Mistreated at job centre - filing a complaint.

SeduLOUs

Whilst I do have some sympathy for you for the way you were treated, I do also agree with many of the comments saying that you could be doing more.

My boyfriend moved over from Cyprus to the UK on October 20th. He had little relevant work experience, very few relevant qualifications and he had just come from another country where he had been for 5 years. All in all not a good combo for finding a job in this climate.

However, from the day he landed he spent 8 hours a day (9-5) jobhunting. In the morning he would hunt through all of the jobsites and apply to anything he would have a chance of getting. In the afternoon he went out asking around for opportunities and talking to managers.

He started full time work on November 6th.

There is work out there, but you have to want it.

CCFC_80

It's a very sad state of affairs that the JCP staff used to help you in your efforts to find work.

Reading through this thread they now only serve a purpose by making sure that you satisfy the criteria of claiming Job seekers allowance. They appear to want to catch you out by making sure you are applying for anything and everything and getting brownie points for referring claimants to decision makers for not trying hard enough in looking for work.

A very sad situation indeed and completely glad that I no longer have to go through the process of dealing with the majority of these unfeeling people every fortnight.

MsHoarder

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Whilst I do have some sympathy for you for the way you were treated, I do also agree with many of the comments saying that you could be doing more.

My boyfriend moved over from Cyprus to the UK on October 20th. He had little relevant work experience, very few relevant qualifications and he had just come from another country where he had been for 5 years. All in all not a good combo for finding a job in this climate.

However, from the day he landed he spent 8 hours a day (9-5) jobhunting. In the morning he would hunt through all of the jobsites and apply to anything he would have a chance of getting. In the afternoon he went out asking around for opportunities and talking to managers.

He started full time work on November 6th.

There is work out there, but you have to want it.

Splendid. How many interviews did he get feedback from telling him he was "overqualified"? Some of us fell into the trap that university would improve our employment prospects, and with industries vanishing now can't get a non-specialised job for fear we won't stay.

Short of missing out 3-6 years of experience from my CV there's not much I can do about that.

trotter09

Heart_Shaped_Diamond wrote: »

I have settled since the occurence and my next step is to enrole in a course for the NHS to see if I can open up that field of work.

How's it going, Heart Shaped?

I hope you've got over the JC experience. Life's like that - you find someone in a bad mood and they mistreat you. Sooner or later you'll do it to someone yourself - we all do it - being rude to a shop assistant or whatever. When someone's being rude to you, picture them with their knickers down sitting on the lavatory - you'll find you won't take them so seriously and can more easily brush their rudeness aside.

trotter09

SeduLOUs wrote: »

My boyfriend moved over from Cyprus to the UK on October 20th.

However, from the day he landed he spent 8 hours a day (9-5) jobhunting. In the morning he would hunt through all of the jobsites and apply to anything he would have a chance of getting. In the afternoon he went out asking around for opportunities and talking to managers.

He started full time work on November 6th.

There is work out there, but you have to want it.

That's the way to do it. If everyone took that approach - looked for work all day every day and were prepared to take any job they were capable of doing - there would be many fewer unemployed.

Those that say there are only half a million vacancies but 2.5 million unemployed miss two points: 1. Not all vacancies are notified to JCs and 2. the snowball effect - people who are in work create jobs for others by adding to aggregate demand in the economy. (EG if you're in a job maybe you can afford to eat out occasionally and thus help create a waiter job.)

naughtyjo

Really sorry that you had a bad experience at the Job Centre
The person that saw you will have been a signing clerk and not an adviser. The new government has come down really hard on the jobcentre with whats called the stricter benefit regime hence her questioning you.
If I am completely honest with you and this is not a personal attack on you I expect my customers to do a lot more than the minimum 3 activities a week. For example you could look on 3 websites and thats 3 activities which could take 30minutes. Your not going to get a job investing 30mins a week into your jobsearch. I would expect that everyday.
Because your 19 ask to see an adviser because they can fast track you to whats called stage 3 and there are 6 month jobs available under the future jobs fund designed specifically for your age group. If your self esteem is low would you do voluntary work to help build it up? It is a two way streak and the advisers will give you so much help and support towards getting you into work if you go and see them and have a chat about how your feeling and what you really want to do. I would much rather support someone than sanction them and bash them around the head. If someone is really trying thats all I can ask.
Dont let one bad experience put you off we are not all like that !! Good Luck and check out your options with your adviser not a signing clerk

donnajunkie

naughtyjo wrote: »

If I am completely honest with you and this is not a personal attack on you I expect my customers to do a lot more than the minimum 3 activities a week. For example you could look on 3 websites and thats 3 activities which could take 30minutes. Your not going to get a job investing 30mins a week into your jobsearch. I would expect that everyday.

you can expect what you want but surely legally if they are fulfilling what their jsa agreement says then you shouldnt take any action against them.

cassieB57

donnajunkie wrote: »

you can expect what you want but surely legally if they are fulfilling what their jsa agreement says then you shouldnt take any action against them.

..I agree in principal, but then I'd be wondering how much that person actually wanted to find a job. All the time I hear "but I thought I only had to do 3 things a fortnight"...as if they would only want to do the bare minimum so as to get their benefit, rather than to get a job

(Come to think of it, I've worked with people like that---just do enough to get paid at the end of the month!!)

Caroline_a

donnajunkie wrote: »

you can expect what you want but surely legally if they are fulfilling what their jsa agreement says then you shouldnt take any action against them.

Yes that's true, but surely if you want a job you need to work at it. This isn't an attack on anyone, but in order to get a job you need to look at it as a job in itself. You would have to work from, say, 9 until 5 if you were in a job, so look on jobsearch as the start of working. Even if you spend 5 hours a day, you can contact agencies, develop your CV, write speculative letters, make speculative phonecalls. It really is a numbers game a lot of the time, if you apply for 500 jobs you have more likelyhood of getting a job than if you apply for 100.

Just keep at it!

shikoku

naughtyjo wrote: »

. I would much rather support someone than sanction them and bash them around the head.

Psst....

Put your ego away, you're a low level clerk; one round of cuts away from the other side of the desk.