Job center plus bollocked me for printing out housing benefit form

[jsaclaim2016]

Apparently the printouts at jcp are only allowed for job searches. I assumed as it was for claiming housing benefit it would be fine. But no they told me off and treated me like a delinquent. There is no libaray open on Tuesdays around here and I don't have a printer.

Was I unreasonable?

Why didn't you check it was okay first?

Maybe I should of done, but I just assumed it would be fine as it was a benefits form and I was in a JC.

There is no private places to print anything out here and I wanted to get my form of ASAP.

Housing Benefit forms are really long. You should have asked before printing such a big document.

It would have been polite to ask but they're reaction is ridiculous. Who tells off an adult over printing material? A quiet word would have been far more appropriate if it was so bloody important to them.

YANBU. Checking it first would have risked a 'no'. As a taxpayer, you can have that on me. Good luck with it.

I should have said that I am a hard working taxpayer, or family, or both. It's so hard to keep up

I don't think you were BU Possibly you could have checked first. I can understand the policy and think it might be reasonable because there are so many people that if each one prints out even a few pages it would all add up. However if they have that policy it should be made very clear on notices at the printer and near the computers.

I would assume you can only print out directly relevant stuff, so I do think you should have asked. However I think telling you off was an overreaction.

Yabu to think the job centre should be even vaguely interested in helping you. And Yabu to be suprised they were obstructive. They're twats.

They print of reams of irrelevant wank for their victims service users, so yanbu to print housing benefit.

But in future remember same as a 'flock' of sheep, or a 'pack' of dogs, the collective term for a gathering of cunts is a job centre. So don't expect them to behave as reasonable humans.

If i could like a post it would be yours lurker

Yanbu op

YANBU. No need to tell you off, if they were that bothered they could have just had a quiet word with you about what their printers are meant to be used for so you don't make the same mistake again.

'Computer says NO' springs to mind!!

YANBU!

Thing is HB forms are about 30 pages long, it's not just a two page document. Did you apologise? Simply asking because if you're in a JC, I'm guessing you're going to have to go back there at some point, and you're going to need to go back in.

Haha, what Lurked said.

No, YANBU. I'm sure you've well paid for the printing in recent VAT alone. If you can't print off benefit forms at a benefit centre, where can you??? Ludicrous.

Yes it was reasonably long, but I used to work in an office and it is far far cheaper just in printing and paper costs for the laser printers to print out the form thsn just the postage to send one out. Also I would of saved the printing of the posted form, the person posting it and and envelope costs. So it was a win for TWX payers really. The jsp are always printing lots of crap to give me.

Thanks for the support

I always go my nearest job centre to do my printing and make phone calls.

It's 15 minutes' walk and it's as depressing as fuck and I've never thought about germs before I picked up a public phone in a job centre and noticed too late the grime and wished I'd brought a wet wipe or perhaps a flame thrower to burn the skin off my ear.

But it's free.

People waste their resources all the time on frivolous stuff unrelated to being unemployed such as housing benefit claims which are part of registering as unemployed, aren't they?

But mostly I just hang out there because it's such fun.

Welcome to the austerity vibe. Job Centre Plus budgets are slashed and they're now issued with strict guidance about the use of every resource going. They're just passing this fun down the chain by bollocking you.

There's probably some poor bugger there who has to account for every print out.

Housing Benefit is (unless you're on a Universal Credit claim) administered by the local authority, so not Job Centre Plus' department/responsibility.

Don't expect that printer to stick around, by the way. Lots of Job Centres have removed such things in efficiency savings. They've also barred people who are claiming benefits from using phones at the Job Centre to call up benefits service centres. And the person in the Job Centre can't help when it's a service centre issue (i.e. about your money). So now, if your benefit money is late/stopped/underpaid you'll need to pay for an expensive call to a service centre who may not be all that helpful.

When I was on JSA ( after redundancy) ,I was treated appallingly by some of the staff.
My neighbour on the other hand ( who has never worked)was given shed loads of advice and had the interest paid on her mortgage after she and her husband split up.
It pays to act dumb.

They have a special recruitment selection process for those staff.

The first time I tried to get back to work after children, the woman in our local office told me that I was taking a job away from someone who really needed it.
That was under the las t Tory govt. They hated single mothers and there was no childcare.

The second time I went in it was under Labour and I got a lecture from the same woman about how she had always worked, and her mother gave her free childcare. So I had to ask mine for help getting back to to work, it was expected.

Chaosagain oh I'm so glad I left!

I'd have printed it for you OP. It's ridiculous how the system has got harder and harder to claim.

Harder to claim, easier to sanction = savings in the benefit bill spend.

My personal recent favourite was the minister who didn't seem to think that a drop of £1000 a year was enough to notice/really feel if you're a single parent reliant on working tax credit.

I'm also a fan of the U turn on cutting tax credits... but making that £12billion saving instead from the Universal Credit bill instead over the next few years. Universal Credit is 6 benefits rolled up into one. Including Tax Credits. And it will be live in all Job Centres this year. So they WILL be cutting Tax Credits, it'll just be called something else but all the fuss about it has died down, see. (I can't work out whether the media are all just crazily right wing or not that bright on this one.)

I think I need a new career too..

You can complain about the performance of individual JobCentrePlus workers, particularly the ones who like to deliver morality lectures. They are supposed to give practical jobseeking advice but something like homilies about how her mum gave free childcare is well beyond their remit.

They are as terrified for their jobs as you are for your benefits. Keep calm, take notes in front of them, demand to speak to their manager if they have overstepped. You will be brushed off and told the manager is really busy, but what the hell? You have all day.

The managers live in fear of online feedback and are terrified of letters from your MP - especially a Tory MP. Even Tory MPs will write on behalf of a constituent who has suffered a JobCentrePlus fuck up. It is their job.

IME most workers were fine. But there are cunts.

JSA is funded by central government and housing benefit is funded by local government so they don't care if you'll save them postage money. End of the day they're under strict instructions for printing (costs) and they have to tell people off, you should have gone to the correct benefits office for an application form or at least asked before you printed off a large document.

People who work at the Jobcentre are thick as pigshit. YANBU.