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!

When I was on JSA my I could tell my advisor was looking down on me. When I told him I had a job his whole attitude changed, I knew I wasn't imagining it. He still said I had to apply for temp jobs while I was waiting for the CRB check to come through. I just made them up.

I had a horrible experience while claiming JSA. I had to take my DS with me (aged 23 months) as the job centre was an hour's drive away. To employ a child-minder to care for him while I signed on would have cost me a quarter of the money I would be getting and I just couldn't spare that.

I was accused of using my son as a excuse not to seek work and of not taking the process seriously. I explained the above but was told my money would be stopped. This was my first sign on post initial interview. I explained that I had no choice and she asked where DS's father was in a sneers tone. I told he was at work and didn't want to lose a day's pay for a fifteen minute sign on. She asked where DS's grandparents were and I said his grandfather was self employed and couldn't afford the time off either and that I had no other family. She rolled her eyes and asked what my mother was doing today, I was forced to tell that my mother had recently passed away. She accused me of lying!

Luckily I have experience of working in frontline services so was able to stand up for myself and reported her to the manager there and then. How somebody more vulnerable would have cope in that situation is beyond me.

I was given a different adviser then who was possibly the kindest person I have ever met .

I was sent into the job centre to get documents certified in respect of my mum's bereavement payment 3 days after my dad died. Even though they knew the circumstances of why I was there, they treated me like something off the bottom of their shoe. I don't know how people cope with having to deal with them on a regular basis, it must be soul destroying.

The thing I noticed was that they hate it when you stand up to them, I've heard of people who gave it back to them getting sanctioned.

Funnily enough in my early twenties I worked as a manager for DWP and did a stint on the Social security counter, most of my customers were lovely and accepted my advice. Funnily enough just like normal every day people, what a fucking shock eh? You get dickheads who work and dickheads who don't, FFS.

I worked somewhere once where we dealt with grants for free school uniform....this woman came in and I was helping her. Her little boy piped up 'I wanna work here when I'm older mum'. She replied 'nah, you wanna get a proper job!'

Cheeky cow.

Two experiences with Job Centre Plus, both dreadful.

Had to sign on when I finished my PGCE, until the new school year started and I could get some supply. Treated like something they had stepped in. I could cope because I knew it wouldn't be long-term for me.

When my Dad died suddenly my mum was 58. She was also severely disabled and hadn't worked since she was 19. When the bereavement payment stopped a month before she turned 60 and she had to visit the Job Centre, she was forced (told she wouldn't get her benefit if she didn't) to climb a set of stairs as the lift was out of order. She got half-way and dislocated her hip. Ended up being taken to hospital in an ambulance. They then stopped her benefit as she hadn't attended.

I'm sure there must be plenty of very pleasant staff working there, but it is a shame that a few rotten apples are able to really distress vulnerable people.

Newsnight had an interesting piece the other week about how some people with MH issues are being sanctioned because their illnesses can make their lives chaotic. No room for compassion in the system, although of course that is not the fault of individual staff.

Anything working with the public means you deal with lovely people and vile people.

I thought there was something particularly ironic about someone on benefits sneering at me because of my job....fwiw, I'm not slagging someone off for being on benefits, before I get flamed.

Have you left nursing now then. Nursey?

For a little while usual Until I get my depression under control. I'm thinking about doing bank work or work as a HCA when I do

turquoise I thought the rules were that if you had been made redundant etc and had 2 years NI etc that you had 26 weeks to find employment in your own field at comparable salary

a friend of mone qualified nurse etc was made redundant as there were financial difficulties resulting in closure of nursing home she had worked for 15 years she was told that for first 26 weeks she did not have to look for work outside her field, she checked gov.uk the legal pages of JSA agreement and that is what it said there too,

but after 26 weeks you have to be willing to take any job on any salary within 90 minutes commute

her experience of JSA was mixed some good she got job after 9 weeks but start date was 4 weeks away; no matter how often she explained that you can never start a caring job tomorrow because of CRB checks etc it was pointless applying for more jobs as the start date could not be sooner

it annoys me that some JSA advisers try to tell some clients that they have to do things which are not actually in the law and because they know most people will not read the whole government bill and 200 pages of regulations they unfairly penalise or threaten to penalise clients as above for missing signing on because of interviews when law/ the bill specifically say you can cancel signing on for a job interview with no sanctions provided you prove this is the case etc etc

Ooh, Vesalius, you're one of my heroes you know! 1543 was a busy year...

Sorry, as you were.

I've had a couple of stints signing on in recent years, and have come across only one pita jobsworth in that time, and a small handful of "going through the motions" ones. I always end up on the list of people that see a different advisor/signer every fortnight for some reason, so I've seen quite a few different people (5 different people on my last 5 visits).

When I've been made to jump through hoops I've always been told with an apology from the JCP staff member who informed me of that hoop e.g. when I'd claimed 6 lots of TIS (Travel to Interview Scheme payment) which had totalled over £100 they HAD to send me to a mock interview & interview training session as that's what the local policy was, the theory being that if you didn't get a job after 6 interviews you must be screwing up at the interview. I wasn't, proved at the mock interview session (only positive feedback) and 4 of the interviews had been for the same job - which I got.

The silly thing is that one travel card to London to cover train & tube/bus for me costs around £25 if I have to travel before 9am, and most permanent jobs these days want at least two often more interviews, with up to a dozen people called in for the first round. Even some contract roles want 2-3 interviews these days. So to assume someone is crap just because they don't get a job in half a dozen interviews these days is a bit unreasonable. But the poor JCP staff aren't allowed to show any discretion any more, they need to find any excuse they can to cut costs, not pay expenses, or to sanction people or it's their own jobs on the line.

The employment service didn't support strike action to remove screens from social security offices. Then ss offices closed and job centres started to not have somewhere to send people who were difficult, banned from office plus had influx of claimants who got nowhere on phone. Little sympathy.

beertricks it's not JSA I'll be receiving it's ESA

I used to work in a job centre. Most of us there had people's best interests at the heart of what we did.

I understand that the policies and regime have changed significantly. My DP is currently signing on, having been made redundant.

One woman was foul to him, a complete bully. Ll the others have ranged from ok to lovely. We complained about the bully, the person I spoke to ( DP was in tears) knew who I was talking about before I said her name.

I asked how the job centre monitor for consistency between signing on staff. I was told they don't. To me ( I work in quality control) this is astonishingly poor practice.

They said if it all goes through correctly, I should receive a payment next month - mid month

Apparently resigning doesn't have any baring on ESA, just JSA. Had to show doctors notes etc though

sorry that was to BeerTricks

Thankyou BeerTricks, I'm lucky to have DP who can help me pick up the pieces. I (stupidly) got a loan 2 months ago before I got ill and I'm regretting it now! I'm scared of ringing the bank though