Anyone been down the Job Centre?

SingleSue

john539 wrote: »

That's the problem, you're just a number to the DWP/Job Centre.

Like everyone remembers their NI number.

Strange you should say that! I remember not only my NI number but also my ex husbands!

I also know the sort code, account number and the 16 digit number and 4 digit security code on my debit card, my pin, two of my childrens pins and I still remember our old pin on our debit card from when I was married.

I have a weird sort of obsession/memory with numbers....:D

SingleSue

mitchaa wrote: »

I've never been in the place.

What kind of jobs are advertised in there? I've always assumed it was the <£20k kind of jobs, PT positions etc.

I doubt your doctors and the likes are seen in the job centre, there are specialist recruitment agencies for persons with specialized jobs.

I may be wrong about the job centre i dont know, but i think the 1st thing that would jump out at me if i were to become unemployed would be internet recruitment, online applications etc?

Do people really still go down to the job centre and look at the white cards up on the walls for jobs

Oh it's all on the computer now...kids have had great fun playing on the machines when I have asked for their non help.

I personally look on their website for vacancies...it has all the ones that they have in the actual JC's.

robin_banks

john539 wrote: »

That's the problem, you're just a number to the DWP/Job Centre.

Like everyone remembers their NI number.

I could suggest that they read the letter sent to them that quotes it, therby negating the name for them to remember it, I ask only that they be able to remember thier name and address.

PasturesNew

If you are a pure specialist, it's easier to job hunt. I am not, in that the job I am looking for could have one of 5-6 titles, it may or may not be properly categorised within a sector too.

Then there's moving onto the "jobs you could actually do but weren't looking for until you got desperate", that's when the fun starts.... with my exceedingly wide experiences of jobs, coupled with my administrative experience/qualifications, over 20 years in IT in all roles/levels, some teaching/tutoring (schools, private companies, one-to-one self employed, local college), throw in the whole "can type at 105wpm and do shorthand and audio" skillset .... you can end up spending hours and hours and hours because there is no ONE central, good, effective website that you can go to. No straight forward half a dozen websites to use.

And this is what most people will be finding. Too many places to look is in reality worse than having to rely on one local paper and what's on the JC walls.

It is a full-time job, with overtime, 7 days a week, to really look for work.

tom9980

I know the feeling sue its really a horrible place to go but there are some really good staff who can help you but your situation is very complex as is mine anything that is hard they seem to want to get rid of you as quickly as possible.

Personally i think ANYONE should be entitled to walk into a jobcentre and get CV help its part of the job surely? or even help with interview technique ive only had one interview ever because i got ill at 16 and my only job was being employed by a family member.

It is still worth signing on by the way, if only for the NI credits for your pension. Im not entitled to benefits at the moment but still have to do the IB50 form and be available for a medical to make sure im still ill this is worth it because it will pay my pension (if there is one) in future years.

That said in the 11 years i have been ill i would have liked to have received more help not money so much but just help a friendly person to check im getting what im entitled to and help me plan for the future which isnt that easy when there is little hope my illness is going to improve. Maybe some help finding a suitable course to do at local colleges something which i ended up organising myself about 6 years ago anyway but still it would be good if they helped you do this. Also would be nice if they told disabled people about self employment, test trading and all the other options i know are available but they have never told me about! come on seriously not everyone knows about this stuff i have only found out reading about it online. I also booked myself in to see the Disability employment advisor about 2 years ago to see what my options were and if maybe i could do a day volunteering they knew of a charity and i interviewed and took a days volunteer work which was really good but not once have they enquired how its been going since to see if maybe id like to look into doing more (i crashed and burned about 6 months ago and had to stop but hope to go back soon).

I just get the feeling that Jobcentre staff are horribly undertrained and demotivated.

PasturesNew

tom9980 wrote: »

...come on seriously not everyone knows about this stuff

That's what annoys me about things. If you're in the loop of knowledge you know these things. In fact, those in the loop of knowledge make you feel like !!!!!! for not knowing/doing what they would. But there's no one chair to plonk yourself down on and say "Look, this is me, this is my list of stuffs .... now, what's realistic ... and where's that... so how would I .... and what about ...."

I have always said "I can't just ask". That's advice people say "Just ask". But I have a peculiar (hidden) [not dis]-ability that means I can't ask. If I ask I find I am dismissed, overlooked, misled, talked down to or confused. And on trying to clarify (my speshulness), I have the knack of really annoying people so they mark me down as being awkward and difficult.

I'm not, to try to explain a completely made up situation: imagine if you went into a food place and there were no menus, you had to tell them what you wanted.... but on asking what they have everybody speaks Russian. Then the staff who speak Russian are trying to deal with the person behind you because you're not telling them what you want. But you can't as you don't know what they have, then everybody behind you is getting annoyed because you're holding up the queue and everybody ends up ignoring you and pushing you out of the way. That's my world... although without the physical queue and physical pushing, certainly the feeling of not being able to communicate/get through and be dealt with and get an answer.

You can't ask for things if you don't know they exist.

ianian99

clobber wrote: »

I signed on for the first and only time in 2000. I went to the building I thought I was supposed to go to, waited in a queue for an hour or so, surrounded my unkempt smelly people who reeked of fags and stale beer. Being a nice middle class girlie I assumed that was what it was like, and spent my time inventing sympathetic backstories for my fellow claimants and trying very hard to be leftwing about it all.

Got to the front of the queue only to be told I was in the wrong place as I wasn't claiming incapacity benefit, and had to go next door to claim JSA or whatever it was called then. Went next door and it just had normal people who didn't smell bad.


Before the genuine incap claimants get offended, I know you're not all like that. But it has been govt policy for years to move long-term unemployed off JSA and onto incap benefit, which is why incapacity benefit claimants now have such a bad reputation.

those people looking rough , smelly and stinking of stale fags were probably the GENUINE claimants that have had some advice over the benefits board from other GENUINE claimants that tell people to stay up all night, smoking and drinking so the look really rough for their medicals.
Check out some of the threads if you think I'm jokin.

longtimelurker_2

The Job Centre poses as a place where you are helped to find work.

It's not. The Job Centre is the Benefits Office by another name, but with some 'target hitting' bureaucratic nonsense thrown in for good measure.

If you go in with the attitude of wanting help and wanting to find a job that suits your skills then you are bludgeoned with negativity. If you are open about your situtation they are obstructive and slow to help you.

If you go in not caring and just follow their job-seeking book-filling steps then you make their life easy and they can write you off as being 'helped'. If you are deceitful and fraudulant they help at the drop of a hat.

ianian99

longtimelurker wrote: »

The Job Centre poses as a place where you are helped to find work.

It's not. The Job Centre is the Benefits Office by another name, but with some 'target hitting' bureaucratic nonsense thrown in for good measure.

If you go in with the attitude of wanting help and wanting to find a job that suits your skills then you are bludgeoned with negativity. If you are open about your situtation they are obstructive and slow to help you.

If you go in not caring and just follow their job-seeking book-filling steps then you make their life easy and they can write you off as being 'helped'. If you are deceitful and fraudulant they help at the drop of a hat.

But if your deceitful and fraudualant why the heck would you want help. Doesn't make any sense

longtimelurker_2

ianian99 wrote: »

But if your deceitful and fraudualant why the heck would you want help. Doesn't make any sense

By help, I mean that they enable you to claim benefits with more ease.