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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

133 replies

wheresthelight · 30/04/2015 20:59

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!

OP posts:
HelenaDove · 01/05/2015 18:15

This thread has reminded me of my experiences.

In the late 1990s both DH and i were signing on but had seperate signing on times on different days.

One day while signing on i was made to sign a form saying i would consider part time work,

a. DH wasnt asked this at all I asked him whether he had been each time he signed on after that.
b. This happened in the late 90s but the Sex Discrimination Act came in in 1975!

Ten years ago i was signing on again and secured an interview with a building society a 45 minute bus ride away. Interview was at 1pm and there were buses running every half an hour. So i made sure i got to bus stop at 11am. Plenty of time. 11 am no bus 11.30am no bus 12pm no bus. I panicked and walked straight across the road to the Job Centre
WHERE THEY HAD BEEN WATCHING ME FOR THE LAST HOUR THROUGH THEIR OPEN DOOR AS THE BUS STOP WAS A FEW FEET OPPOSITE THE JC!

i asked them what i should do and they had the temerity to accuse me of missing the bus even though the bastards had been watching me wait for a bus that didnt show for the last hour. Absolute cunts!

BatteryPoweredHen · 01/05/2015 18:21

I think people should make their own arrangements.

Being disabled/having a disabled child/losing your job must be hideous things to experience in life, which is why I am constantly surprised at how few people make adequate provision for these eventualities.

Surely everyone knows by now that the state will only provide the bare minimum? (and sometimes not even that)

I agree that this is a problem, nobody wants to see people suffer, but the answer is for people to take responsibility for themselves, not to rely on the state.

PausingFlatly · 01/05/2015 18:23

And what would you like that adequate provision to be?

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 01/05/2015 18:23

And on that note, PausingFlatly, I certainly paid a shitload of tax and NI in my previous career.

Do people seriously think other people jack in well paid, enjoyable, satisfying careers as being on benefits is so comfortable.

I receive around £400 a month disability benefit. Nothing else.

It's people like me you are talking to, with this statement "Life on benefits needs to be made uncomfortable, precisely to deter people from claiming - the welfare system should be an absolute last resort.", Batterypoweredhen.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 01/05/2015 18:25

God you're fucking hard faced aren't you.

PausingFlatly · 01/05/2015 18:25

Because if it's insurance, would you care to address my comments above about paying insurance premiums and then having the insurance system we were paying into renege when it came to paying out?

BatteryPoweredHen · 01/05/2015 18:26

The whole point of National Insurance is to fund a non-profit-making, state-backed insurance system which offers something between expensive, unreliable private insurance and workhouse-level subsistence.

That may be your opinion, but it is one with which I disagree. The state needs to be rolled right back and people need to take control of their own lives back again.

I hate to see people trapped in poverty by the overexpansion of the state, handouts are neither compassionate nor helpful IMO.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 01/05/2015 18:27

I have critical illnes cover. They won't pay out (yet) for my condition.

You will be glad to know, though, that I do have life insurance. So when I die, my family won't need to claim anything - happy now?!

PausingFlatly · 01/05/2015 18:28

Do you pay any insurance premiums, battery?

Why?

What do you expect to happen when you claim?

HelenaDove · 01/05/2015 18:29

Battery my DH did just that with his workplace pension. Now hes state pension age they are making excuses not to pay out.

BatteryPoweredHen · 01/05/2015 18:30

Because if it's insurance, would you care to address my comments above about paying insurance premiums and then having the insurance system we were paying into renege when it came to paying out?

It does pay out, but only enough to keep body and soul together (just). It's not enough to have any sort of life on, I am the first to agree with that, but neither should it be.

If you want to have more than the bare basics, then you need to pay more for that in the form of additional protection from a private provider.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 01/05/2015 18:32

You don't have a fucking clue.

Not one single clue. Think yourself lucky.

In out

BatteryPoweredHen · 01/05/2015 18:35

Battery my DH did just that with his workplace pension. Now hes state pension age they are making excuses not to pay out.

We have discussed this point before Helena, if your DH's pension scheme is not sticking to the Ts&Cs, then you need to write to the FCA, likewise if you feel you were missold the policy. If he just made a poor decision, then he will need to live with that.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 01/05/2015 18:36

In fact, I should just go wait for death so my family can have "more than the bare basics", as that is only insurance I have prepared to pay out.

If they paid out for suicide, I'd probably fucking do it, it's horrible knowing I am the cause of my family, my husband and children, not having "any sort of life". And then being judged by people like you to boot.

I really am out now, this has really upset me.

PausingFlatly · 01/05/2015 18:38

When I paid my National Insurance stamp, the deal was not luxurious but not "barely enough to keep body and soul together". And indeed why should it be?

In the same way, I don't have private medical insurance, because I'd rather pay through tax to support an NHS which is both comparatively efficient bang for buck and a social good.

PausingFlatly · 01/05/2015 18:40

Would you now care to address the fact that private insurance providers

a) frequently refuse to insure people in the first place and
b) frequently refuse to pay out those they have deigned to "insure".

More just touch luck?

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed · 01/05/2015 18:40

BatteryPoweredHen You agree with the idea of people being forced to apply for jobs they have neither the qualifications or experience to do?

Do you also think it's fair for employers to have to wade through loads of pointless applications? Or deal with a growing number of speculative cvs? I get about three of the latter a week, bigger businesses get a lot more, all of which have to opened, read and dealt with which takes time we could be using to do our actual work.

Frankly, I think you're just talking a load of goady bollocks.

PerspicaciaTick · 01/05/2015 18:42

Battery this thread isn't about people living a cushty life on JSA. It is about being treated as subhuman by a system which frankly doesn't do what it should. It is about taking people at the lowest point in their lives and giving them a good kicking while they are down. It is about deliberating humiliating people so they go away and stop asking for help. It is about looking at some of the most vulnerable people in society and using their problems (illiteracy, SEN etc.) as justification for taking away their money. It is quite, quite sickening TBH.

HelenaDove · 01/05/2015 18:42

Battery And ive told YOU before that his workplace made him and every other employee at that time , pay in. If they wanted to continue working there then they had to. The only choice they had was the amount they paid.

And the fact that you have to fight to get what you are owed (which you have just advised us to do) proves that private provision doesnt work so you are now contradicting yourself.

PausingFlatly · 01/05/2015 18:42

Thanks YesIDid.

BatteryPoweredHen · 01/05/2015 18:42

I just think we all need a big shift in mindset. It isn't healthy or sustainable to just keep handing money out to people.

BatteryPoweredHen · 01/05/2015 18:44

...and I'm not being 'goady' at all, I have an opinion, that differs from yours, that is all.

HelenaDove · 01/05/2015 18:45

YesIDid Thanks

treaclesoda · 01/05/2015 18:46

Battery I kind of want to say that I can't believe that anyone would be so hard hearted, but sadly I think it is more common than I'd care to believe.

The sort of 'providing for yourself' that you are talking about would be so prohibitively expensive on an individual basis as to be completely unaffordable for vast swathes of the population.

And what about young people? The only time I have ever needed to sign on was when I was about 21 and had just finished university a few months earlier. I had worked in a temporary job for a few months then the contract ended and it was a few weeks before I was able to find anything else. Even if I had taken out some sort of income protection policy (unlikely, since the premiums would have quite likely exceeded my earnings), there is no way it would have paid out, because I wouldn't have been paying in for long enough, and the end of a temp contract wouldn't have been classed as redundancy.

To allow people to provide for themselves in these circumstances would necessitate a huge change of working and employment practices too. An end to temporary or fixed term contracts etc.

zoemaguire · 01/05/2015 18:46

Batterypowered, what arrogance! You genuinely believe you have every eventuality covered, such that you'll never need to rely on state help? You are deluded, and I say that as about the most financially cautious and savvy person you can imagine. Dh and i have substantial savings and insurance for pretty much every unfortunate eventuality we've managed to think of. Does that mean I think we could never end up financially destitute? Do I heck. You think insurance companies always pay out? That illness and disability only happen to others? Even if you believe you are bulletproof, you really reckon it is others personal fault for not making arrangements that would involve lifetime financial security in the event of misfortune? Like the poster above's father, a minimum wage labourer with a ruined back? I think you are having a massive failure of imagination, along with a good dose of arrogance, hubris and stupidity. But that's Tories for you I suppose!