To think being sanctioned for not applying for a job is not unfair ?

[Xmasfun]

People on JSA are now complaining they are being left with £40 to live in for one week for being sanctioned for not applying for the job they agreed to with their advisor. I'm no Scrooge but when hubby and I work (I'm currently on smp) 3 kids , we only had about that to live on last week after bills, Xmas gifts, etc . I mean they are being sanctioned cause they aren't doing as they agreed which was too apply for a job which is what JSA is isn't it? Your seeking for a job? It sounds harsh but to complain you will now be short because you've been sanctioned , well boo hoo it's no better on the other side either :(

You might not be being so unreasonable if there were thousands of jobs out there. But there aren't. There are so little even temporary Christmas work this year (probably filled by all those people on workfare slaving for free) that whatever my DD applied for, there were between 200 and 400 applicants. She is personable, friendly, well educated and has been applying for anything and everything since the summer but no joy. Luckily she's a teen living at home. How on earth an adult trying to support a family copes I have no idea. But I really worry for her because one day she will need a proper job for real and they are so hard to get.

I am self employed and that's not an answer either. I've been teaching privately for 20 years and in the first 10 - 15 of those did nicely out of it. Now people don't have the money they did and it is really only a bit extra to top us up. We are very lucky; DH is in a full time job (though not brilliantly paid and if they say jump you have to say how high because there are a hundred people queuing up to take the job tomorrow). If I was trying to support myself properly through self employment, I'd be really struggling.

millie30Tue 18-Dec-12 13:59:39

Are people really being advised to apply for sex work jobs? This would be my worst nightmare. I'm due to go onto JSA next summer when DS turns 5, I am currently half way through an OU degree to try to improve my long term employment prospects and search daily for any job that I would be qualified to do. But the idea of being sanctioned for refusing to work on sex lines makes me feel sick.

Millie when i was signing on 12 yrs ago i was made to do workfare under New Deal. I did 3 months (13 weeks) at a charity shop and the council. Then the advisor wanted me to do 3 months unpaid workfare AGAIN at a soup factory. I found a job in a sex chatline office in the local paper and went for a quick interview and got it.
So i want exactly forced but i didnt have much choice as the chatline were the only ones offering me PAID work.
When i started at the chatline it was night shifts which i quite liked tbh. But one day during the day those cunts from Reed turned up at the office making a niusance of themselves trying to lose me the job? Why?? Because they got paid commision for every person they sent on workfare.
luckily it didnt work because id quickly built up a lot of regular callers so my new boss told them to fuck off.

musicposy you are absolutely right.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1620025-to-think-that-workfare-at-Christmas-instead-of-paid-temp-work-is-just-fucking-wrong-Shoe-Zone

Disagree that it is humiliating to have to account for your job search. If you're wanting free money the government is entitled to ask what you are doing to change that situation.

How is it "free money"? If you've worked and paid taxes for years, you've already paid into the system and are surely entitled to the benefit based on previous years tax contributions.

When I was on JSA I was told I needed to send out at least 3 (I think) applications a week. When I queried what to do if there was nothing in my experience range the adviser send "just send them to any company..." which I thought was madness.

I kept an Excel file of the companies I contacted and progress which was pretty easy to do, it didn't need much detail and I printed it off fortnightly for my adviser. Once they realised I was seriously looking I was pretty much left to my own devices and I found them helpful and sympathetic.

Having been employed all my working life being made redundant when the company folded overnight was a horrible experience, I felt a failure for claiming JSA and not being able to get another job right away but never once felt I was being judged by the job centre. Other people however were another thing altogether and I was once called a "scrounger" as I walked into the JC by some lovely youths. Being unemployed and wanting to find work is soul destroying, it's a hard environment. Currently I have part time work and am looking for more - and have just had 2 interviews totalling 3 hours and an IT test for a 6hr a week job, employers have a huge choice now and can be as picky as they like, no matter what the job is.

I was made redundant 3 years ago (32yo and worked all my life since 16) and was homeless. I was told by my London borough that they didn't house single people and said i was to sleep on a friends sofa. They refused to believe i didn't have any friends (husband was with best friend and all my friends abandoned me and never answered my calls - apparently i was 'no fun' anymore - can't think why).

I found somewhere to live in MK with a former colleague. (and reader i married him - well i will in Jan) But the job centre kept telling me to apply to min wage jobs in London, despite the fares cancelling out the wages. also interviews would cost £40 to attend. I signed up for an IT course (out of my redundancy money - fair enough) which may have helped my prospects. But the only one was Mondays, which was my sign on date and they wouldn't move it.

There were often women holding babies, sobbing about benefits being cut for some accidental reason and not being able to pay for food, heat etc. i would leave in tears thinking this is not the compassionate society i felt i had grown up in. what has happened to us to treat others like this? when did we become so hard? does this really make people feel better? because i don't, i feel utter shite about it.

That's grim Spuddy, it seems crazy that some people apparently (well, according to the press and some politicians) do so well out of benefits and others get completely screwed by the system. There is something hugely wrong out there with both the system itself and how people perceive people using it. I would suggest the majority have no desire to lounge around on benefits and would rather be working. Sometimes it feels like a conspiracy and that things are made as hard as possible just for the sake of it.

I find the whole sanction procedure shocking.

Learning disabled claimants sanctioned for not filling in a form correctly
None verbal claimants sanctioned for not engaging with DWP staff

People being sanctioned for lateness when CCTV showed them in the job centre on time.

Claimants being made to sign on every day as punishment for appealing a sanction or making a complaint against staff.

Teenagers sanctioned for refusing to apply then accept Modeling jobs with someone who is know in the area for being a pimp.(2 convictions)

But anyway op yabu and ill informed

op you have no personal experience of this so i suggest YABU

oh and if you ever find yourself deserted by a partner or become ill i bet you would change your tune over the way you would be treated by the jobcentre

its not quite the easy street people make out

YABU

YABU.

I have been sanctioned as I missed a phone call appointment with a company who is supposed to help me get into work.

I was in hospital after an Ambulance rushed me in through having a fall and bleeding with cramps and no movment off baby. The Ambulance had the sirens on it was that much of an emergency (33weeks pregnant).

Atos has said I'm unfit for work. But this company says I'm fit for "slave labour".

Well, to be fair, if Xmasfun has a job despite being unable to do the basic maths that £40 spare after bills (and luxuries like Christmas!) is quite different from having only £40 to start with, she would naturally conclude that jobs are easy to get, given that she herself has one!

I think you need to go on a budgeting course, Xmasfun, as you clearly are spending too much money on xmas presents. I'd worry about yourself before I started worrying about anyone else and what they do for money.

you should see some of the jobs.
person who cannot drive.....told to apply for a driving job!!