I have said it before, and at the risk of sounding monotonous, will say it again. What is needed is job creation on a massive scale. A halt to any further immigration (including from the EU). Before I am accused of racism or xenophobia, it is nothing to do with skin colour or nationality, it is about our own people being put first in our own country, which hasn’t happened for a long time. We need to become self-sufficient, making it or growing it in this country wherever possible. All call centres must be based in this country. I personally don’t like call centres and prefer to deal face to face where possible. A maximum 35 hour, 5 day working week, with the option of a 30 hour 4 day work for those who want it. Once the jobs are there for the taking, then the Job Centre can start pressurising people to apply for them. I don’t feel they will need to exert much pressure though, as most unemployed people would much rather work than claim benefits. At one time the Labour party would have fought to protect British jobs, but not any more. They are too busy trying to ‘Out-Thatcher’ the Conservatives. As we look to the next general election we need to decide which party comes closest to offering full employment. That is for you to decide, but you can certainly rule out Labour or the Conservatives, and probably the Lib-Dems as well.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/dec/04/jobless-therapy-talking-cbt-unemployment

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this i mentioned some time ago in another thread.

Decision makers lacking the necessary understanding of how to decide how much weight to give to a medical report.

those seeking to claim employment support allowance face a huge uphill battle with paperwork to receive meager benefits,their illness is trivialized and people not listened to,all this to cut benefits.

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/971-appeals-president-slams-dwp-and-atos

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We would welcome all communication from those on the inside, those with experience as a client and those with news of what we haven’t specifically reported so far.

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its all left to next person in the line,that could be the one who checks applications with the employer,these can go very badly wrong,anyone who receives a “doubt has arisen” form knows these are not much fun,this is why its very important to keep proof of applications even at cost,its automatically assumed your at fault again you don’t know the full story and the job centre take a “blame them”
attitude even though they are the ones who send out these often misleading forms’.

i agree about the violence and i suspect this is far more common,i have heard of people receiving death threats as was mentioned,BUT it takes two to tango as the saying goes and it would be interesting to what provoked this response,even if some cannot deal with it in a more positive manner.

i would be very wary of the “only doing my job” this could be claimed through out history and its no excuse for the treatment of those individuals.

anyone who works at job centre plus has to deal not with just jobseekers also other claiments such as employment support allowance,those that are still on incapacity/income support,these in the main are very vulnerable people who are now face the “pull your socks’ up” of this government and the bullying extended to them also.

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a) they lost their job in the recession (or were made redundant otherwise)

b) they have not had the opportunity to train or learn to enable them getting what they require for a job (i.e. those who didnt take GCSE’s etc.) – New Deal isn’t training

c) they have the qualifications but no experience (i.e. graduates)

d) they don’t have the paper to prove their skills (i.e. no qualifications although have experience)

e) they left education at 18 (or 16 for certain JSA claims) without having a job and therefore don’t have two references so they are rejected in the recruitment process

f) they were involved in an incident at work where they are now disabled and can’t work

g) they have developed a disease or illness (i.e. cancer) and been dismissed for constructive dismissal

h) they lost their job through race, sex or age discrimination

i) they dont have experience of interview resulting in never getting the job

or

j) they are a victim of the small job market where the other hundreds of candidates are better suited for the position.

etc.

Statistically most claimants sign off by the 6 month stage.

Scroungers do exist but DWP do not target them – they only target the benefit fraudsters – imposing such harsh measures on jobseekers etc. such as workfare to eliminate the scroungers is unfair and a breech of human rights on the other claimants.

Since 96 it has been a condition to be available for work and to actively seek employment (ASE) to claim benefit. Claimants have to provide evidence of such (i.e. job log) and specify what they have done to seek employment while declaring that their circumstances haven’t changed and that they haven’t done any work.

For scroungers to be claiming for over 10 years it is corruption in Jobcentre Plus of how these people manage to be exempt from following the law like the majority of claimants have to follow. Most jobs I have seen recently are LEP jobs so Jobcentre Plus/DWP can contact the employer requesting whether someone has applied.

Until Jobcentre Plus can stop:

a) Penalising the genuine claimants who have respect for them and are the underdog in the transaction – taking advantage of their over-confidence in the situation to bully claimants to reach the target of getting people off benefits (i.e. even if it means terminating claims or sanctions)

and

b) Stop cowering and being bullied by the scroungers who come in over confident and violent who displace the advisor’s confidence in the situation and suck up to the scrounger letting them get off scot free.

There are several security guards present for a reason: why not call them over? Actually, why not report them to BDC and kick them off benefits if you have a doubt about their claim? Thats your job. They wont know its you – its a different office doing that.

Seems Jobcentre Plus are just as guilty as they are.

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I have personally been spoken down to by a couple of Job Centre staff in the past. I made official complaints on both occasions. I know of one personal adviser at one of the Blackpool Job Centres who takes great delight in threatening to stop peoples benefit. When I was on the New Deal last year I talked a couple of people out of giving him ‘a good kicking’, suggesting instead that they made an official complaint. I also helped them with their complaint letters.

What Job Centre staff need to understand is that they are dealing with people who invariably live from week to week, sometimes day to day, and that the threat of withdrawing money causes a major crisis. Perhaps if they imagined how they would feel if they were told their job had ended there and then, their car had been taken, they had been evicted from their home for not paying the mortgage/rent and their friends/family couldn’t help, they might have a better idea of the people they are dealing with, most of whom would prefer not to have to go any where near a Job Centre. I personally fail to understand how anyone would want to work in a Job Centre and cannot imagine that anyone can get any satisfaction out of their job, unless that is, they have a sadistic streak. There is an old saying ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’. This is good advice for any employee of the DWP who can (hopefully) see their job for what it really is – a puppet of a spiteful, vindictive government.

As for this site being awful, hype or not taken seriously, I cannot disagree more strongly. I have always found it a good source of information, particularly when the Job Centres/New Deal training providers are known for lying to claimants. I imagine the government hate this site, but not as much as I and millions of others hate them!

STOP PRESS – I have just heard on the news that Gordon Brown needs to save £12billion over four years. Abolish the New Deal. There you go, £12billion saved at a stroke.

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also reading some of the other posts above “You are angry, it shows”,i would have thought it was the other way around.

as for security guards it is not exceptable to take the tone they do with people for simply walking through the door.

the site seeks to expose the truth of the experiences’ of the unemployed jobseeker,while the truth is said to hurt it and some don’t want to hear it,it exposes the injustices of those that seek to manipulate the situation of unemployment for political gain through misleading statements when the reality on the ground is totally the opposite.

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a) heavily researched investigations
b) my own experience
c) others (reliable) experience

It is not a slap in the face or stab to anyone working at DWP etc. It is highlighting the issues that needs to be improved. I don’t think for one second that they are all the same, just most are… its called policy and being compliant to it.

Yeah, you are just doing your job… the problem is the management and policies are wrong. We don’t name DWP staff for exactly that reason, its the policy we have the problem with.

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