To think that if this is the type of staff Universal Credit are employing then no wonder it's all a mess?

[MrsOverTheRoad]

An acquaintance of mine has just started working for UC.

She's a nice enough woman but she's barely literate and has very questionable background.

I AM judging her when I say this but for her entire adult life she's drunk heavily, taken a lot of drugs and can't write basic English....there's nothing WRONG with not being the most academic person but she really can barely spell....

She's made many poor choices in her life, in terms of partners and lifestyle.

And now she's helping the people who need someone with the ability to make sound judgements to avoid losing their benefits?

I was so surprised when she told me about her new job.

AIBU to think they're not caring WHO they take on? That they're probably just giving staff targets and pressurising them to get as many people as possible off benefits?

What area does she live? Usually very tough to get a job in these areas due to the way they test you before you even get to an interview.

A suburb of Liverpool.

Well someone has interviewed her and thought her capable

Not really your business

Loads of people drink and take drugs regularly and still manage to have perfectly functioning careers. You would be surprised.

Are you sure about this? She's actually working as an assessor? As far as I am aware, it's a very rigorous selection process to even get as far as interview, then there is an intensive training programme before taking up the post. If she struggles with literacy, I'd imagine the training course would be somewhat of a challenge.

However, if she's been through all that and passed the various competencies, then good luck to her. Her recreational activities and personal life have no bearing on her worklife.

Since she is likely to be working in a call centre, she herself won't be making the decision she will be following a script and answering questions and then delivering the answer given as decided by the system.

Loads of people drink and take drugs regularly and still manage to have perfectly functioning careers
yes but they do need to be more than barely literate.

It’s hard to get UC jobs so I think you might be exaggerating about your friends life and abilities.

Perhaps her 'life skill's will give her more of a connection with some of the 'clients' she will see? Rather than be pearl clutching at every meeting.

It does become a problem when something gets so toxic like universal credit, atos or PIP, that they will struggle to recruit - will of course have some excellent staff, but generally it can be true that the calibre of candidate they can attract will fall.

WUB

You seem to know an awful lot about this "acquaintance"

Should that be MrsOverTheRoad or MrsTwitchingHerCurtain? I assume you are not her current English tutor; her literacy skills may be fine. Her drinking or drug taking are neither here nor there, what is lots to one person is recreational use well under control to another. Terrible relationships are irrelevant. Beak out I would say.

Depends entirely what her job role is. If this is a call centre she will be trained and scripted and calls are monitored. It’s unlikely that she is ultimately responsible for deciding people’s benefit entitlements.