Is the Jobcentre useless?

busy_mom_2

Thanks for your response, personally in all the years I have worked for the department this is the worse time, over the years I have suffered daily abuse, been threatened and even had a key board thrown at me.
Today has certainly been no exception, had a pen thrown at me todayand lost count of the number of names and f words and I am supposed to still help this person:mad:
The pressures on us in horrendous at the moment, at the end of every interview we then have to complete a log to justify exactly why we seeing each and every person.
I know a lot of staff do speak to customers with a demorolising attitude but most of us do try to help.
You only see an adviser for a new claim and then periodically to review your jobseeker agreement, the people who sign you every 2 weeks are only trained to ensure you have taken your 3 steps each week and satisfied your criteria. Again there are good and bad staff at all grades
We can only sign post you in the right direction ad offer help as and when it is available. I will certainly be intereted to see what this supposed offer announced in the budget was all about today for the uner 25's. Good luck with the job hunting and I hope you find work soon:j

Remember we have to go in each day see our customers and remain polite and helpful:A

wishface

busy_mom wrote: »

why have poeple always got nothing but bad things to say about jobcentre workers.
Firstly once you claim has been taken at the jobcentre your forms are then sent to the denefit delivery centre and once they have left the jobcentre we have nothing whatsoever to do with your benefit, we don't process it we don't decide when and how much you will get paid or even if you will get paid at all
secondly we are allocated 5mins per person per fortnight so what exactly do you expect us to do during that 5 mins????
If you want longer then you can ask but myself as an adviser i am booked fully for 2 weeks and those appointmnets are controlled by managers and again each person is allocated 30 or 40 mins each so again not long.
There is not a very good jobs market are we then expected to magic vacancies out of thin air and guarantee you an interview??
Staff have spent years handling lazy, benefit scrounging layabouts who don't want to work and all training is based around this, provision that is available is aimed at unskilled people. The only reason most of you are using jobcentres are because of the lack of jobs which brings me back to the first point...
When people moan to me I treat them with respect but my job is not to find you a job, we aren't an agency we are there to determin that you have satisfied the criteria for claiming a benfit and then telling the computer which will then in turn pay you so, provided you are entitled and the people in the processing office have processed your claim and not lost your paperwork.


Please, please give us a break.:mad:

people have bad things to say because they have had bad experiences. I seriously doubt it's a conspiracy!

I don't believe 'customers' expect staff to magic jobs out of thin air. They know full well what the job market is like. The problem they have is that staff treat people as if they are lazy and as if they have no entitlement to benefits with which to live. All that does is breed resentment and insecurity. It doesn't help that the jobcentre do nothing to help people find work other than use a !!!! poor database of jobs provided, if at all, by local employers. Anything else, anyone wanting to try and do anything that doesn't fit into that just gets met with a wall of indifference - and then accused of being lazy some more.

You might well be a very helpful JC staffperson; but if my experience is anything to go by you'd be in the absolute minority surrounded by people who treat the unemployed like criminals.

wishface

I_luv_cats wrote: »

They are overwhelmed because the idiots didn't see the down-turn coming and closed loads of Job Centres and staff numbers were cut when things were looking artificially rosy!

It is mostly self service except when they call you in for an Interview or to sign on.

One good thing is that the Job Point vacancies are more up-to-date than the printed job cards a while ago.

Most services are on the phone these days (Benefit Q. / personal job search / New Claims Booking / Social Fund etc.)

Closing down the jobcentres was a massive error.

the jopoints are a joke: their internet search system (which is the same thing as the jobpoint) is appalling and those job points barely work. You can do all your searching at home on the internet, notarize the fact (as you have to do) and they still tell you to do a search when you come in. What's the point of asking you to keep a record of your activities if they aren't going to believe you.

whiteroom184

wishface wrote: »

Closing down the jobcentres was a massive error.

the jopoints are a joke: their internet search system (which is the same thing as the jobpoint) is appalling and those job points barely work. You can do all your searching at home on the internet, notarize the fact (as you have to do) and they still tell you to do a search when you come in. What's the point of asking you to keep a record of your activities if they aren't going to believe you.

totally agree with this, i am an honest job searcher who is desperate to get back into work, as previous posters have noted there are a few who are not, what amazes me is the jc never ask for proof of these applications at all, i could put down anything on my job search form and its not questioned, just signed off!
i may well put that i applied for potential vacancies in the treasury this week, after all there may well be a few positions comming up soon?

VALM

I feel sorry for the JobCentre employees. Sounds like they are between the devil and the deep blue. There are those like me who don't really want their help in finding a job as it's patronising and I consider that I am capable of searching for work myself. Then there are others who turn up and don't want to look for work so will put every obstacle in the employee's way for them to be prevented from helping.

Add to that that jobs are scarce anyway so how can they help effectively?

Coveredinbees!!!!

I was out of work a few years ago and I'll be honest I didn't want to work (I had been ill) and they made it very easy to not bother trying. It wasn't until I had been off for 6 months that I got any proper help with CV writing and not getting anymore free money that made me get on and find work. I did agency work for a while doing all sorts of bizarre job like spending all day shredding paperwork. The best one was on a It help desk for at an airport, I don't know much about IT but more than most pilots :P

zappster1966

If the unemployment figures are to be believed there's over a million individuals signing on each week. And several million payments of JSA, ESA, Income Support & Incapacity Benefit to be paid too, with new claims coming in, changes happening, people signing off the books ... it's quite remarkable the help they provide, day in day out.

I don't think they get much recognition, tbh. Politicians seldom talk about DWP, it's always teachers, doctors & nurses and the police who get all the praise. Their wages are consistently at the bottom of the civil service payscales, many of their employees rely as much on Working Tax Credit like everyone else.

Much of the criticism is unjustified. So try walking the walk, they've got lots of vacancies at the moment.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/working/vacancies.asp

mountainofdebt

The trouble is that the JC staff that I come in contact with haven't helped in finding me work .....nor have they helped with the problems that I have had in claiming benefits - I just told to ring the blasted 0845 numbers, which has made me wonder what the actual purpose of the JC is.

Horace

Aah but Zappster a lot of the criticism levelled here is justified.

I know of 15 disabled people (me included) who were sent on a work trial with a company that the jobcentre knew were fraudulent, we were encouraged to come off the dole and go and work - needless to say none of us got paid and we were forced to use our own mobiles etc for which we never received expenses. The jobcentre were advised in the December that the company was run by a con woman who just wanted our Access to Work payments - proof was given to them and yet they decided to ignore that and play with people's lives after all what a success - 15 disabled people off their books in one fell swoop:rolleyes: It took a group of us to expose the conwoman on BBC See Hear - surprisingly no comment from the jobcentres who put us there and only pathetic excuses from the Employment Minister. The jobcentre provided zero help although our re-claims were fast tracked but we were still left without a job and a gloating DEA who was as much use as a chocolate saucepan:rolleyes:

Maybe this was an isolated case, I don't know but I do know that my experience of the jobcentre hasnt been a good one - there are only two decent advisors there (funnily enough both of them used to work for Rover so they knew where we were coming from). During my period of unemployment I applied for 2000 jobs but my age (47) and my disability and my perceived over qualification put off employers, the fact that I had been loyal to the employer who eventually made mre redundant was also a sticking point. Thankfully, via New Deal I have set up my own wedding planning & corporate events business.

Civil servants have a good ride - they get days off for sports days (not taken from holiday), they get days off for fun - usually accommodated in University accommodation whilst they lark about playing rounders and boozing to excess. They also have discounted theatre tickets, the use of Civil Service yachts - there are about 6 of them some of which are used for racing and others general cruising. I know about the yachts because I have been on them myself (its handy knowing a civil servant:D). So don't kid me that they get a tough ride because they don't.

max2009

Horace wrote: »

I know of 15 disabled people (me included) who were sent on a work trial with a company that the jobcentre knew were fraudulent, we were encouraged to come off the dole and go and work - needless to say none of us got paid and we were forced to use our own mobiles etc for which we never received expenses.

This will be happening a lot more with the new GOVT plan to put all 18-25 year olds into a job or training after 12 months on benefits.