to think the job centre making you apply for every job is pointless and a waste of time

[wheresthelight]

I appreciate that they want to make sure people are actually applying for jobs but when I was using the service over christmas they were making me apply for jobs massively below my previous career position which meant I was getting loads of rejections for being over qualified etc (not a stealth boast) and I felt awful knowing i was wasting the time of the employer having to go through cvs that were never going to be suitable.

the job I now have (and love) involves some recruitment and I have spent much of the last week ringing people up to invite them for trial/interview and when you speak to them the basic requirements of the job spec are not met ie one of the essential requirements is to hold a full UK driving licence. at least 70% haven't had one and when I say sorry but it's an essential criteria (job is field based) they are pretty dismissive and basically say yeah they know but job centre told them to apply. it is really bloody annoying and a complete waste of time!

Raawwhh - i am surprised the jobcentre didnt do anything because they are quick to sanction you for silly little things.

The jobcentre like sanctioning people because this lowers the unemployment figures.

You do realise that a blanket ban on people who can't drive is in breach of the disability discrimination act don't you?

Not if part of your job is actually driving..... that's making it a random requirement for someone office based.

It's truly ridiculous. One week I got so fed up with it that I wrote down every job that had been advertised on the jobsmatch site for that week and then wrote down why I had not applied for it; I didn't have the experience/ skills/ qualifications, I don't have a driving license, it was incompatible with single parenthood and childcare.... Three pages of reasons. Plus the jobs I had applied for.

Ironically, the job I do have, I was given details of by my adviser, who said "I think this could suit you, I want you to apply". Retail, flexible shifts and local to me. So I believe it's the system and not always individual advisers. Mind you, some of them could be twats.

It's supposed to be a pointless waste of time. The idea is that the poor should be punished for having the audacity to be poor. That's the Tories for you.

Do they have bureaucracies which actually make sense?

You do realise that a blanket ban on people who can't drive is in breach of the disability discrimination act don't you?

Not if it's essential to the job.

I had a similar experience. I had a job but the hours were not enough so I was forced to apply for JSA. Within a week I found a second, higher paid job but could not start until my DBS was through. JC insisted I keep on applying for jobs, despite the fact that I was employed. I am now in debt because they kept sanctioning me and all I got was a measly £28 from them over a month.

It is designed to discourage people from claiming which is all well and good when there are jobs available, but where I live, there are none. I fully intend to raise this with my MP.

Yanbu, a friend of mine is on jsa, awaiting hip replacement, limited mobility, has to apply for x amount of jobs a week or sanctioned. A waste of everyone's time. Welcome to Cameron's/IDS mad world!

Oh, don't get me started. I'm signing on at the moment, having been made redundant from a well-paid professional job a couple of months ago.

I am horrified by the treatment I've received from the job centre.

First, you get nothing for the first seven days of your claim. Why? Well, to encourage you not to sign on for short periods of unemployment (this is a direct lift from the gov.uk site). How do you know in advance whether your period of unemployment is going to be short?

I have to talk to 'coaches' who can't even put a coherent sentence together and yet still feel that they can look down on me for not having a job.

Despite my always being punctual for my signing on appointment, the job centre always runs late. Always. Once they were an hour behind schedule. Did they bother informing the waiting people that they were delayed? Did they heck. After twenty minutes I asked one of the security guards (and there are lots...they obviously don't trust the people signing on not to riot) to find out how long the delay would be, since I had a subsequent appointment. He came back ten minutes later to tell me that the staff couldn't possibly say how long it was going to take because they were very busy and short staffed. In other words, they felt justified in treating the people they were supposed to be helping with discourtesy and contempt.

The people working in the job centre seem to be the worst the civil service can offer. They look defeated, miserable and defensive. They speak robotically. Sometimes they don't even look at you when you're signing; they can't even manage that courtesy.

On arrival, my local job centre make you stand by the door waiting to be called to your area. They won't let you sit down. There's a table and six chairs nearby, but if you attempt to sit at it they tell you to stand up because somebody might need the table to fill out an application. Perhaps they are waiting for delivery of a set of spikes for us to sit on, to punish us for having the temerity to sign on?

The whole process is predicated on making you feel like a scrounger. I'm not: I've paid income tax and NI for more than twenty years. By statute, I'm entitled to contribution based JSA but crikey, they want you to work for your £73 by putting up with humiliation.

Re jobmatch: agree with everything that's been said. Most of the roles on there that I've seen in my field are out of date. One was three months out of date! The selection is very poor, no doubt because not many recruiters want to deal with a tidal wave of cvs from people who have been forced to apply for jobs they aren't suitable for.

Also, the 'coaches' seem to have no idea how the job market works. Somebody else mentioned this.

Example: a couple of weeks ago, when assuring the 'coach' that I had done the things I said I was going to do the previous week to find work, she asked whether I'd met the recruitment consultant I'd said that I was going to meet the previous Wednesday.

Yes, I said, I met him.

Did he give you a job? she asked. WTF??? What does she think recruitment consultants do? Turn up to meetings with a pocket full of jobs to hand out without a recruitment process?

ClashCityRoller, I've been predicting that impact on employers from the moment I saw the Freud/IDS changes to JobSeekers.

They were so fixated on un/employment being located entirely in the individual (a "benefit-seeker"), that it doesn't seem to have crossed their minds there are other parties involved in employment.

Like, you know, an employer.

The coaches don't seem to have any idea how Universal Jobmatch works. They tell people that they are using it incorrectly, have got their settings wrong or that their CVs aren't visible. Then they refuse to help and tell them to come to job club because we will sort out their problem, and if we don't they will be sanctioned. We always try and help, but if we aren't clear on what the problem is and aren't trained to use the software we sometimes struggle and feel hugely guilty about letting people down.

I'm assuming the coaches get some training in using Jobmatch, why they are so loathe to share information with the people they are supposed to help is beyond me.

And don't get me started on the quality of "official" cvs produced by the job centre (probably via sort sort of external training provider). Illiteral, missing information, poorly laid out, generic and usually the jobseeker is given one copy on paper (so they can't update it or correct inaccuracies).

Job coaches receive salaries for what they do, somebody is paid for producing the cvs. And all that money completely fails to help get people back into employment.

illiterate - sorry.

The jobcentre does not exist to help people find jobs. It's just a gatekeeper for JSA. Sounds crazy, but once you accept that, you may find it less frustrating.

Nettle, ATOS treat disabled people even worse.

They actually deliberately overbook and then send people away unseen, telling them to come back next week. This is people who are quite ill and struggle to travel, and many are brought by family/friends who will have taken the day off work to accompany them.

Even if you get seen, the wait is hours from your appointment time. But if you are even a minute late you are deemed to have not attended and may be sanctioned. I once saw a woman told she was late because the receptionist had just taken her time getting round to her.

The letters say appt at 8:30 am and turn up 10 mins early. So there's a crowd of sick people wilting outside when they finally open the doors bang on 8:30 am. The assessors don't start calling people in till nearly 9 am. They waft around saying good morning to each other and discussing their weekend.

That's before all the shit with the lying assessors and the inappropriate tests.

It's not pointless. The point is to make conditions so difficult to comply with and so easy to fail that people either leave the register voluntarily because what's the point when your contributions-based allowance runs out, apart from NI contributions? Or they are people who are sanctioned for petty reasons and removed from it.

It's the story behind all these wonderful new companies that have been created. They aren't companies that create jobs. They are people forced to become self-employed who are struggling to earn a living wage.

But it's presented that unemployment is falling and business start ups at growing.

YY to RoboticSealpup. The thing is that even someone who recognises that can only put up with it for so long.

Threads like this frighten me. Like Nettle, I was made redundant a few months ago after nearly two decades in work. I'm finding it next to impossible to secure a new job, despite being well qualified and experienced (in fact, this sometimes works against me; I've been told by two recruitment consultants I should remove my PhD from my CV). Partly because I was too scared to sign on after reading threads like this, I've tried to make a go of it as self employed, but this is so uncertain and I can't make ends meet (was a 40% tax payer for nearly a decade, my income is now less than £8,000 pa - doesn't even pay the mortgage). We (me and the DCs) can survive because I got a good redundancy package but it will run out at some point and I'm not sure that I'll have anther job by then. I am scared even to apply for tax credits. Family and friends keep telling me that I should apply for all the help (financial, other) I can because I've contributed so much via tax etc, but threads like this remind me that this doesn't matter. If you find yourself in need of help, it's not forthcoming and you risk being treated like shit by those supposed to help.

I was on JSA a couple of years ago, and did feel disheartened by the process. 35 hours a week on job search activity - this included travelling for interviews and job fairs, so didn't think it was that bad. Having to login to Universal Jobmatch every single day.

However, I found an apprenticeship on there and a year and a half later, I'm now a website administrator. So not all bad. Especially considering I came from a retail background and now have the 9-5 job I always wanted.

What was bad however, was when I tried to let them know I had a job so I could receive my last JSA and I was stuck on the phone for goodness knows how long as they didn't know who I was supposed to be speaking to. So I missed out on money that I really could've done with to get me through a couple more weeks at least. Apparently, people don't get jobs when they're on JSA

cant if you may need JSA I think you'll need to apply promptly. Do check this, but there are rules about how long since your last employment (Class 1 NI contributions) you can claim Contributions-Based JSA.

You'll need to look into the details to find out. If you can bear it, that is.

Sadly, you count as a success for current government policy: you paid in, they won't have to pay out. Win for the "hassle" policy.

cant, also look at mortgage assistance. Can't remember the name, but it helps with interest-only mortgage payments, because they recognise it's cheaper in the long run than having to pay you housing benefit if you lose the house.

Again, you'll need to look into this quite promptly in case there are time limits.

I'm sorry. It's hideous. But you may get enough to make it worthwhile.

Here we go, it's Support for Mortgage Interest.

But there are lots of qualifying factors, including applying for other benefits. So you'll have to do the sums carefully.

I had a friend many years back who in his words when forced to go to an interview set up by the job centre would "black it up". I essence he just sat there giving it at much street language etc as he could along with accompanied gestures to make sure that he would in no way be considered as appropriate.

Thanks pausing, I will look into it. Yes, you are right - it's a win for the govt. I naively thought that the NI scheme was just that - an insurance scheme that could be drawn on when needed. It's starting to look like a very one-sided contract. Thanks again.