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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder how it will work making unemployed people go to the jobcentre every day?

113 replies

Takver · 30/09/2013 13:43

From where I live, getting the bus to the jobcentre (in the nearest town) costs £5.50 return. So that would be £27.50 per week, or rather a large proportion of JSA. Its 12 miles (very hilly) each way, so I wouldn't have thought many long term unemployed people would be able to cycle it every day (most of the people out of work I know here aren't really in that good health).

Do you get a free bus pass if you're on JSA? All seems a bit mad, even by current standards . . .

OP posts:
flaflafla · 30/09/2013 14:05

I think you are mistaken if you think this policy is a vote loser for the Tories. How many people on benefits vote for them in the first place?

HeySoulSister · 30/09/2013 14:08

jemima like little cards on stands? No!! It's all done online now, job match! No jobs in the jobcentre and they would travel in for a quick 5 min appointment like you get on sign on day

Sure start centres are in the town suburbs here. For line parents it works well

But as jobcentres employ SECURITY GUARDS ( someone always kicks off when the realise they have been sanctioned/money is late etc) then I can see it wouldn't work for everyone.

diplodocus · 30/09/2013 14:08

You couldn't do it from where i live without a car - we don't have a daily bus service. It would be the same to get to a sure start centre. Ridiculous.

jacks365 · 30/09/2013 14:08

It would cut unemployment overnight, you'd need to employ 10 times as many staff in job centres for a start. Bus companies would need to increase services to keep up with demand having a knock on effect of more buses needing building which helps the manufacturing industry which creates more jobs. It's the best idea since sliced bread now all we need to do is find the money to fund it.

(Need a sarcastic emoticon)

tizzwozz · 30/09/2013 14:10

Where I live it is a 50 mile round trip to the Jobcentre! Its 2 busses each way (that only run 2 hourly and of course don't connect very well so there's stupidly long waits between connections) costs about £9 and can only be done in a day if you leave on the 8.02 and don't get home until 4.45.

Ridiculous idea.

What they need to do to make it possible for people to work in areas like this is equip them with the skills they really NEED to make working possible. Like driving for example - prohibitively expensive yet essential if you are rural. And its no good banging on that people need to move to where the work is because that's also where the affordable housing isn't and breaking up communities and families is not good for society or individuals.

ivykaty44 · 30/09/2013 14:12

wetaugust has the same cynical thoughts that I do. Smile

Where is the money going to come from to man the job centers that the unemployed will be going to every day?

where is the money coming from the provide therapy for the unemployed at the job centres?

if the unemployed have to work for their money - when will they have the time to visit the job center every day?

Kerosene · 30/09/2013 14:21

Jacks, you could do it on the cheap if you put everyone on workfare as JSA advisors and bus drivers.

Be a bit of a sod for all those actually looking for a job as a bus driver, but thems the breaks.

flaflafla · 30/09/2013 14:22

I imagine that the people that have to work for their money will not have to visit the jobcentre every day.

As for living rurally, that's your choice. I am amazed that anyone can live 25 miles away from a jobcentre. That must really be the back of beyond. Can't imagine that there are many people in that position, and if they do, it must be a serious hindrance to finding work.

HeySoulSister · 30/09/2013 14:24

They wouldn't need to physically see an advisor, no staff required if they sign into universal job match on the computers provided. That's used as a job search action.

HeySoulSister · 30/09/2013 14:25

Living rurally isn't always 'choice'!

I know the 2 aren't connected, but here we have lots of social housing out in the sticks....bus services have been cut, what are they supposed to do??

Original poster
Takver · 30/09/2013 14:29

"As for living rurally, that's your choice. I am amazed that anyone can live 25 miles away from a jobcentre. That must really be the back of beyond. Can't imagine that there are many people in that position, and if they do, it must be a serious hindrance to finding work."

Well it would include a large proportion of the population of Pembrokeshire, where I live. And I suspect a large proportion of the population of rural Wales.

Large parts of the UK are relatively thinly populated and have little in the way of services. But we still exist, and it would be nice if politicians (and others) would remember that.

OP posts:
ErrolTheDragon · 30/09/2013 14:29

if the unemployed have to work for their money - when will they have the time to visit the job center every day?

that was the either/or.

No, daily visit to JS unfeasible for most people.

I'm not sure it's about reducing unemployment, rather so the Tories think the Jeremy Kyle style folk (after all that's what many Tories perceive the people on jsa to be) actually have to get out of bed and go and do something akin to going into work.

It might be that - or maybe so that people working in the 'black economy' are inconvenienced? (no idea if there are many such claiming benefits, just trying to wonder what the rationale could be)

tethersend · 30/09/2013 14:30

Are the unemployed allowed on buses?

Perhaps if they stand up.

Sitting is skiving.

flaflafla · 30/09/2013 14:31

Are there many jobs in rural Pembrokeshire? No? Do you not think people who are long term unemployed there should consider moving somewhere else? It's generally what happens when the economy changes. I know plenty of people that have moved south to find work. And I don't really live rurally.

PlotTwist · 30/09/2013 14:32

If all that's needed is to sign into the jobsmatch site, you could do it from home? I take it you mean the direct.gov site? Not the machines in the jobcentre (they are hilarious, choose 'local' and it brings up jobs halfway up the country).

I can't wait. Going to the jobcentre daily in the school holidays is going to be so much fun. As it would be this week (two separate teacher training days, a strike day, and one off sick).

Still, given that the jobcentre is already really busy, maybe they'll be taking on huge numbers of new staff? Maybe they could staff it with workfare people?

jacks365 · 30/09/2013 14:33

Kerosene can you imagine training them up on workfare as bus drivers, heaven help the rest of the road users. You can sign into universal job match from home if you have internet connection so unless you are actually going to speak to someone going into the job centre daily is just a waste of everyone's time. Besides if I recall correctly from when I was on IS you could claim bus fares back for attending the job centre and in our area that would be £23.50 a week so it would put costs up. My nearest job centre is about 6 miles away and living in the north I can understand how it could easily be 25 miles.

Original poster
Takver · 30/09/2013 14:35

"Are there many jobs in rural Pembrokeshire? No? Do you not think people who are long term unemployed there should consider moving somewhere else? "

Unemployment rate in Pembs: 6.7%
Average in Wales: 8.3%
Av in UK: 7.8%

So better off here than elsewhere, on the whole, though wages are very low. And jobs are sadly a lot scarcer than they were a few years back, as I can tell from the no. of people asking me for work.

OP posts:
BangOn · 30/09/2013 14:36

it's just an excercise in ritual humiliation. bet you anything the plan is get people queuing outside for hours before being seen. The tories are nostalgic for the days of shoeless plebs queueing round the block each day, outsidd the labour exchange so the landowners could pick out the strongets & fittest for a day's work.

IneedAsockamnesty · 30/09/2013 14:36

They already can make people visit the job centre every day even people on dwp referred program's or training, and they do use that power but usually only if your under 25 or vulnerable due to a learning disability or learning difficulty

ivykaty44 · 30/09/2013 14:37

So if you have to work for your money how will you get to the job centre to look for work? And go for job interviews?

Original poster
Takver · 30/09/2013 14:45

I think to be fair ivykaty it is meant to be either work for your money or jobcentre every day

OP posts:
Laquitar · 30/09/2013 14:46

Perhaps half of them will do workfare and will curry the rest on their backs?

Bus is a luxury!

This is getting so mad and sad.
But i do agree with the third option, the training one. I have done that many years ago, i did ESOL, IT
and interview techniches and it was very useful.

Laquitar · 30/09/2013 14:48

YY to what BangOn said.

LaRegina · 30/09/2013 14:48

Please somebody give me a slap if I'm completely misguided but I can actually see the benefit of these proposals - if there are genuinely the three options given and the training offered is actually for viable qualifications...

Yes it would be daft to expect everybody to visit a job centre every day, but maybe that would be the 'last resort' alternative if the claimant didn't want to take up either of the other two options.

And as much as I will probably get flamed for saying this - I can honestly say that years back I lived in an area where there was a cluster of unemployed people who did see unemployment as a lifestyle choice. They would openly say this to me and anybody else who would listen, and perhaps if proposals such as this had been in place then, they wouldn't have been able to make that 'choice'.

I am not saying that everybody on long term unemployment benefit is lazy; but the fact is that some of those people are. And anyway, surely if implemented properly, the proposals would help those people who do actually want jobs, to get jobs, with the help of training, work experience and more input from the job centre staff.

I know this is a simplistic view but surely to a point, it makes sense?

Original poster
Takver · 30/09/2013 14:51

"years back I lived in an area where there was a cluster of unemployed people who did see unemployment as a lifestyle choice"

I think that was the case, years back, but I think the whole Restart thing killed it off way back when. I'd agree that in the 80s I knew a people - mainly young and city based - who basically did voluntary work and then signed on for money (tbh, they were probably as socially useful as anyone else, but not really a fair decision for them to make). But I think those days are long, long gone.

OP posts: