To feel bloody sorry for some of the people who work in Job Centre

[NurseyWursey]

I had to go into today to discuss why I'm not working at the moment (few of you know, lets not get into that)

The lady who was seeing me said she'd be over in a minute, she was just dealing with another person so I waited. I was close enough to hear the conversation and I've got hawk ears and am nosy

Man: How am I supposed to print cvs out with no f*ckin money

Woman: X you missed your last appointment with us, you'd have money if you'd have come. You know it gets stopped if you don't come

Man: I didn't have any f*ckin money to come

Woman: I can see that you live less than a mile from here, or is there any disabilities or conditions you need to tell me about and I can arrange something for you

Man: no am not a cripple. why the f*ck should i have to walk to you. its too early in the mornin anyway me appointment i need sleep. i need money. you're not helping me

Woman: I'm really sorry X but if you want the money you need to come. You've come today so we can get the money reinstated. In the meantime the library round the corner lets you print for free, could you print some there?

Man: am not goin to no pssin library you stupid cow. wot you think I want to sit in a library for?

At this point he stands up being really abusive, the secretary had to escort him away. When it was my turn she was visibly upset.

:(

How can you help someone who isn't willing to help themselves? I know it's bloody hard when you're skint and emotions run high, and we get volatile especially if we have children to feed, but good grief.

On the plus side she was fab for me and helped me get access to some financial help until I'm ready to work again!
If this woman was you, to you!

I also know someone who was sanctioned for going to a job interview. I know another person who signed off to take up a Christmas job and then had a nightmare when trying to sign back on.

The JC staff are such jobsworhts.

Ds 1 has been for his first interview today sent by JS+. He's 25, Aspergers and dyspraxic. They sent him for telesales. Was there 5 minutes and they said they couldn't read his writing or understand his speech. Thanks job centre.

Thats awful.

Tbf, I think that IDS is very much of the mind that job centre staff should be petty jobsworths and, ideally, thoroughly evil.

Ohwhat, I'm sort of in the same position. DS volunteers in a role he truly enjoys and is happy in. If I got him to sign on for JSA and he was interviewed by the same nasty bitch that his sister was, I'd be worried about the consequences. For both of them.
So he's off the grid for the moment: no job, no JSA, 10 GCSEs A-C and three A levels. Happy as a lark.
I'd pay £50 a week for the lack of stress TBH.

I'm not sure how fabulous anyone can be when their whole job consists of taking the taxpayer for a ride.

"Courses" like that are of benefit only to the person giving them.

DH found them to be a mix of helpful, patronising and disinterested. He only visited a few times thankfully but said every form he was told to fill in would always be the wrong one and he'd be given another instead.

I recall him coming home one day completely dejected. He'd been made redundant from a pretty high council post, this particular lady handed him a part time cleaning job to apply for on the basis that 'it's at the council!' Thankfully he got a job not long after but I think that was about his lowest point through it all.

Why don't they run a two tier job centre system.

All the pleasant staff deal with the pleasant, polite claimants who genuinely want to find a job.

All the nasty members of staff get to deal with the scroungers.

Could call it scum and non scum.

He'd been made redundant from a pretty high council post, this particular lady handed him a part time cleaning job to apply for on the basis that 'it's at the council!'

That's their job though, they have to get you into any job so you aren't claiming benefits.

Wow, another label for the jobless to be branded with. Thanks for that.

Seriously, don't even joke about it. There's enough crap the jobless have to put up with as it is, comments like that, even if ment as a joke still hurt and are not helpful to anyone.

I feel really sorry for the woman in the OP, she sounds as if she's really helpful.

However I've had terrible experience with the job centre. I was really polite and asked for help, particularly if there was any CV guidance. I went the day after being made redundant and never went back so didn't complete my claim. The advisor made me feel so ashamed I felt I couldn't, he was the final straw after redundancy. It took me 7 months to get a job which was for less than half what I'd originally earned. All that time with no income accelerated my descent to rock bottom and homelessness. The advisor took my NI number and on that alone told my I'd be incapable of any of the jobs advertised at the time. Told me I deserved to lose my job for not sticking in at school and suggested I learn some skills so that I looked less stupid. In answer to my CV question I was told to get off my fat arse and do something. Went on about how he hated people like me who thought they could get away without working a day in my life. I left in tears that day.

DH was lucky enough not to come across anyone so rude. However they did make him apply for a call centre job even though he's deaf. He felt humiliated by this and guilty for knowingly wasting the company's time but the JC gave him no choice.

Nursey. They knew he was the only earner, they knew we had a mortgage etc. Handing him any job is fine, but handing him a part time job paying £7k a year on the sole basis that it was 'at the council'. How would that possibly help us as family?

A little common sense goes a long way.

I visit the JCP weekly and am articulate, intelligent and eager to work. They treat me like shit.

When I started looking for work I was confident. Now I am suicidal because of their attitude.

You were lucky Op. Treat people like shit for long enough, they believe it and start to behave as such.

Just wait a bit and see how they treat you after a bit and then come back.

I'm a jobcentre adviser. I'm off sick from today as I've just had ivf last week and someone tried to punch me yesterday. I decided not to put myself in danger so I'll be off til next week.

I've been followed home, had someone try to pull me into their house after flashing a knife at me (luckily a policeman saw my terrified look), been held up against the wall and almost head butted. Every Monday without fail there is a window put out in the office. This Monday we came in to a used needle in a bottle smashed all over the staff entrance. I could go on and on.

My argument yesterday was prompted by asking someone why they hadn't taken the steps I'd asked him to take last week. Just updating his CV and registering with a couple of agencies. We are told by management that tasks given should be time bound and followed up promptly so this is what I was doing. He advised me he had other stuff to do and unless I wanted a kick in the head I should leave him alone. All I am doing is following what i am told to do. I have motivated customers who i generally leave alone but I also have a lot who need prompted to do things and to remember to keep up their activity.

I tell everyone at the start of the claim that they are expects to treat looking for work as a full time job. If not, do they want to proceed with the claim because it is rigorously tested. The government has decided this not me.

I also have some lovely customers who may be carers who rely on me to let off steam and some really nice lone parents who I have a laugh with and I've helped them over the years.

The last year or so has been the hardest ever though, thank God I'm part time.

I just recently read about a man who had to go for a job interview which clashes with his signing on time. He told the job center he'd have to be late with his signing. Guess what...they stopped his money even though he'd explained beforehand. No wonder food banks have been set up all over the country.

YABU

I also tell everyone signing on that they have to be willing to take any job not just their usual occupation. If they are a professional I may limit their search to that for a period of a few weeks but after that it's whatever you can get. Again this is government policy.

Formerbabe what a great idea!

I found the staff at our job centre rude, arrogant and patronising.
I have worked all my adult life but was left in difficulties when my employer died leaving his business in chaos, wages unpaid, and no reference from him.

They couldn't have been more unkind and unhelpful. It wasn't my fault, or his fault either poor man, but they treated me as if I were lowlife, not someone who had always worked up until then.

^Nursey. They knew he was the only earner, they knew we had a mortgage etc. Handing him any job is fine, but handing him a part time job paying £7k a year on the sole basis that it was 'at the council'. How would that possibly help us as family?

A little common sense goes a long way^

Don't get me wrong I know what you mean, but that's not the advisors rules. When you sign on you have to sign a form saying you'll take a job at X wage. Their goal is to get people from being unemployed, whether it's 7k or not. Still better than benefits.

turquoise
I tell everyone at the start of the claim that they are expects to treat looking for work as a full time job. If not, do they want to proceed with the claim because it is rigorously tested. The government has decided this not me.

I think that is what wound my DH up the most. He did just that, he travelled to agencies all over the UK and applied for jobs which would have meant relocating us all. He was on job sites constantly. He'd go in to sign on and be asked to present everything he'd done in minute detail. Meanwhile, someone at the next table would wander in with a can of special brew, stay for all of 30 seconds presenting nothing, then leave.

That's the same form that also says you have to be prepared to take a job up to 30 miles away regardless of lack of transport (public or otherwise) or childcare.

There's no point sending people to a job where they will back on the dole in a couple of weeks. So YES, a little common sense does go a long way, a really long way.

WHat would happen in a rural area with no bus service if the applicant didn't drive and therefore couldn't get to the job centre? do they pay for taxi's or would you have to ?

You'd have to. They say you can claim it back, but by the time you actually get some money back from the first one - you've already paid out for another 5. It's pointless.

How can you help someone who isn't willing to help themselves?

Some of the people in jobcentres are very helpful caring people. But they are not put there to help you. They are put there to deny you the benefits you are entitled to and to keep you out of the unemployment figures. If you are educated, employable and/or better off, they will make you jump through hoops to the point where you stop claiming as it is a waste of your time which could be spent job searching. If you are less likely to find a job, they will try to apply punitive measures to you for not doing everything they tell you too.

There are two types of people in jobcentres, those who know this and those who are going to find out.