Scared I will get penalised for Jobcentre's incompetence. Help!

Mooorna

Hiya everyone,
Basically I was booked in today for an 8.30 back to work interview with an adviser. I turned up five minutes before the session was due to start, but lo and behold I was faced with two tightly shut wooden doors! Of course I assumed maybe I had turned up a wee bit early, so I proceeded to wait for about 10minutes, but there was no change, the centre was still closed.

I looked through the front windows - nobody in sight. I phoned up the centre (this is the Gemini centre in Chelmsford, Essex) at least three times - nobody answered. I assumed the whole place was dead till 9am.

Now, when the centre 'officially' opened its doors, I went in and the woman at the desk said that there is almost always someone waiting at the doors to see people for 8.30 appointments. I saw no one and I think she knew that no-one was outside either. She took me to get my appointment re-booked, but I overheard a conversation between her and a colleague. The colleague said "Well we'll have to mark that as 'failure to attend' because she missed the appointment" to which the first woman replied "Yeah but she was waiting outside the doors..I'm not getting into that." Another adviser later spoke to me and apologised for the inconvenience.

Anyway, the appointment has been rebooked, however, regardless of the eventual apology, I'm still very worried that I'll be sanctioned for something that really was not my fault. Where one adviser was apologetic, another might not be so humble. I did call, I did quite nosily look through windows, I did my best and I feel that it would be more than unfair should they try to divert their disorganisation to me.
Sorry about the long query, but I just wanted to get your opinions on the matter. Do you think it is likely that I will get in trouble? Has this happened to anyone else before? And how would you interpret the woman saying "I'm not getting into that?" Does she mean she's siding with me? Or does she mean she doesnt want to get into the whole sanctioning thing TODAY, because she was busy or something, and would leave the scary stuff for someone else to dish out?

Or conversely, am I actually in the wrong here? I very strongly believe that I am not, but do you all think that they could build a strong enough claim against me?

Thank you very much.

real1314

Contact the jobcentre, tell them what happened. They may be as interested in the providers failure to actually comply as they might otherwise be in a potential failure to attend.

missdee85

Be as honest as you can, although with the security being stepped up so much in the jobcentre i would find it hard to believe if they didn't have a cctv camera pointed at the door so therefore would see you peeking through?

chrisuk013

As a former First Contact Officer for the DWP here is my advice....


Firstly the job centre is to blame for this problem - Reason Why? They had there diary open from 08:30 knowing that they do not open until 9am.. When an appointment is made advsiors are told to book the next available appointment.. If the job centre you went to start getting on there high horse tell them what i have told you!!

mitch161

is there a opening times card in the window. next time you go past take a pic using phone or try finding a website link for it.

also next appointment ask for a after 10am appointment pre 4pm appointment.

i know some job centres that try multiple tactics to decrease the people on benefits as they get a bonus for hitting targets. yes the benefits agencies have been known to care more about themselves then the people they serve.

i have read complaints websites about this. seen friends been verbally abused and accused of things to provoke an emotion and then asked to leave, due to the reaction and then had their payment stopped for 4 weeks.
which in JSA eyes is another person off their books so that advisor gets a tick on their box.

i have only been on benefits a couple months. but was on them many years ago for a longer period and seen this culture happen alot.

i hate benefits and cant wait to get back to work. but yes there are a few tricks to learn when your on benefits.

i remember they planned to close off town for construction down the street that job centre was on. yet they were still making appointments for that day.

i mentioned the road closes and they said dont worry we will re- arrange a new appointment if we dont see you attend. ofcourse i immediately requested a fresh day there and then. the shock i felt at their attitude.

they dont care if they push you into a temporary job for 4 weeks knowing forwell it will take longer to re instate benefit again afterwards.

i had that happen too.. 4 weeks work. they told me i had to wait until the pay slips came in as i was classed as still receiving an income (2 week wait after working the 4 weeks=6weeks without money) another 2 weeks to get a benefit payment.

basically worked 4 weeks and that had to cover 8 weeks of living.

gotta love it!!

things to look out for:
opening times(especially where some smaller JC+ close for lunch)
weekend appointments (queueing just to say you arrive makes you late, causes issues. turn up early)
construction(roadworks is no excuse)
weather (there is SNOW excuse) pun (if snowing or bus service stopped call them before appointment)
correct entrance/office. (larger JC+ have separate entrances. check which if its not a 'sign on')
abuse. (they can call you liar, cheat, scammer. freely, but insults even from you can lead to sanctions)
money. (even if you cant rub 2 pennies together for a bus they expect you to walk. so prepare)
arrested(even in custody they believe you have to use your one phonecall, to call them-stay legal)
prove you search(when applying for shopwork use cameraphone to take a self pic outside shop with CV)

if you ever hear them say dont worry, there is a reason why they think there might be something to worry about. E.G dont worry still apply for it, if the review board deem you arnt entitled to it then your not. sometimes applying for something, getting it for a week can cause a sanction. even for their clarical error.

some seem obvious but there are a minefield of games some people pick up on. if i knew 2 months ago what i know now.. my situation would be very different.. having morals and belief that people in power are honourable doesnt work anymore.

in retrospect i swear they got me to sign onto JSA and not ESA because they knew after 2 months they can sign me off so that it reduces the average length a person is on JSA for.

ok my morals will take one step down now for this next tip.
if something happened last week to change your circumstances. and they say it will take a week to apply for a new _____ anything.. go home call them up the district / decision making JC+ and ..... say you applied for ____ anything last week and want to know progress. ofcourse theyll have no record. and politely ask as there is a week delay can you apply via phone to them direct to shorten the delay and you dont mind going to your local JC+ tomorrow just to sign declaration of the phone application.

this has worked. the facts are in their system instantly and it just takes a day to get signature. and reply/result returns much sooner

morals back on full
its only a tip just to reduce waiting time. it wont change the decisions the slow result would have given anyway, it wont always work, its not a standard route so still fill in the paperwork and hand back to JC+ as a backup (the slow way)