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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder how you live with yourself if you work in a JobCentre?

182 replies

stinky81 · 31/01/2018 20:24

Really, just that. Sanctioning people for whatever reason you can think of to meet your targets. Expecting people to attend twenty minutes early for appointments then being forty minutes late seeing them. 'Signposting' people to foodbanks whilst refusing to acknowledge that you're referring people there because the state has failed them.
I understand that people need to earn a living, but to do that off the back of people more vulnerable than yourself? Sounds like bullying to me.
I don't claim benefits, and hopefully never will.

OP posts:
jarhead123 · 31/01/2018 20:47

Strange post.

It's a job. If they work there, someone else will & they'll be the one needing the benefits.

Don't be so petulant

user1482573375 · 31/01/2018 20:48

Never seen the point of job centres, never known anyone who has ever got a job through them. They shut down all the Social Security buildings though, which were grim places, but you could go in and chat to someone.

waningwanderer · 31/01/2018 20:49

My friend worked in jobs and benefits and she is lovely.

I work in a different benefit department and myself and my colleagues really want to help people. We are all very aware that we are dealing with some of the most vulnerable in society and help as much as we can and are allowed. All of us dread universal credit coming in as we know it will be the poorest and most vulnerable that will suffer. Blame the ones at the top, not us mere grunts!

Gwenhwyfar · 31/01/2018 20:52

How can you work in a pub when you're abetting alcoholics? A newsagents that sells sweets to overweight children? A call centre that bothers people at home? A charity that uses chuggers? Any company with investments in less ethical things?
So many jobs have their ethical downsides...

Balibabe1 · 31/01/2018 20:52

Gosh yes, awful aren’t they!! I mean, how dare they be working for a pittance whilst taking such abuse on a daily basis.

Best job I ever had was working at the Job Centre, it taught me so much, empathy, hardship and how life can change in the blink of any eye. I now work as a medical professional which also fills my days meeting over entitled people as yourself. All these targets I impose, just to annoy everyone at their most vulnerable 😡.
Seriously, open your eyes.

TheWickerWoman · 31/01/2018 20:53

Really?

I had to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance (since August -present) they’ve been great. Never been asked to attend any meeting early.

Never been spoken down to or patronised, in fact they’re really really helpful.

I’ve missed one singing to attend a funeral and theee because I was on crutches and signed off by a doctor. Never had any problems or came close to a sanction.

Maybe they vary area-to-area but my experience of them has been pleasant enough.

HelenaDove · 31/01/2018 20:53

Frankie Boyle‏Verified account
@frankieboyle
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I really hate the increasing use of the word "vulnerable" to describe people who are ,more truthfully, "oppressed"

8:23 am - 24 Mar 2015

TheWickerWoman · 31/01/2018 20:53

Signing! *

BakedBeans47 · 31/01/2018 20:54

I would live with myself just fine. Providing for myself and my family would have to take priority.

gillybeanz · 31/01/2018 20:56

Perhaps if they weren't doing that job, they themselves would be sanctioned if not working and probably on their way to food banks.

if you take it to the extreme there would be no teachers, doctors, lawyers or any other profession/job where there were questionable ethics or unfair treatment.
The NHS is terrible and teachers conditions abysmal.

jaxom · 31/01/2018 20:57

A question was asked earlier and has not yet been answered.

Do JobCentre staff have targets?

I assume this question was asked pertaining to the idea that there is a sanction quota to fulfil.

Would be good to use this thread as a myth debunking as there are so many lies out there.

PancakeInMaBelly · 31/01/2018 20:57

Don't blame the hangman for the execution

MarthaArthur · 31/01/2018 20:57

I should say i know 2 people who work in jobcentres across the country who are lovely people. But mine (has since closed down) was a hellhole of evil people. So many stories of how bad mine was. Thats not the same everywhere.

Fintress · 31/01/2018 20:59

I'll ask my best friend how she lives with herself. She has been in the job 15 years and is praying for redundancy so that she at least gets some sort of payoff rather than just leave. She hates the way it is run now, all the rules and regulations they have to follow to the letter. She's been abused, spat on, had a heroin addict set themselves on fire in front of her because he was refused money he wasn't entitled to and a whole lot more. She is also one of the kindest people I know with a lot of empathy for the people she deals with on a daily basis. Oh and she doesn't have targets.

LunchBoxPolice · 31/01/2018 21:01

When I was claiming job seekers my experience of the job centre was fine. Attending the meetings and filling in the book and all that crap was a pain but it's the process you have to go through to get given money for not actually working.

Balibabe1 · 31/01/2018 21:01

Jaxom: when I worked at the job centre, I was in charge of JSA (job seekers allowance). That was 13 years ago, and no targets were set, incentives to individuals gained etc. The only target was to reduce the National unemployment rate!

Hellywelly10 · 31/01/2018 21:01

Last time I sighed on my advisor was lovely. He really had faith in me, it meant a lot.

mooncuplanding · 31/01/2018 21:02

I get what you are saying OP having worked in the Work Progrsmme for a few years.

It's all very well saying they are just following the rules but that's what the excuse for the nazis was (godwins sorry not sorry)

Sanctioning someone is life and death and isn't in any way viewed as such in the system. I found it in humane to the extreme.

Viviennemary · 31/01/2018 21:02

Quite easily I expect. You are probably struggling for money yourself. Work in quite a hostile environment for not great money. I don't think many people would be there if they could get a better paid and more pleasant job somewhere else.

rothbury · 31/01/2018 21:04

I know people who work in jobcentres and have to claim UC and go to food banks themselves.

SingaSong12 · 31/01/2018 21:05

I volunteer with CAB. As with all offices some are better than others. We get people coming in for help saying that JC were awful, but also more and more saying the person on the front line is helpful but caught up in a system. The computer will not let the worker do something like make a new appointment with that worker and claimant has to phone a call centre. The JC doesn't have free phones.

EfficiencyDeficiency · 31/01/2018 21:08

Oh op you poor naive fool.

So where have you gathered all of your "evidence"?

Did you hear someone at the bus stop talking or was it an article in the fail?

You seem to know an awful lot about job centres considering you've never used one.

What do you think would happen to all of the claimants if everyone downed tools, decided their moral conscience couldn't cope and the place was shut down?

Tell me, where would the job seekers, claimants go?

Your point is bordering on ridiculous.

About 20 years ago when I left university, I was a temp at a job centre in a very rough and ready area. I dealt with all sorts of scenarios and the one thing it taught me is not to judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes.
Yes we had the toerags who couldn't be arsed, the chancers, the piss takers etc but the absolute vast majority of people were genuine and dedicated and this reflected in the way they were treated.

If you're ever at a loose end I suggest you take a trip to the local JC and see the reality.

AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered · 31/01/2018 21:08

samewitches Grin

I used to manage a team in a jobcentre, for 12 months. During that time, my team (who genuinely wanted to help people find work and were some of the nicest individuals you would wish to meet) were:

Spat at
Verbally abused (daily)
Threatened with violence
Physically attacked

All just for doing a job trying to help people. And no, there are no targets for sanctions, that would immediately be leaked or subject to an FOI request and splashed all over the press.

AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered · 31/01/2018 21:09

Oh, and most of the team were as Left-wing as they come.

Iworrytoomuchh · 31/01/2018 21:09

I was in a different line of benefit’s and the only targets we had were around timescales - how much we got processed and how quickly. A lot of claimants acted like at our monthly meetings we’d all be going ‘right Sarah you managed to suspend the most claims this month so here’s your £5k bonus’ no one wants to suspend your benefits, but if it needs doing then that’s life. The dr’s in a&e don’t want to keep you waiting 4 hours but sometimes they have no choice... people need to stop blaming people who are just making a living for the issues all around us. It’s shit and it’s unfair but the employee sat behind the desk who’s trying to help you can only do what they can do.