To have thought the jobcentre was meant to help you find a job?

[Houseonahill]

Just had an appointment with my work coach as after a few really hard years and only working part-time since having DD I wanted some advice on my options.

I am currently unqualified (the last exams i did were GCSEs) but would like to go and train to be a counsellor I asked how training would work with UC and if I was allowed to do a full time course (I'm a single mum and can't get child care evenings and weekends so working while doing it would be hard). The answer was she didn't know.

I asked if they could help me find a college/uni or if there is any they recommend or just any advice on it really as I'm new to the area. She gave me a leaflet for a company that will help you write a CV?!

I asked if my current zero hour contract at the pub would result in me being sanctioned as when I went back to work after maternity I went back full time but wasn't coping with being a single mum to a 6 month old and working full time so dropped my hours to 20 a week and they tried to sanction me and it took months of arguing and letters from my GP and MP for them to agree not to sanction me so I was worried if I had lots of hours one month and not many the next that would count as voluntarily dropping hours and I would be sanctioned........She didn't know.

She then went on to suggest I apply for a job in asda or as a home carer for elderly or disabled people???? Where did that even come from? I have a job and a plan for my future?

So basically, they know nothing about UC and how it works and can't or won't help me get back into training so I can eventually earn enough money to not rely on benefits to top up my wages. What exactly is they are meant to be doing if it's none of the above?

Grrr sorry for the rant.

I've never found a job through the jobcentre. In my experience the staff were unhelpful and at times downright rude.

I always found it much easier to find jobs just reponding to advertisements in newspapers or online.

I suspect some of their staff are pretty low calibre and would struggle to get a job anywhere else themselves!
When DD graduated and was job hunting, a woman at the job centre insisted on “helping” to rewrite DD’s CV.
The resulting horrendous collection of grammatical and spelling errors was hilarious. DD took a red pen to it and handed it back with corrections, to a sulky staff member who still seemed to think grammar was optional. God help any less literate job applicants who were subjected to her “assistance”.

It's both infuriating and hilarious. If the governments end goal is to have less people reliant on benefits and more people in full time work surely they should put more resources into enabling people to do this?

I was on Jobseeker's Allowance for two years over 14 years ago now. I found the whole process very demoralising. They wanted me to apply for a security guard job, I'm 4ft 11 and 7 stones! I applied though.

I was so relieved when I finally got a job and didn't have to go anymore.

They are not there to help anyone but the government. They’re there to sanction and penalise people, but not help at all.

I was on JSA about 5 years ago, it was the worst experience of my life walking into that centre each week. Horrible staff and system.

They are there to push people into a job - any job.

However, although they should be able to answer your questions about benefits while studying/working, it is not realistically their job to make your ambitions happen by finding university courses and getting you into them. They are only qualified to get people into basic jobs - if you want more than that you need to use your own initiative.

Like you, I found them useless when seeking work, and years later when I tried to use them to find employees they were even more obstructive and in "jobs-worth" mode!

They were truly vile with my daughter; unhelpful, critical and ignorant of any useful information. Told her, despite her disability, that any job within 6 miles was walkable distance. Not worth the money they are paid. Rather deal with an automated service.

There have been huge cuts to job centres, staff training and the services they offer over the years. Subsequently, they now only offer the bare minimum, basic jobs, signing on and sanctioning. It’s really sad.

Thankfully, in the era of the internet, there is huge amounts of information out there them at can be accessed directly and most people, if literate enough, are able to do it without JC assistance.

Best of luck with your future plans, OP.

I had that too Babdoc , they are obsessed with changing things on your CV even if it's unnecessary/inappropriate. They also assume that if the computer highlights something as misspelled then you must correct it, even if it's a technical term specific to your job and definitely correct

No recent experience, but about 12 years ago I was out of work for a month and at the beginning of that period I noticed a job on their website that sounded like it might be suitable. I sent in an enquiry - and heard absolutely sod all back. Not even a "Oh that position has been filled /withdrawn"

Thankfully I found something else pretty quickly without their "help"

They only advise on benefits not career advice. It's a shame they couldn't answer your benefits questions though. You need to look online for college courses and entry requirements.

I agree, they’re there to push people into any old job and to sanction people who they think aren’t looking hard enough for work. They will only help you to get basic min wage jobs. If you have any qualifications they are no use. In fact when I was unemployed they specifically told me they have nothing for graduates and could only help me to get a min wage job to tide me over while I looked for a proper job on my own.

Not sure if it is still the same OP but when I worked in a Job Centre many years ago there were two separate departments and only one dealt with Benefits, the other dealt with assisting with Job searches reviewing what jobs have been applied for and actually signing benefit claimants so they would get their benefits.

I think you can ask for a referral to the Careers Service in relation to your query about the possibility of retraining and you should be able to make an appointment with a Benefits Officer (or whatever they are called now) to tell you what you may or may not be entitled to in different scenarios.

Their name is misleading, and even more misleading is the whole "job coach" thing.

Think of it more as a "benefit administration/ sanction office".

I worked in a jobcentre for a couple of years. I'd been a 'customer' for a few months, was directed to apply for available jobs with DWP and got an 18m contract there. So I suppose they did help me find a (temp) job. But staff have very little training and no time to spend researching local companies/vacancies let alone anything that requires further qualifications, training or is further afield. I did not always feel very able to get my customers into work when they couldn't do it themselves tbh. If I needed to look at the jobcentre vacancies properly, let alone vacancies advertised elsewhere, it had to be done in my own time as it was so busy! Those who knew what they were doing and had a sensible plan usually found work themselves fairly easily. Those who needed more help I could refer to others for assistance, but I was only told about and encouraged to signpost them to CV writing help and a few local training providers.

You need help from a proper careers advisor really as the job centre's only goal is to get you into any work, asap. No matter whether it is long term work, the best career plan for you or just a short term getting you off their books. This was several years ago before UC came in, but it can't possibly have improved since then! Especially after they let thousands of staff like me go just before UC (which few understand fully) was first brought in... Their main role is to get you off benefits.

They should be able to discuss your situation with regard to benefits but they aren't careers advisors and would be unlikely to support with study and further education.

They're not careers advisors though. Can CAB help with that, or does your area have a CAS?

But why can't you just look at the college requirements yourself or ring them up? Why do you need someone else to do it?

Speaking from my own experience, they don't even really do much of the benefit administration bit either! We were trained on how they worked (but only the benefit we dealt with, I had no training in ESA, income support etc only JSA) but couldn't deal with most problems beyond getting customers to phone the helpline. If I rang the helpline myself to help customers, I was spoken to like shit on someone's shoe most of the time!

So really they exist to sanction people and 'signpost' them to whatever local initiatives they've decided deemed useful. Like the 3 day compulsory debt management course I was mandated to go on last year. I don't even have any debt, nor did most of the other attendees, so the course leaders were annoyed too. Or the CV writing appointment, when I'd already uploaded my CV to them. But fail to go and it's a sanction.

I found the job centre staff the last time I visited them (approx. 8-10 years ago) to be friendly, helpful and well meaning but ultimately clueless about what sort of work they could really help you gain or advice they could give you. I recall being referred or put forward for jobs which although were similar to what I'd done in the past were at a vastly lower pay scale or really simple jobs not suited to my skillset etc but because maybe they mentioned office work and were local they thought they could suit my job search.

When I signed on it was during a period of recession and I was struck by on my first visit there was a woman who used to be a PR exec next to me and a man who worked in an accountants on the other side - so, suited people and professional and there were quite a few of this type there who had no choice but to sign on for the money and also, maybe to help them find work.

I was referred to a City (London) recruitment agency along with a number of other Job Centre recruits and you could tell that because we were being referred via the Job Centre then basically we were scum and the agency was being paid big money for hosting us and advising us.... We had a whole day out there - lunch and travel was paid for - but my CV was ripped and torn apart by a recruiter in red pen, and all the advice I was given was by and far useless. You could really tell the recruiters in the office thought we were 'a waste of space' but they had to see us and speak to us.

On my way home I actually registered quickly with one recruitment agency and made an appointment with another one to register and within 2-3 weeks I had had a permanent job offer but with temping work lined up inbetween.

Sorry I wasn't very clear, I understand they can't help with careers advice as such but I did think they would be able to tell me if I can get help with course funding (can i get it, does it have to be at a certain college to get it etc.) They pay for people to do some types of training but i dont know what is and isnt covered. The course I'm looking at doing is around £3000 a year for 2 or 3 years and I can't fund that myself so didn't know if they could help fund it.

Yanbu. The fuckin soft job she's got sitting power tripping barking out orders and saying 'I don't know' to any questions she's asked.
The fact that she suggested care work when you said you couldn't do evenings or weekend. Shows she's either deaf or ignorant.

Dealing with the Jobcentre in the 3 months I was unemployed ,after working for 30 hyears was a very depressing experience.Some of the staff were very rude