Non-Pool
Topic: The Jobcentre...

What a bunch of expletive deleted by admin! I was made redundant on July 19th 2013 and started claiming JSA as of July 29th. Since then I've applied for 336 jobs, attended all meetings on time, been nothing but pleasant in all interactions and have recorded all that I was asked to. I have a strong education behind me, good skills and have worked for eight of my nine years since leaving university. My Cover letter and CV are very good, as are the e-mails that I send out to employers and the application forms that I've completed. The Jobcentre has done nothing to increase my job prospects and has wasted much of my time! A one day course on basic English and Maths (LOL!), a 4 week employability training course (100% skills that I already had) and now 4 weeks of Mandatory Work Activity in a warehouse doing slave labour for £0 and 0p an hour for 30 hours. I completed my first week yesterday and I'm now learning that I've been tricked into doing it as the Jobcentre have broken their own rules. The so-called appeal process will take weeks so I'll have to carry on slaving away regardless.

It feels like Shawshank Prison...

I hope the country burns down to the ground and the advisor that arranged for this the devils playground dies of aids.

But other than that you are ok, yes?

LOL...

I know how bad they are, they was mentioning stopping my JSA a while back cos I could not get to a warehouse job when i had no car and no public transport near me, so not sure what they expected me to do, luckily I found another job, but they are a joke, they don't help people, they just try to stop your benefit any way they can, they are a complete joke.

I've been researching the law and rules that they have to follow and I think that they're guilty of a lot. Unfortunately if I ask the questions on Monday (next sign on date) and demand all information that they hold on me things are sure to be edited before I receive any written material. This is why I've decided to go to my MP with everything that I know for a fact and just slurp it up and work for as long as I have to before the truth comes out and I'm taken off of the slave labour.

I know I shouldn't post about it on here but I had to share my experience and warn people about what they can be like as I see a lot of other jobs being cut and others may fall victim!

If you're forced to claim any form of benefits, research your rights before the initial sign-on interview...

Good luck with it P

you need to submit a DPA/FOI request in writing, and/or make a formal complaint.
maybe not use swear words in you rfirst post though as the owner doesn't like it

Cheers guys...

And sorry Big Dave...

I have a copy of the DWP rules and regulations as they relate to MWA and candidate selection. I got this through the FOI act and I've quoted many of it's rules in my letter of complaint that will be going to my MP.

Mp won't make a difference
Make a formal complaint through jcp complaint system
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

I work for an MP and deal with quite a few of these types of complaints. Whilst it's worthwhile to make a complaint which the office can forward to the relevant liaison team, bare in mind the following, I repeatedly hear people blaming individual advisors, this is simply not the case. They do a job to direction and if you think they are targeting individuals think again.

One of my friends got so stuck in fighting Job Centre and presuming the worst and getting in a rut he forgot to look for work and spent too much time scouring forums reading posts from disgruntled claimants. Don't let that happen to you, don't spend anything less than 100% of your efforts searching for your next job. It's not personal with JCP, they just see person after person and apply the rules each time. If you feel that's not what has happened, mistakes can be made, so ask them to look at a complaint. They will do it.

Good luck in finding a job. Focus on that and I'm sure one of your applications with come through.

Update:

I've now "served" 54 of my 120 hours of slavery. I'm 100% sure that I've been targeted and I have proof. I don't believe that my local MP will help and if I make a direct complaint to the JCP they'll simply cover each other and destroy anything derogatory that they have written about me on the system. Such is the corrupt world that we live...

Never mind!

What job are you looking for?

Short term:

Driving, Office & Retail

Long term:

I'd love to find a consistent way to make some money with my art and design skills working for myself!

If you log your case through your MP, with the proof, they WILL put the case in front of the MP Liaison Team and it will be formally looked at. Saying your MP won't help is incorrect, they put every case in, it is up to the third party what decisions come of it. Your choice though, good luck.

Speaking of art and design I've always fancied being able to format magazine designs but I'm not great at this sort of thing.

I stand corrected!

I'm sure that you could develop the skills necessary with a little bit of practice and the right training.

Hi Phil,
Great thread, and when we develop the idea (see hyperlink) any Charities subscribing to the 'Making work pay programme' can kiss their reputations goodbye!
It is all just private sector free labour, more eloquently put by someone more informed than me (for sure )
Cheers jamie

Rip off Britiannia losing its soul

Jamie,

Cheers for posting the link, I hadn't seen that one. I'm generally not very interested in politics but when it directly effects you it's important to know what's really going on. I finished my term of slavery this past Friday and what a relief it was to escape! I gained nothing and wasn't even thanked by the company at the end. Realistically it is obvious that it's a scheme to save the government money and keep the poor down. I have my first job interview on Tuesday after sending out around 400 applications over the past six months so hopefully I can impress and gain a real opportunity! I still haven't had a response from my MP or the Jobcentre...

Idiots!

Cheers,

Phil

PH,
I know it's hard. I'm in a time limited job, i.e. when MP goes I could, in theory, be surplus to requirements. I've applied for a bunch of "good" jobs which would be a step up for me and had nothing but instant rejections. I remember when there was 800 adverts in the weekly job paper in our evening paper on a Thursday. Now there is 12 adverts last week and nearly half of them were for teachers. It's scary.
Some of the work programmes are totally crazy and I think the whole thing needs changing. I heard from a trained solicitor who had to attend one as required and the first thing they did was give everyone there a jelly baby each. Needless to say that went down well.
Malcolm

Hopefully you get the good job that you deserve soon enough.

In my last week of MWA a teacher with 22 years of experience was sent in!

I can imagine how that went down...

:/

A job is a job at the end of the day people shouldn't moan on here about the job centre that provides jobs for thousands up and down the country !!!

AND people who say there too qualified for a certain job is the biggest load of balls I had ever heard.