Weekly sign-on at Job Centre

Bamber19

willsonline wrote: »

OK. Ive never missed an appt, nor been late. I have been applying for loads of jobs and still keep evidence of this so it must be a pointless excercise for the JC staff, in that it wastes more time (for them). They have one source of jobs and that is JCP. I can look at this in the comfort of my own home, why they need to check it when im there I dont know!

Sigining on each week is utterly pointless and generates more work for the DWP staff.

Anyway, After about 15 weeks unemployed think i could get an offer soon!!

The system that is in place is one that was put there when there were plenty of jobs available, so basically if you got to 13 weeks and hadn't found something you either didn't want to find something or weren't capable of finding a job on your own, so onto enhanced signing and weekly signing where a member of staff would find relevant jobs for you and could ensure (or at least more so than with a normal signing) that you were actually interested in going for a job you could do. As I say though now that there simply aren't the same numbers of jobs available it's questionable how much of a help it is.

andy46 wrote: »

If you meet the criteria of paying 2 years worth of NI contributions prior to claiming JSA, I question the need as to why you have to go through the humilliation each week of signing on and dealing with these JCP t***rs who just have not got a clue !!

Do we not pay NI contributions when we are in full time work to insure us against becoming unemployed and giving people a right to claim JSA.
By all means be hard on the shirkers who after 6 months show no intention of looking for work but treat those who may be claiming for the first time with some dignity.

Your contributions alone do not entitle you to anything, you also have to be actively seeking employment and this has to be checked on some level (albeit the current level is to take you word for it when you make your declaration every 2 weeks.) If no attendance was required there'd be plenty of people who wouldn't bother for weeks on end, and miss out on jobs they could do because they're feeling down and don't bother.

In my experience the lack of dignity is an imagined one, there is nothing undignified or degrading about attending a jobcentre for ten minutes to ensure you are actively seeking employment and many of those that complain about it would be the first to complain when they were working if they thought the system was too soft and didn't involve checking if someone is looking for work (which seems to be what you are suggesting should happen)

wishface wrote: »

after three and six months you are obliged to attend weekly.

it serves no purpose, but the JC muppets seem to think that by attending weekly more jobs will magically become available.

quite why people need to attend at all is beyond me. Of course it's because those selfsame bureaucrats need the work and incorrectly assume that people are of course lazy.

As above, the system was put in place when people who got to this stage were either lazy or incapable of finding work by themselves. When I worked there (quelle surprise) there were plenty of people who said "I checked the newspapers, the websites and looked at the job points, there's absolutely nothing" a quick jobsearch later and miraculously jobs would appear that the client could do and ahd no reason to say no to. Whilst some industries will literally get no results right now (i'd imagine) there are still jobs on the jobpoints. Many people also seem to forget that the longer they are unemployed the more they are expected to widen their search, no work for brickie's in your area? Apply for jobs doing other things then, no-one's asking you to make a new career out of it but apply for these posts and take them until things settle down, anything is better than JSA. Plenty of people have done this, the old JC i worked for has 2 solicitors, a surveyor and a building project manager working there now doing admin, are they going to stay there? Of course not but they're filling a gap until property industries improve.

Snakeeyes21

And who are these people trying to help that i hear you speaking of?
Surely it cant be the jobcentre staff?
My experience of dealing with them were that they were completely useless.
Giving me jobs that i didnt have qualifications for and telling me if i didnt apply for them my benefits would stop.
How is a chef getting told to apply for jobs as a machanic, a sparky, a supermarket manager and evergything else under the sun helping?
If thats help id rather not recieve it.

Bamber19

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

And who are these people trying to help that i hear you speaking of?
Surely it cant be the jobcentre staff?
My experience of dealing with them were that they were completely useless.
Giving me jobs that i didnt have qualifications for and telling me if i didnt apply for them my benefits would stop.
How is a chef getting told to apply for jobs as a machanic, a sparky, a supermarket manager and evergything else under the sun helping?
If thats help id rather not recieve it.

You're dealing with people, they'll all approach it differently. No-one in my JC would ever have pushed a chef towards a qualified role which they simply couldn't do. I would always be looking to find things related to their expertise, however at 6 months i'd be suggesting anything they could do, shelf stacking, packing, production line, anything that didn't require qualifications they didn't have, but as I said, back then to reach 6 months really meant there were problems with the individual. All I can say is that my experience is a truthful one, there were people claiming there were no jobs for them when a jobsearch showed jobs that were a perfect match, there were others who needed the pressure of someone following up applications because without it they weren't bothering, they were stuck in a rut. However I appreciate that times have changed over the last year or so and it's becoming less likely to find perfect matches for people who say they see nothing, but i'm sure it still happens and i'm sure there are still others who refuse to consider lower wages than they were used to or low skilled work when they've got to a point when really they should be accepting anything they can do.

busy_mom_2

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

And who are these people trying to help that i hear you speaking of?
Surely it cant be the jobcentre staff?
My experience of dealing with them were that they were completely useless.
Giving me jobs that i didnt have qualifications for and telling me if i didnt apply for them my benefits would stop.
How is a chef getting told to apply for jobs as a machanic, a sparky, a supermarket manager and evergything else under the sun helping?
If thats help id rather not recieve it.

Do not tar all jobcentre workers with the same brush please, call me arrogant or big headed if you like but i am good at my job. I get results and do take the time to help people.
Jobcentres have taken on lots of new staff and they are left to get on with it with little training. Most good advisers knowledge comes from years of doing the job, knowledge of local labour market and what provision is available and this isn't learnt overnight.
Either ask to speak to a manager if you aren't happy or why not apply for a job in a job centre and see if you can do a better job:rolleyes:

If you were supposedly made to apply for a job you clearly weren't suitable for no decision maker will ever stop your benefit. You can only be stopped benefit if you have failed to apply for a job that states either 'training available' or 'no skills required'. the words 'preferred' are also considered. If a vacancy states ' must have forklift licence' no you are not obliged to apply for it, worded 'forklift licence preferred' and then you risk a decision maker placing a sanction on your benefit.

Ask people niceley or a least show respect to a fellow human being and you will be responded with some common curtousy and helpful advice.:D

CCFC_80

busy_mom wrote: »

Please explain exactly why we are muppets :mad:

And why andy46

''I question the need as to why you have to go through the humilliation each week of signing on and dealing with these JCP t***rs who just have not got a clue !!''
again:mad:

i will then explain why we follow rules which require us to issue you with weekly signing arrangements, can't believe people think we just do as we please beacuse we work there:rolleyes:


The office I work in only has one floor does that mean we don't do the same work of follow the same systems as other offices....... noting to do with upstairs but there agin I have a theory perhaps the longer you claim dole (JSA to normal people) perhaps the unfitter you get so you need the exercise :rotfl:

I must apologise, I was wrong it is a thoroughly enjoyable experience signing on every week. In fact I would recommend anyone who is feeling down and depressed to pay a visit, especially if they are signing on for the first time and dealing with the happy,friendly and knowledgeable JCP staff.

busy_mom_2

andy46 wrote: »

I must apologise, I was wrong it is a thoroughly enjoyable experience signing on every week. In fact I would recommend anyone who is feeling down and depressed to pay a visit, especially if they are signing on for the first time and dealing with the happy,friendly and knowledgeable JCP staff.

You expect staff to be friendly when we are faced with a colourful display of abuse and happy friendly jobseekers every day:rolleyes:

I have had to see 2 jobseekers today who have complained against staff because 1 person was told they couldn't go back to college full time for 2 years and still sign on, he called the memebr of staff a total !!!! and procedded to rant and rave at me. The second clearly stated he hadn't bothered looking for work for the last 2 weeks because he had better things to do ( don't we all) then had the cheek to call me a ......(can't repeat all the things) and said he would be waiting outside for me after work because his money was not paid as he clearly wasn't jobseeking:mad:

You expect me to spend the rest of the day smiling?

dacouch

Bit hypocritical, you asked Andy not to tar all JC staff with the same brush, but you have a problem with two customers and this is a reason not to be friendly with the rest of your customers.

busy_mom_2

dacouch wrote: »

Bit hypocritical, you asked Andy not to tar all JC staff with the same brush, but you have a problem with two customers and this is a reason not to be friendly with the rest of your customers.

You call being threatened a bit of a 'problem', as a female having to leave the office and walk across a deserted car park on my own after work after being told this by a 6ft large built fella?

I always try my best I'm just trying to point out why staff are not always smiling and happy.

Horace

There are some very good security guards at my local jobcentre - I can remember when two women (who had once been 'work' colleagues) were hanging about outside the jobcentre when their scamming sister 'employed' us in her dodgy company (she was stealing our access to work payments) - the security guards refused to let us out of the building until they had gone - which is a pity because I am sure those of us that had been conned would have given them a slap (not that I condone violence in anyway).

The police also turn up to my local jobcentre nearly every single day - in fact I wonder why they don't have an office there and all because of the chavs with their snappy dogs and their attitudes.

I have no need to go to the jobcentre anymore as I now work for myself:j

wishface

willsonline wrote: »

OK. Ive never missed an appt, nor been late. I have been applying for loads of jobs and still keep evidence of this so it must be a pointless excercise for the JC staff, in that it wastes more time (for them). They have one source of jobs and that is JCP. I can look at this in the comfort of my own home, why they need to check it when im there I dont know!

Sigining on each week is utterly pointless and generates more work for the DWP staff.

Anyway, After about 15 weeks unemployed think i could get an offer soon!!

I think it's highly inappropriate and extremely offensive for the muppets at the jobcentre to descide someone is lazy, unreliable and thus in need of some form of punitive treatment just because they miss an appointment. Despite what these scumbags think there's more to life than appointments with the jobcentre, and the idea of treating it as if it were a real job interview is do disingenuous as to be insulting.