Jobcentre making getting a job very difficult :(
Discussion
I always thought that the Jobcentre / Jobseekers allowance was there to help unemployed people get back into work? I've certainly had to prove in every way possible that I have been looking for a job.
I have hated every minute of being a 'doley' and finally I have been given the opportunity to get back into work, no thanks to the Jobcentre's job listings (usually consisting of "earn upto £80,000 p/a" then at the bottom "Please note this is a self-employed vacancy. Advertised salary based on commission. No basic wage.").
I can't sign off the day before I start work, and they have no spare time before. So I have to sign off 5 days before I actually start, meaning I will be short for my car repayments.
The job I have got then pays a month in arrears which leaves me with nothing to live on for 28 days. I spoke with someone on the phone at the DWP who said they'd be delighted to sort a budgeting loan out for me. But oh no, I can't as I haven't been receiving JSA for long enough? But they might be able to offer me £80 grant, which would help enormously. Just been to a meeting for that and been turned down because "we can't pay for travel to work".
Apparently this is all my fault as they need two weeks notice that I have been offered a job & I can't take a job offered to me until they have reviewed it. Not helpful when I'm offered a job there and then, is it?
So thank you, DWP & Jobcentre+, for the late payments which forced me into debt, for the patronising tone with which your employees talk to me in, for the long enquiries into whether I'm working cash in hand (which I was NOT!) and withholding several months contributions from me again forcing me into debt, for the lack of support in finding a job & for the lack of support with accepting a job.
I have hated every minute of being a 'doley' and finally I have been given the opportunity to get back into work, no thanks to the Jobcentre's job listings (usually consisting of "earn upto £80,000 p/a" then at the bottom "Please note this is a self-employed vacancy. Advertised salary based on commission. No basic wage.").
I can't sign off the day before I start work, and they have no spare time before. So I have to sign off 5 days before I actually start, meaning I will be short for my car repayments.
The job I have got then pays a month in arrears which leaves me with nothing to live on for 28 days. I spoke with someone on the phone at the DWP who said they'd be delighted to sort a budgeting loan out for me. But oh no, I can't as I haven't been receiving JSA for long enough? But they might be able to offer me £80 grant, which would help enormously. Just been to a meeting for that and been turned down because "we can't pay for travel to work".
Apparently this is all my fault as they need two weeks notice that I have been offered a job & I can't take a job offered to me until they have reviewed it. Not helpful when I'm offered a job there and then, is it?
So thank you, DWP & Jobcentre+, for the late payments which forced me into debt, for the patronising tone with which your employees talk to me in, for the long enquiries into whether I'm working cash in hand (which I was NOT!) and withholding several months contributions from me again forcing me into debt, for the lack of support in finding a job & for the lack of support with accepting a job.
My brother is having a similarly farcical experience... Spent ages waiting to see someone at the JC and was then told, by the person he had been waiting to see, that he had to phone them up instead. So he now had to go home and phone up to speak to the person who he had earlier been sat in front of in the JC after over an hour of waiting. When he phoned up in the first place he had been told to go down to the JC to speak to the person in question and wasn't offered the option of speaking to them on the phone. Their whole attitude seems to be "you are unemployed therefore you have nothing better to do with your time therefore we're going to p*ss you about".
Round peg - square hole... computer says no 
They are a fricking nightmare, you have my condolences.
I'm not sure if they select their staff on the basis that they will as unhelpful / miserable as possible - or if that is just the mind set they fall into after dishing out benefit to scum bags all day long.
Well done on the job though!
They are a fricking nightmare, you have my condolences.
I'm not sure if they select their staff on the basis that they will as unhelpful / miserable as possible - or if that is just the mind set they fall into after dishing out benefit to scum bags all day long.
Well done on the job though!
whitevanman88 said:
I always thought that the Jobcentre / Jobseekers allowance was there to help unemployed people get back into work?
That's where you went wrong. The whole system is set up to provide a living to a massive underclass who are never going to do a days work in their life.People such as yourself who unfortunately find themselves temporarily out of work aren't really in the picture, as you found out with
whitevanman88 said:
Apparently this is all my fault as they need two weeks notice that I have been offered a job & I can't take a job offered to me until they have reviewed it. Not helpful when I'm offered a job there and then, is it?
Do you really think a system which has rules like this is designed to help people who are genuinely looking for a job? Of course if you never get a job you're never going to encounter this problem...Soovy said:
You have made the mistake of assuming that the Job Centre is there to help.
It's there to help the feckless and lazy.
People who want to work, however......
...should do the bare minimum to keep JCP happy, enough to get your jsa and not use them at all for looking for job. t'interweb is much more useful.It's there to help the feckless and lazy.
People who want to work, however......
and you CAN sign off the day before you start work as i've done it a couple of times now.
all you need to do is start your job THEN tell JCP who will then ask you what your last day of claiming will be.
also if you're leaving a job ring them THAT DAY as you get paid from the day you make the call
samdale said:
Soovy said:
You have made the mistake of assuming that the Job Centre is there to help.
It's there to help the feckless and lazy.
People who want to work, however......
...should do the bare minimum to keep JCP happy, enough to get your jsa and not use them at all for looking for job. t'interweb is much more useful.It's there to help the feckless and lazy.
People who want to work, however......
and you CAN sign off the day before you start work as i've done it a couple of times now.
all you need to do is start your job THEN tell JCP who will then ask you what your last day of claiming will be.
also if you're leaving a job ring them THAT DAY as you get paid from the day you make the call
whitevanman88 said:
samdale said:
Soovy said:
You have made the mistake of assuming that the Job Centre is there to help.
It's there to help the feckless and lazy.
People who want to work, however......
...should do the bare minimum to keep JCP happy, enough to get your jsa and not use them at all for looking for job. t'interweb is much more useful.It's there to help the feckless and lazy.
People who want to work, however......
and you CAN sign off the day before you start work as i've done it a couple of times now.
all you need to do is start your job THEN tell JCP who will then ask you what your last day of claiming will be.
also if you're leaving a job ring them THAT DAY as you get paid from the day you make the call
Dick_Phallus said:
That's where you went wrong. The whole system is set up to provide a living to a massive underclass who are never going to do a days work in their life.
You couldn't be more wrong, the systems sole aim is to try and hinder anyone getting their money, it has become a battle of wits between the professional sponger and the system. There is no place in this for a genuine case that needs help getting back to work, their systems are unused and outdated, employers don't bother with them and the aid for interviewees deliberately unhelpful.There is, however a 3rd element now as witnessed by my nieghbour, an immigrant family who was loudly 'prompted' to get all the assistance you could chuck a P45 at
B Oeuf said:
There is, however a 3rd element now as witnessed by my nieghbour, an immigrant family who was loudly 'prompted' to get all the assistance you could chuck a P45 at
Careful now, you'll be classed one of those racialistics if you keep going like that.Reading all the above leads me to one conclusion though - absolutely nothing has changed in the last 18 years in the job centre!
Have been in the same situation myself. I know it's not much help now but it will all a long way off when that first pay cheque arrives.
My advice would be, if at all possible, f
k them off and look to friends and family to get you through to pay day. You are starting a new job and surely don't need the stress.
My advice would be, if at all possible, f
k them off and look to friends and family to get you through to pay day. You are starting a new job and surely don't need the stress.they are hopeless.
if i need an appointment i go into dudley jobcentre and have to phone wolverhampton who put me on hold while they phone dudley to make the appointment!
nothing is straightforwards and most of the staff working there get the jobs by being unemployed for over 12 months and doing a VERY basic computer skills and admin course.
the most annoying thing is the bouncers on the doors who say you cant look for work because they're busy!
if i need an appointment i go into dudley jobcentre and have to phone wolverhampton who put me on hold while they phone dudley to make the appointment!
nothing is straightforwards and most of the staff working there get the jobs by being unemployed for over 12 months and doing a VERY basic computer skills and admin course.
the most annoying thing is the bouncers on the doors who say you cant look for work because they're busy!
Just a little update:
I have now succeeded in my battles today, they are letting me sign off (on friday) by post, they're funding my train fares for the first month of employment and also keeping my on the books so if I don't get on with my new employer (believe me, they haven't been helpful today!) then I can go straight back to New Deal.
The system's still crap though!
I have now succeeded in my battles today, they are letting me sign off (on friday) by post, they're funding my train fares for the first month of employment and also keeping my on the books so if I don't get on with my new employer (believe me, they haven't been helpful today!) then I can go straight back to New Deal.
The system's still crap though!
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