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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think the Job Centre is one of the reasons why unemployment is low?

72 replies

M0naLisa · 07/07/2011 13:51

I went for my interview today at the job centre for JSA. I was expecting her to go through all jobs that i could do that i had put down, sales, retail, customer service, receptionist, admin. She looked at "two" admin jobs, they wanted payroll and accounts experience which i do not have. So she closed the page down with the jobs on and said 'no there isn't any suitable jobs for you this week'

:| hmm ok what about the sales and retail ones on the JC website?

Good job i have internet access so i can look and search and send off for jobs myself.

AIBU to think that this could also be a major problem as to why there are so many people out of work?

OP posts:

TakeMeDrunkImHome · 07/07/2011 13:53

Never known the job centre to do that when I have used them. Perhaps go back and ask to see somebody else? I really don't think that is common practice.

Original poster

M0naLisa · 07/07/2011 13:59

Sorry should say unemployment is high

When i was on it last year for a few weeks they were the same then and i saw 3 different people over 3 months. Only looked at a few jobs in one aspect of work and then they would say 'there are no jobs this week for you'

OP posts:

MummyTigger · 07/07/2011 14:20

I've noticed this. Spent a good while on Jobseekers Allowance because of cutbacks in where I worked previously. And the people in the Jobcentre were the most surly, uncommunicative, insensitive people I've ever met in my life.

The only time they were ever helpful was when I notified them of my pregnancy. And I was just a little insulted when this woman pulled out form after form after form detailing everything I was entitled to, pushing me to join housing lists, apply for housing benefit (which I don't even qualify for as I'm 21 and live with my parents!!), and basically just tossing everything my way. And when I refused this woman looked at me like I was completely deranged, and then made a rather passive-agressive comment about me not being ready for parenthood. Cheeky cow! >:-(

SchrodingersMew · 07/07/2011 14:26

Oh gawd.

My partner goes to sign on every 2 weeks and is desperate for work, every time without fail they send him away with no jobs to apply for.

They even stopped his money for a couple of months there because they said he didn't turn up to an appt at the jobcentre (which he did).

Original poster

M0naLisa · 07/07/2011 14:32

they are pathetic. They are paid to help people get back into work and they dont seem to give a shit, as long as they get paid they dont care.

OP posts:

Tinkerisdead · 07/07/2011 15:31

Ah the jobcentre! My dh had to sign on last year. Once he turned up with dd in buggy and told him you can't bring a child to sign on here sent him to another office on another day and penalised him for not going to original appoint!

Another time he couldn't make it as he had an interview for a job, when he called in advance to explain they said 'an interview err hold on we've never had that before err'. I mean wtf? They don't know what to do if you actually get an interview!

My friends dh is using their back to work scheme after a heart attack and the woman kept him at the office for 45 mins trying to remove the header and footer from his cv template as she didn't like it.. He asked for scissors to chop them off the printout and go home!

When dh signed on our registered address was in another county but we were staying with family and looking to relocate. Jobcentre told us to register at home but we kept saying we're not living there and want work here!

They are next to useless.

yellabelly · 07/07/2011 15:45

yes, the job centre system can be petty at times

squeakytoy · 07/07/2011 15:47

Many employers use agencies now and do not advertise with the job centre, simply because the JC would send anyone with a pulse, regardless of their ability to do the job, therefore wasting the employers time.

thesunshinesbrightly · 07/07/2011 15:50

I had mine today to she didn't even look for me i signed and left.

shakey1500 · 07/07/2011 15:52

YANBU, ours is bloody useless. Couldn't give a shit attitude. Dh was out of work recently (first time ever) and he was disgusted at their attitude. He religiously filled out the forms, what he'd done that week to look for work etc, they barely glanced at them. Didn't even congratulate him, nay, say ANYTHING when he announced he no longer needed to sign on (he was bloody chuffed as well). Just a "right, give us your forms then". He complained at that point.

KatieScarlett2833 · 07/07/2011 15:53

FWIW, signing staff are only allocated 4 minutes to deal with each customer. Blame the Government and the cuts, not the staff.

oohjarWhatsit · 07/07/2011 16:01

And the people in the Jobcentre were the most surly, uncommunicative, insensitive people I've ever met in my life.

agree, and when you make a complaint, they lie

oohjarWhatsit · 07/07/2011 16:02

Blame the Government

the government doesnt make its staff surly and downright rude. if they dont want the job just say, there are plenty who would

wrongdecade · 07/07/2011 16:04

the people who work on the JC phonelines are just plain rude I complained once.

DaisyDaresYOU · 07/07/2011 16:09

I remember when I had an absess and I phoned up to tell the lady I couldn't make it.She was ok with it but a week or 2later I had a letter saying my benefits were being stopped.Some bloke said having a absess wasn't a good enough reason.Wtf! I was crying in pain,couldn't sleep at night and the co codomals made me dopey.Arse hole

xstitch · 07/07/2011 16:09

The first time I contacted them I was asked my name and NI number. This was apparently sufficient to tell we I wouldn't be capable of any job. I am however based on my lack of success beginning to thin he was right.

I know of someone who's application was ripped up and he was told he was completely unsuited to the company. He contacted the company directly, got the job. He is now 5 years and a promotion down the line. Really makes you confident in the JC doesn't it.

ginnybag · 07/07/2011 16:19

Oh, it's not just the staff, it's the whole system.

I placed an advert this morning using their online thingy - not only does it override paragraphing and spaces between words, so that the advert is a jumbled block of unpunctuated text, it then uses your employer number to override the information you've typed in with a random collection of stuff from every other advert you've ever posted with them.

Including the phone number - which no longer exists!

It took me four phonecalls and three hours to sort it out, during which time the advert displayed the CLIENT's name and address, so the enterprising applicants were ringing them.

Cue pissed off client, loss of the brightest applicants, waste of my time and a lot of unnecessary stress for all three parties.

No bloody wonder people can't get jobs!

shineynewthings · 07/07/2011 16:37

They are dreadful and utterly pathetic on the whole. I simply cannot understand what the role of the JC is supposed to be. Everytime I have gone, I have always ended up thinking about that famous psychology experiment when previously nice ordinary people were allowed to become prison guards and became abusive power control freaks. I know it's not quite the same, but in my opinion a lot of JC staff start to invariably look down on those who are out of work and start treating them in quite an appalling and patronising manner.

They stopped my claim 3 months ago when I couldn't sign on one day because of child care issues despite the fact that I explained why, and I am now living on CTC only. Thank god for my family or we'd starve.

They are moving all these women onto JSA from Income support and will shut down their claims placing them in extreme hardship without investigating or without so much as a by-your-leave for pretty minor things.

But even in terms of finding a job, you actually can do more on your own, they are clueless if you need help getting into a job that requires specialist skills, and or self employment.

EuphemiaMcGonagall · 07/07/2011 16:44

I think they've stopped this practice now, but when I signed on four years ago they needed you to cite three separate places you had looked for work, and there couldn't be more than one from the same medium e.g., not two newspapers, or two websites.

I used to just make it up: a jobs search website; the local newspaper; the Jobcentreplus computer.

Load of patronising shite.

TheFlyingOnion · 07/07/2011 16:46

And the people in the Jobcentre were the most surly, uncommunicative, insensitive people I've ever met in my life.

also agree, and will also add are completely unequipped to deal with graduates. They had no idea how to go about searching for jobs for me, what kind of cv I needed, etc.

In fact, they were completely uninterested in finding me work at all. I just turned up, was patronised, talked down to and generally treated like shit, then went home again.

After 6 months I went to a "back to work interview" which turned out to be more of the same, only then I had to go and sign on with the bastards every week for 6 weeks, instead of every fortnight.

Useless.

lauzb · 07/07/2011 16:48

They take the chronic piss.

Rude, clueless staff with zero common sense.

The stupid woman I've had to deal with in the past ended up getting her manager to talk to me. I was so sick of getting told different things I was putting my wasted secretarial skills into practice and typing up telephone notes of our whole conversations. She didn't much like it when I had to ask her to slow down a little, as I could only type 65wpm and got her manager to deal with me. He was a pretty piss poor excuse for a manager, but at least it only took him 3 weeks to get something sorted - that has to be some kind of a record?!

pinkhebe · 07/07/2011 16:52

my friend is an secondary school IT teacher, they suggested he applied for an infant teacher job !

Original poster

M0naLisa · 07/07/2011 17:08

Last year when i was on it. I was given my sign on time which was the same time i dropped my DS1 at nursery, that meant i had 5 minutes to get from one end of town to the other, i just couldnt do it. So i asked for another time, they gave me one. I went down. I was sat at infront of the women who calls to say you have missed your appintment time.
She said to another of her collegues 'have you got XXX card? she is a no show?' She was passed my card, she started calling my number, when someone shouted my name to go up to a desk. She looked and said 'Ahhh your there, you do know your appointment was at 12.50 today? and i said

'yeah i also changed my appointment time due to school run, it should say that on my card' She looked at it and then said 'oh yeah it does'

FFS if she wouldnt have checked or heared my name being called out, she would have rang my phone which was switched off for the duration of being inthe JC, and i would have not been paid.

OP posts:

eurochick · 07/07/2011 17:11

I signed on once many years ago when I was straight out of education and looking for my first job. I had just qualified as a barrister so they put me in the category "barrister/QC/judge" and then told me there were no jobs in my category. Unsurprising really. I doubt the Supreme Court recruits at suburban London job centres.... Anyway, after a few weeks I found a job as a paralegal myself and have never been back.

Original poster

M0naLisa · 07/07/2011 17:13

'No they dont have that where you have to write down where you have looked now, they only use that for forgein calimants.

When i used to sign on last year i used to take my kids with me, the security guard once said 'you need to go upstairs' so i said 'can i use the lift, normally they let me use the lift and my advisor comes down to get me' and he said 'no lifts after for staff only' so i said 'it wasnt last week' then he said 'well your kids shouldnt be with you anyway' so i said

'Ok then, il go up and sign on are you going to look after these whilst i go?'

he got onthe phone to advisor and asked her to come meet me for the lift

OP posts:

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