To this is absolutely insane! Universal Credit Sanction

[ThisIsInsane]

Adult DD has had an absolute nightmare trying to get a job since she was fired just before Christmas,

She wasn’t happy in the role previous to that so applied for another, got it, gave her resignation. Three days into the new role, she was told, she wasn’t a good fit and immediately fired. She did absolutely nothing wrong btw.

This has massively affected her mental health. She’s never been fired before or been unemployed.

She has literally applied for over 1500 jobs since then, only got two interviews which she wasn’t successful at.

She missed a UC appointment in June. Not sure what exactly happened but she has evidence of her job search. At every appointment they tell her she’s applying for a lot of jobs and there’s noting they can do to help.

They have sanctioned her UC so she has only got £7!

According to the letter she has been sanctioned for 30 days for a first offence of missing one appointment after 6 months in which they have not helped her find a job!

She has an appointment later today and I’m planning to go with her to complain as she isn’t in the right head space to. I just think it’s totally disgusting! She lives at home luckily but can’t pay her phone bill even!

Imagine if she was living on her own and had no support!

AIBU to think this is extreme and unjustifiable punishment?

Don't go with her, to complain or for anything else; she has to learn to take responsibility for herself. She won't improve her attitude while you keep snowploughing. And maybe don't believe absolutely everything she tells you. People don't get fired after three days when they've done nothing wrong. I know you mean well, but until she actually feels the consequences of her actions, she won't change. Try to help her figure out what's wrong with her applications (2 interviews from 1500 applications means something is), but other than that, step back.

There’s a lot going on here.

First, adult, but how adult? 19? 20? 30? Although even if she was 19, why on earth would you go with her take care of her affairs? Are you going to tag along to the interviews too? It’s giving over-involved.

Secondly, I have a very hard time believing she can’t find any jobs. It doesn’t mean it will be the job she personally wants, but something to keep her earning and ticking along wouldn’t be a bad idea.

And finally… resilience. I honestly think young people nowadays are simply not taught or even expected to develop resilience. Life is hard and you’ll have to hear many things you dislike, including a gross manager making stupid remarks at your brand new job.

Also if you don’t know why she missed the appointment you’re not in a position to complain.

When you claim UC you make an agreement to stick to your commitments- one of which is going to appointments and telling them of any changes.
If DD is unwell she should’ve informed UC and got a fit note from the GP. It’s really that ridiculous- people need to turn up to planned appointments if they want to receive benefits

I am sorry. It sounds like a lot of awful things have happened in a short time frame. I am not surprised she is down. I hope that she catches a break soon.

People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sometimes sleep as much or more. Some can barely sleep at all. The girl in question might have another condition together with Depression.

She doesnt need money shes living with you, if shes applied for 1500 jobs she needs to do her applications better, and yes if she misses an appointment she will be sanctioned, has she gone in all the local shops , cafes etc herself handing out her CV, if places keep getting rid of her she is doing something wrong, it is hard and im sure she will get there

She wont get a job if shes asleep, you said shes applied for 1500 jobs that means she would be applying for 7 jobs a day since xmas!

Shouldn't be hard to see why she can't find any job. For every job going there is more than one applicant. That's the case for cleaners and baristas as much as for jobs relevant to office jobs.

So are we! She has work experience in big firms in London though so we think they probably aren’t considering her as they know she won’t stay in the role for long. She’s been applying for any and all admin roles at much lower wages than she was on.

Sorry she had 3 interviews (2 she got to 3rd/4th stage) and another one last week, still waiting to hear about that one. That doesn’t start until mid September though.

Her previous roles were quite niche though and really only in London so not sure if that put employers off. She hasn’t put role she was fired from on CV but when she was looking again in London from early last month and by then it was showing 6 months unemployed so again wondering if that was too long a gap as they want people in continuous employment.

She has done cover letters tailoring experience to applications but we thought it might be an AI thing as well. She’s going to see if she can run her CV through AI and see what it’s picking up.

She gets calls from agencies all the time saying they may have a job for her but then nothing.

She has worked continuously since she was 16 before this while at college and Uni as well. Now 25.

Additionally her car is off the road as it’s one of the Citroen recalls and she can’t get an appointment for new airbags until October. I think that tipped her over the edge and now this which was her own stupid fault but totally disproportionate IMO. It’s not like she wasn’t applying for jobs in that time.

Small amount of savings are gone now and she was living with ex boyfriend in a rented house so no disposable income, until middle of last year, so didn’t have much anyway.

@Idontpostmuch but by that logic no one would get any job ever if there’s more than one applicant.

I honestly don’t believe she couldn’t find anything minimum wage. She lives with family and is presumably available for most hours and shift patterns. It’s down to whether or not she’ll want less than ideal jobs.

DD 20 was hellbent on getting a remote job and tried for months, even though she didn’t really have any relevant qualifications to remote positions. After 6 long months finally gave up, found an hospitality job almost straight away.

The job market is shit at the moment, but there’s still jobs, they’re just poorly paid and not that great.

Has she got any savings? Can she do a bit of travelling for a month or two so she can say she was travelling to explain her gap in cv?

Is she looking for an admin job? I imagine that market is pretty dead.

with the Citroen I have seen things about other companies in the group being able to help or being able to have the part replaced with one from another model. More research needed maybe. She could start by ringing all the Stellantis garages locally to see if they ca. help.

What the feedback from the interviews as to why she wasn’t successful?

She didn’t do anything wrong. She was put on the spot and reacted normally as most people would have done, when she wasn’t expecting to have to react to a comment like that! She had spent a bit of time with the HR lady who was doing her induction (very small company) and had said she was lovely.

What do you think was wrong with her attitude?

Sorry @ThisIsInsane but she missed the appointment and must take the consequences. Or, if she needs the money, there are plenty of domestic cleaning and care jobs which she shoukd be doing whilst looking for work in any event rather than claiming benefits.

As a brand new employee she shouldn't have told the new boss he was rude, whatever he said.

People Tree went into administration years ago. It’s now closed down. Shop elsewhere for your ethical clothing needs.

I dont go to activities. And im not incontinent I happen to have BAM as i dont have a gall bladder. I havent been to a restaurant for many years. I had to take Imodium just in case, the night before my dads funaral. so that i could attend

I dont shop in ethical shops I was pointing out the hypocrisy of a previous post as well you know

Might it work if she goes self-employed for a while just to get back into company again? She could do tutoring for local kids or cleaning or whatever, just to be out and about in the local area. If she's out meeting people locally she can talk about what's happened and someone might be able to find a vacancy for her.

Get her to sign up for an online course so she can say that she was studying for the last six months.

1500 applications but only 2 interviews. Unfortunately you need to spend all your efforts helping your daughter find work as there is a fundamental problem there you’re best putting your effort into resolving

Okay. Well I’ve never said poor people should shop somewhere they can’t afford. I have said people with zero options should laugh politely and move on. Zero luxury in losing your job as OP’s DD found out. So no hypocrisy here.

There's ways of asking and there's ways of asking. It's blindingly obvious when you're in the receiving end of questioning and the subtext is are you sexually active and will I get thumped by a bloke if I try it on with you by someone senior, who is using their seniority to abuse their power and target someone they view as vulnerable who can't realistically fight back.

The sexual assault was bum groping and trying to touch between her legs. She couldn’t move away so had to wait and get off at an earlier stop. She couldn’t exactly tell who was doing it.

OP if she's able to (I appreciate some people will freeze up) and if it happens again, she needs to grab the wrist and yank the arm in the air whilst shouting "who's hand is this? I found it on my bum!". People will stare and it'll shame the offender. She'll also know who it was because she'll be able to see who is attached to the arm she's holding, so can give a description.

What an awful comment - just wear an adult nappy ? Doesn’t stop the smell, and if the faeces is liquid also doesn’t stop it from travelling up your back. Sorry to be blunt, but you sound callous.