What does the job centre do exactly

[Anotherproblem]

Aibu to think they are useless dp can't get a job we have tried everything and so we thought we would pop in yesterday to see if they can help but was sent away and told its all online.

Well, they don't help you to look for jobs, that's for certain! Last time I needed to use one (to sign on for JSA) they just directed me online to look for jobs. I think they just deal with benefit claims these days.

I think the name is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be reviewed.

You have to contact them first, then they will give you an appointment:

www.gov.uk/contact-jobcentre-plus

I’ve only been in once in god knows how many years (last time was when they had the little job cards up!) and that was to help a friend attend her UC interview. I think that’s their main work now - UC stuff!

Why kind of work is he looking for? I think JCs are anyway better with some types of work than others.

When I came to this country almost 11 years ago and needed my first job, I went to a job center as I thought that’s what they do there. Well, they told me to use their computers to search for a job online. That’s almost 11 years ago. I guess that’ll be helpful for someone without internet at home but as I had one at home, I went back home and that was the last time I went there.
I think your dp needs to go to employment agencies and register with them if he’s looking for work rather than the job center.

Bully you into getting jobs that are totally unsuitable. I had to briefly sign on whilst looking for my first teaching job as I qualified when there was a glut of candidates. They were snide and bitchy about my qualifications and tried to force me to give up a voluntary teaching role with a very real chance of going paid for working as a cleaner in a job I couldn't get to as I had no car.

Wouldn't have been so shocked if I hadn't had friends claiming for years as a lifestyle choice with no view to get a job. None overqualified but all capable of taking the retail, bar and cleaning work they offered. None of them seemed to be bullied as I was so not sure what was behind it. Bit rich though as I'd never claimed before or since bit they felt quite safe in stating blatantly I was a scrounger.

I think the league of gentleman sketch about js workers is not at all exaggeration.

I agree with this, they should be renamed. Out of my friends, family and work colleagues I don't know a single person who has managed to find a job with the help / assistance of the job centre, and I suspect many others will have had the same experience.

I went to my local one after being at home with dc for several years. They found a training course for me so I could update my IT skills. I had to pay for it because dh was earning, but most of the others there were not paying.I was really grateful because I got a job as a result.

My son has an unusually positive experience with the Job Centre. They help him with his UC claim and point him in the direction of jobs which might be suitable - but if he says something won't work for him they don't pressure him. They got him a Kickstarter placement for six months which got him working and getting used to going to work. They have helped him with his CV and invite him to things like apprenticeship events etc.
He has a few health issues which they are aware of and are actively trying to help him find something that will work for him.
Mostly though, it's sorting his UC.

I left school in 1996, helped a mate and his dad as my first job for a couple of years before they closed their business.

1998 - first ever trip to local Job Centre
They had boards up, a bit like the old Poster boards in HMV, each board had little cards in that you could note the number down and ask about.
I did that every week. The advisors were all really helpful, they organised training and job fairs and even called employers for you if you asked them too. Friendly, supportive and professional. I got a job after a couple months or so and actually missed going to the Job Centre and the advisors I'd met

2018 - hadn't had any call to go the job centre, worked consistently. But I'd had a child and part er had left and I was directed to go there as part of being shifted to Universal Credit. The boards had gone, replaced by security guards. I was instructed to sit on a sofa and wait. Had a chat with an advisor, very rude and spoke to me like I was dirt walked in on someone's shoe.

2021 - been the job centre A LOT since 2018. Now it's a Job Coach, and mine was a woman who was so uneasonable and so patronising and so insulting that after 3 meetings, i made a formal complaint against her.
She threatened to sanction me if I didn't call every child care provider in the town and ask them what hours they do, even though I didn't have a job lined up and had no use of their services. Plus, their hours are listed online.
When I told her that child care had to be registered or UC wouldn't pay them, she didn't care, she had her mum look after her child so why couldn't i do that..
my mum's in a care home with dementia..
she said,
"So? Drop the kid in anyway."
In another meeting she suggested quite seriously that I give my daughter up for adoption...

The job centre, was once a place that helped people find training and work and supported them, it's now a punishment for daring to be unemployed. With Universal Credit, the sanctions now hit all money someone gets, meaning paying rent and food and fuel is affected. This is why security is necessary. When someone's got so little and someone takes that little away, the only recourse, rightly or wrongly, is fury.

I agree, they were useful in the 80s and 90s, but now they are just a branch of the government obsessed with pushing claimants into any job possible.
They offer little in the way of help and support or guidance, just endless pressure and manipulation of vulnerable people. Trying to prevent them taking any money out of the system.
Everything is online, the staff are there to Big Brother. They serve no purpose, and if replaced by online checklists they would not be missed.
My daughter had a dreadful couple of years involved with them, never again.

Wow similar experiences then.
Last time I went in one was in the 80s when they had the job cards up.
I thought they would help with creating a cv or any available training but they offered my dp absolutely zero help.
Reason we went is due to dp having submitted 50 job applications with zero response.

My sister booked an appointment at her local one a few months ago. I called to ask how it went and she said it was a waste of her time going, she sat down and the lady just said to her that all the jobs are now online and to get back in touch if she needed any help filling them in for accessibility reasons and someone would call her back! That was in.
She found a job soon after through word of mouth thank goodness. Agree that based on that one story (not even mine so I admit that it’s not a fair sample size 😂) the ‘job centre’ is actually not really a job centre at all.

I claim NI credits alone so I only need to attend every 13 weeks. My advisor told me last time that because I don't receive money they can't really help me with any training etc.

That's the way I want it. I'd much rather sort it out myself instead of attending pointless courses that are irrelevant and waste my time.

At the behest of my daughter, I recently watched "I, Daniel Blake". It is utterly heartbreaking, and I am so sad for everyone that is treated in this manner.

(The film is about someone's experience with their local job centre, in case you think I've gone off piste and randomly started posting about something completely unrelated to the thread!)

I love that film. The food bank scene broke my heart. Never seen such incredible acting in my life.

@AnonWeeMouse I've been on MN a good few years now so there's not a lot that shocks me, but your post really did! I am glad you complained and I hope you're in a better place now 💐

I went after I graduated in 2009 and was unemployed for a few months. They tried to make me give up my weekend volunteering as it was "preventing me getting a real job". I had to get several extra forms signed and they were really hostile about it.

nothing avoid if you can. Years ago they would help you and they would phone for you and try to get you an interview. These days its all online and they do their best to try and sanction people. Horrible places, so glad i dont have to frequent them anymore.

My job coach was lovely. Very friendly and chatty, and practical, besides the time when she asked if l fancied retraining as a bus driver.
I was 61 with arthritis and a ruptured shoulder joint. I drive a very small car with power steering. I've no idea what she was thinking.
Also, because l was over 60, l 'had' to join an 'over 60s' work group at the jobcentre. The woman who ran it was weird. So helpful and friendly some weeks - when l said l'd applied for a supermarket job, she said "will you be able to manage that?"
The next week (l've no clue if she was in a bad mood or what) she announced to the group in general that "you need to get your fingers out and find a job. You can't sit on your arses til you get your pensions!"
We all had health issues. One man was a baker, but he was waiting for heart surgery. Another lady had 10 weeks to go til she got her pension, and was asked if she was 'just going to do nothing til then?'

They don't find jobs for you. You're expected to search yourself. And provide evidence that you have, or they can sanction you. They have computers at the job centre, but there were only four at the one l went to, so it was pot luck whether you'd be able to use one or not.
Also, if you didn't have internet access at home, and needed to go to the jobcentre to use theirs, it may not have been easily accessible without public transport.
One week l was really broke and didn't know if l'd have enough petrol to get there and back, it was about a seven mile round trip. When l rang them to ask if they could do my appointment over the phone, l was asked "Can't you walk?"
I was waiting for hip replacement surgery. I struggled to go upstairs to bed, never mind walk seven miles.

I really think it's the luck of the draw as to what your job coach is like. I saw one one week (not my usual one) who suggested l could do a month's 'job experience' (unpaid) at a jobcentre. Filling, and suchlike.
I'd been in my previous role for 28 years. 16 of those as a manager, running an office. I refused point blank. It was patronising and insulting. And my usual job coach agreed with me when l told her.

I worked in a job centre for a while. And some of the advisors just don't give a fuck. They seemed to actively enjoy sanctioning people. There was one in particular that sanctioned for no reason.

Now I'm on the other side and I claim uc. However due to a child under 3 I don't need to job search etc. But I work anyways.

My husband signed on briefly after he was made redundant from his last job. This is a man that hasn't been out of work since he was 17 (now in his 50s) and they treated him like a 'professional' benefit claimant who wasn't remotely interested in gaining employment. He was literally only there because a condition of his benefits was attending face to face.

Fortunately he wasn't unemployed for long, but they treat people with such contempt - not just the obvious shirkers who wouldn't know a day of work if it sat on their lap...but absolutely everyone. The less tech abled, the ones constrained by childcare, the ones constrained by being carers, the ones anxious about how to navigate the whole system, the ones with no transport options because public transport is inadequate and no job pays enough for taxi commuting - doesn't matter you're all tarred with the same feckless brush.

If there was ever a branch of government appointed services that needed an overhaul from root to tip it's the "Job Centre"

I went about 8 years ago. After I left lecturing. Keep that in mind... Multiple degrees, science based subject...

I filled out the forms including the one about skills. I know they can refer you to some great training schemes so ticked the box about job specific IT skills. I know what I should have been directed to because I worked with someone who provided the training.

I was then sent to their in house training centre, steam powered PCs that were that day being run on mouse power because summink summink. After waiting for half an hour for the machines to boot up (I am not exaggerating) I was told to follow the instructions. Send yourself an email. They anticipate that you have an email address so why would you need to show you an send an email I asked? The trainer looked at me and whispered "just do what it says or we both get sanctioned. It's madness" Apparently once you are on a list you have to complete whatever it is. Trying to explain there has been an error means you are being difficult or refusing all offered aid - both sanctionable offences.

I spoke to my Chocolate Teapot about wanting to start my own business, wanted him to signpost me onto the correct course, he looked at me like I was out of my mind. He was a Job Coach, helped people get jobs. Did I want his help or not? Not, I decided and signed off.

I went off and found all I needed to know about the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, for people starting new businesses, and went back to restart my JSA claim so I could segue onto the EAS and the same Chocolate Teapot was so rude to me another Job Coach intervened and directed me to a third, who had just that morning done the training for the EAS. She was clueless (the training was awful apparently) but was amenable to me passing on what I had learned and we somehow muddled through. She was very pleasant, tried to be helpful but remained fairly clueless throughout.

So the answer to your question is "fuck knows". Sanctions and judgemental bollocks seem to be the order of the day.

Aww that's nice of you.

Yep we're ok now thank you. 😁