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Bringing a child in the world is the best thing EVER! So well done. So whatever anyone tells you or associates you with by being a single mum try not to let it get to you too much (I know it isn’t easy). I just don’t want you to let them break you and try to reprogram you in to believing you are “scum of the earth” – when you are absolutely not! This applies to all jobseekers in general and not just single parents although this group of people are normally a target like you have proven.

I am not surprised about them accusing you of lying about your qualifications. I am currently writing an A-Z of New Deal which I have done A-Z but currently writing stuff for each letter. A is for Abuse, P is for Presumptions.

You may have heard about “one size fits all” and not anything about tailoring delivery to the individual and their circumstances – along with their single track mind they deliver induction and it is assumed that you fall in the stereotypical description of an unemployed person, such as:

- Wakes up extremely late every day and can’t be bother to get up: as a single parent you probably have been woken up a few times in the night ^o) and have to wake up in the morning to meet the needs of your son. I am not a single parent but I also don’t fall under this stereotype as I am always awake by 8am, typically 5.45am to 6.10am.

- Doesn’t want to work, doesn’t see the point in it (likes living on small money per week: a career of benefits): so they then have to try and persuade you that getting a job is a good idea from delivering pathetic nursery like activities to being shouted at – when over the last 6 months everyone has been searching for jobs.

- Avoids agency jobs as they are easier to secure than sustainable jobs and the person doesn’t want to work: Jobseekers are clever to agency jobs, zero-hour contracts and unsustainable jobs and they don’t want to take them just so A4e etc. can get bonuses and claim another success story.

etc.

I am the opposite side of the country to you and people have also been advised not to talk with me. It is commonplace. They pick out the clever ones or those that seem to rebel the New Deal system because it is those people who explain to the other jobseekers how it works. It is those people who advise the others not to take zero-hour contracts as after a month you will be out of work. It is them who tell the jobseekers that A4e etc. are not to help you but looking to meet their targets to get money from the Government to get you in to any job. It is those people who make their job more difficult and slashes their targets. This is why they do this. If they can make the others not trust you then they are more likely not to believe the truth and adhere to the plans of A4e etc.

Do you have any hard evidence about them buying participants tobacco products? That would be the final nail in their coffin.

Good luck with studying the accountancy! Please see another success story at the (sister site to this one) New Deal Complaints site… http://newdealcomplaints.co.uk/a4e/sugar-daddy-employee-targets-vulnerable-debt-victim/ An interesting read and she got through it all and went to University to of a social care degree (if I recall correctly).

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There clearly is two elements to this:

Short Term/Temporary Employment Vs Unemployment.

Unemployment:
Periods of Unemployment doesn’t look good.

You are lucky for your circumstances – I don’t see any employer that would discredit you as instead of living to the typical stereotypes of unemployed people (most unemployed people don’t) you were bringing up a child.

Some people will argue saying the child is the excuse to be idle or there is nothing stopping you working as you can get childcare but the financial stuff out of the way, the first 5 years are critically vital to your childs upbringing and constant use of childcare in my eyes isn’t a good idea.

Short Term Jobs:

The only advantage these unsustainable jobs will have is being a “quality” of you as a person, saying you are keen to be employed etc. – The problem with this is it hardly shows up for “experience” and the other qualities it shows is settling for second best and not looking for a career (unless all jobs are in same industry, unlikely).

Employers typically are not interested whether you might not appear to be an active jobseeker – they will use your references to see whether you are lazy or not at your job.

Added problems are “get out issues” i.e. sanctions up to 6 months for being sacked or leaving, whether you can afford to take the job and whether it is a zero-hour contract/unsustainable job.

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It is the Government trying to meet targets which they are failing to do so hence why they want to force every single parent in to work. I am surprised they haven’t gone as far as to maternity wards and trying to get those who have just given birth into agency work.

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As far as I know, child support is not counted in respect of working tax credits – in fact there is a cash bonus from the government when a lone parent who goes into paid employment receives, which lone parents who are not in reciept of child support do not. Unbelievably unfair!

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I am quoting the figures displayed in Episode 1 via On Demand (I paused it and jotted it down).

If the figures are incorrect either: a) A4e have done so deliberately or via error, or b) I made a mistake (however the totals add up – I jotted that down too not worked it out)

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