a carer'/'be a childminder' are just said without any consideration given to suitably for the role (few of us are cut out for the rigors of caring and childminding, for example) or the complexity of mangaging distance vs time vs job expectations.

It's unfortunately not as easy as many would have you believe, particularly when you are managing alone.

Unless she has family back up or a partner to help it isn’t easy. Schools do wrap around care , but even this isn’t available to her it seems and the children have a lot of holidays.
Employers need to be flexible , Amazon do schemes where they give people time off for the school holidays , but many places don’t of course.
Sorry to derail a bit, I just wanted to say I understand why she can’t work at the moment. It isn’t always black and white why people struggle to find work when you have school age children. I hope she can find a solution eventually.