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

[stinky81]

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.

So everyone who works in the job centre is the same?

YABMassivelyU and judgemental.

Very childish post, OP. One step up from "why do you have to go to work mummy, can we not just get money from the cash machine".

I note the OP has not been back.

As an aside I took a train to Manchester from Euston last Friday, and it was about 45 mins delayed. Every-time a ticket collector/sandwich man/G&T lady came up the carriage they were subject to a barrage of abuse from one passenger. As if they had anything to do with the delay. I now suspect that twat was the OP

It's the MP's who voted for benefit sanctions that I blame.

Current Job Centre Work Coach here with namechange.

Firstly, I'd like to thank the many who have been supportive on this thread, proper warmed my cockles it has. I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the thread.

I've been doing the job for two years and, quite frankly, it's the most mentally draining job I've had, and I'm no spring chicken. Previous to this job I was signing on for 6 months. So, during my interview I was able to say "I KNOW what it's like to be that side of the desk". And I use that a lot when taking new claims, especially from people in my age bracket who are perhaps not as technically savvy as many and are like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

It's also one of the most rewarding jobs. Especially when we've worked really hard and closely with someone who's been unemployed for years and they finally get into work. Amazing feeling. I can, of course, only speak for the JC I work in. It's in a deprived area and it can be really tough going. We've had to go into "lockdown" three times since I've been there due to threats of fire bombing, threats of stabbings etc. Most unpleasant.

I can honestly say that my colleagues are all supportive, nurturing (especially of young people) and go all out to help customers. There's many, many a time I could have sent a customers details for a sanction to be decided upon but didn't. I try and look at the whole picture and if a customer is genuinely having a hard time then it's hardly going to help sending them into potential hardship and I would view it as a step back when, really, we should be going forward. And sometimes, it's inching forward. And if that means that we take baby steps due to a customer's ability/circumstances then so be it.

There is NO target. Only one of my customers received a sanction and, similar to a pp, she literally had done zero over many many weeks. And none of her actions were over stretching. She, in her own words "Couldn't be arsed" and I could "get to fuck". I didn't rise to that, just simply explained what could happen, made sure she understood, she wasn't vulnerable/lone parent/disabled or had any health conditions, caring responsibilities.

I will go the extra mile if I can. To the extent of accompanying a young customer to an interview as she was a bag of nerves. We'd paid for new interview clothes, I brought a scarf from home, paid for travel. She didn''t get that particular job but found another and has signed off jobseekers. I got a lovely email from her and when I see her now she's positively beaming! A far cry from the gibbering wreck when I first met her. That's not all me though, we'd sought help and support from other agencies to work together.

Do I love my job?- mostly not but moments like the above give me a good boost along the way.

What would I change? Dealing with customers who have been found "fit for work" yet, in my naked eye are clearly not is the hardest part. I go really gently those customers, point them in the direction of where to get the best help in appealing and when they're claiming JSA in the meantime I make sure they feel "held up", take all their needs into account and make it realistic for their circumstances.

Thanks again for all the supportive comments

I have known some lovely people to work in job centres. It's a job and someone has to do it, they are normal people, working in the job centre comes with requirements that need to be met, just like any job.
Also can't blame the staff for the back logs, if one person is late to their appointment it has the domino effect, and it will make all other people's appointment times late. I can understand why people might dislike them, but they are there to help people.

To people saying its a job, where do you draw the line? When does morality/consciousness come into play? Can you justify doing any job because you need the money? I'm not aiming this at JC staff BTW just musing.

Do you judge nurses in A&E too?

Save your judgement for those who decide on policy.

JCP, thank you for taking the time to post all that - really interesting

i don't know, but I do know that it isn't a bed of roses for the employees, either. I had a lady come into my place of work with two horrific black eyes (I work in a hospital but not as a HCP). She had fallen on ice and knocked herself cold a day or so before (at a weekend). Her GP had sent her for an x-ray as there was a suspected concussion. She was signed off by GP. Her manager insisted that she had to go into work to prove she had had an accident and told her that sick leave only covers genuine illness, not accidents. She knows that when she goes back to work, she is facing disciplinary action for being signed off. She was almost in tears telling me this. The manager had said a doctor's line was not proof that she was unfit to work. I really felt for her, as she said the illness rate amongst the staff is sky high because of the pressures of the job.

What do you do for a living, OP? Maybe post it and people can comment on how worthy they feel your occupation is?

Well, it's not completely unreasonable to assume there are targets. There have certainly been investigations.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2015/feb/03/sanctions-staff-pressured-to-penalise-benefit-claimants-says-union

I read that report a few times, HelenaDove it hasn't been mentioned by the paper or the interviewee whether or not he contacted the job centre and let them know he was going to a funeral, sent proof and asked to change the day/date, now if he didn't do that he wasn't sanctioned for going to a funeral he was sanctioned for not turning up to a pre arranged appointment without providing them with a reason why.

Nor does it make it clear whose funeral it was, my company like many others will only give a day off for a funeral if its a close relative all other funerals I might like to attend has to be taken off as holiday and only after approval by management.

Nice link but I would have preferred one with actual evidence to back up the headline - that didn't have it as far as I am concerned

I work for a company that work with the job centre.

We do have targets for getting clients into SUSTAINABLE work but NOT for sanctioning people. I very rarely make appointments mandatory and never for addicts or lone parents. I think they've enough going on.

I have raised sanctions however. Some clients admit they do nothing and some miss 40+ appointments, which is time I could spend with someone else. If someone is just lazy I really don't see why we should, as taxpayers be supporting that.

I was sworn at every day last week, and again on Monday. On the other hand I have got folk with 37 years out of work into a job they love and that's a great feeling.

I phone GP's, get urgent help with housing, advise on benerfits, make appointments, take shopping for interview clothes and lots more for my clients.

Its bloody hard work but also very rewarding. The JCP staff we speak to are generally really helpful and a few not so much, like any job I guess.

Oldsu exactly. It was probably the send off he was more interested in attending for all we know.

But it makes a good headline to reel in the likes of Helena who will have saved it to her 'Blame the Tories' folder.

Only evil dead people work in job centers. One day a claimant will go ape shit and murder all of them. And no one will be surprised .

Poor doesnt always mean nice and vulnerable and wanting to contribute. My BIL is poor and on benefit, and a generally nice bloke. But he's lazy, he takes the piss of the system, of his employer. He quit his job after a day because he felt like it. If I had to deal with piss takers everyday I think I'd lose it. Especially people can be nasty threatening violence when they dont get their benefit like what some PP experienced. Best of luck to people who work at the JC. You must have the patience of saints!

PoisonousSmurf and I will support death row for people like that, who benefit from society's generosity yet bite the hand that feeds them.

I've volunteered at citizen advice for 2 years and I used to call the JC a lot on behalf of clients and I would say that, 99% of the people I spoke to were lovely and would do everything they possibly could to help me help the client

Dennis Nilsen worked in a Job Centre - bit of useless trivia for you there however I doubt all JC staff are Serial Killers so YABU.

Typical, post the controversial comment then fuck off!

Dennis Nilsen worked in a Job Centre

And a damn fine job he did too. Apart from murdering young men he met in pubs, having sex with their corpses and flushing the remains down the toilet, he was a model citizen

I'm not surprised she's fucked off.
She's had a verbal beating for having an opinion.

Oldsu, it does say in the article that he claims to have told them in advance that he couldn't make it and later brought an order of service as proof. I am surprised though as I had to reschedule appointments several times when I claimed, not that long ago, and it was never a problem. Nor did I ever have to show proof of why I couldn't make it. I also genuinely did miss an appointment by accident once and they didn't contact me to ask where I was - in fact I didn't even know I'd missed it until I showed up a day late and everyone was confused as to why I was there. Either there's more to the story or it varies widely between different job centres/work coaches - I could see either or both of those things being true tbh.