MSE News: Government launches back to work programme

baybeebug

We wont mention the amount of people the new 'Work Programme' has just or about to make redundant!!! and the stress for those people who work in this area who don't know where they stand with their jobs if they are going to be TUPE'd to other companies!!!

LittleVoice

wakeupalarm wrote: »

How do you do that? What do you say to claim NI with a JSA payment?

If you register as unemployed and meet criteria of looking for and being available for work and sign on fortnightly, then you receive credit for NI contributions (ie it is as though you were in working and paying minimum employees NI). That is automatic.

In the first 6 months (if you made sufficient NI contributions in previous 2 fiscal years) or if you are assessed as not having above the threshold of savings or other income, then you also receive weekly payment to you of Jobseekers Allowance.

So the NI credit applies to all registered jobseekers but actual JSA is paid to fewer people.

iluvjohnsarg

LittleVoice wrote: »

If you register as unemployed and meet criteria of looking for and being available for work and sign on fortnightly, then you receive credit for NI contributions (ie it is as though you were in working and paying minimum employees NI). That is automatic.

In the first 6 months (if you made sufficient NI contributions in previous 2 fiscal years) or if you are assessed as not having above the threshold of savings or other income, then you also receive weekly payment to you of Jobseekers Allowance.

So the NI credit applies to all registered jobseekers but actual JSA is paid to fewer people.

That's correct littlevoice and I have wondered if these form a separate unpublished stat to those claiming JSA not just NI/state pension conts, so they don't count as actual unemployment figures, but then I did work for the DWP for 2 years and I am quite synical.

My gripe doesn't barely start there. Why can people in rental properties get housing benefit from day one when those with mortgages can't get a penny if conts based JSA or income based JSA from 13 weeks? The interest only on a mortgage of those who've worked and paid taxes (and have pride) is on average far less than those in rental. :mad: Locally I can get category A/private shared room housing benefit of £60 per week - my mortgage is £210!!!!! No brainer - but they'd prefer to see me default than pay the interest only. I don't understand???

Also, a lot of the offers like work programme (and equivalent over the years) aren't available to newly unemployed ... discrimination. Those with mortgages, pride, etc will most likely get back into work it quicker, but also NEED to so more likely to take anything to keep their head above water than lose the family home and then get paid rent possibly costing the tax payer more.

Sorry not so articulately put but I would want someone to advise on my CV and interview skills at day one and not have to wait until my home was repossessed.

Richardsct

In the borough where I live there are over 4000 unemployed with at the most 200 advertised jobs-so ingeus and A4e (the work programme 'Providers' in these parts) will have their work really cut out!

I still think the target is to get those on ESA, DLA, Incapacity benefits etc off these benefits and into work -that is where real savings in the welfare bill will be made in the long run

when things pick up (which they will )at least those looking for work will be better placed-the incentive for the providers is that they have not to just find any old job for someone that they'll not keep but have to ensure they stay in it for up to two years in order for them to maximise the payment for DWP

DCFC79

This adds a bit more detail

rickbonar

relic wrote: »

Excellent news, i'm sure there will still be people around to moan about it though ("Why do I have to do this, I should instantly get a job which pays me £30,000 a year to work 8 hours a week!").

Are you thinking of becoming an MP? or a Lord maybe?

:shhh:

dickydonkin

dseventy wrote: »

Personally no. Do I know a lot about it, yes.

But I asked have you experienced it - obviously not Check.



Who said that? Just check the history of the posters I referred to. Check

Do you need a job? CHECK No - Check

Do you claim off the state as you can't support yourself? No - I did claim what I was entitled to but I was quite able to support myself for the period of unemployment. I had income of two pensions and a substantial redundancy package. My house was paid off, my wife was working but there is more to being unemployed than just the financial aspect - but you already know that don't you?Check


Do you get the £65 approx a week? CHECK

NO - because I was receiving two pensions, my contribution based jsa was reduced -check.


Do you have to sign on? CHECK No - eventually I stopped signing on due to the fact jsa staff were useless and I had sufficient NI pension credits. Check

All unemployed people who claim JSA are in this boat. There is no "other boat".

Many people claim - but they don't neccessarily receive - check

d70

I was correct in my previous post however, that you have not experienced job seeking in the current climate - and by God does it show. You don't really know that much about the subject do you? Talk about generalising!

Please elaborate when you state however, that 'you know a lot about it'. Is that from the Daily Mail or by reading dross from similar postings like your own?

Let me tell you - if you have not experienced unemployment recently, been treat like something nasty on the bottom of someones shoe from jsa staff and people akin to yourself, are continuously ignored with job applications and other humiliations too many to mention, let me assure - you do not know ANYTHING about it.

Until you have - I would suggest you keep your crass comments to yourself as they are based only on your assumptions and an obvious dislike of all unemployed people. Thankfully I got through it - maybe your attitudes would change if it happened to you - although I suspect not.

ceridwen

dseventy wrote: »

Whatever money is being poured into this scheme can be used for proper facilities and supervision.

Honestly, I know people won't like this, but make it mandatory to spend 4 hours a day being supervised job-seeking.

Watch the claiments drop, watch the genuinly needy stay.

Has popular support too.

D70

Howzat for an unsupported statement? (ie the one about "has popular support"):rotfl::rotfl:

Anyway - with the number of jobs available (ie very few) then peeps in the vast majority of the country would spend the first half-hour/maybe hour of that time looking for jobs and then have to sit on their hands doing nothing for the remaining 3 hours or so - because there was literally nowhere else to look. Well - I guess that would "improve their skills" - ie their skills in playing cardgames with each other to occupy that 3 hours or so....

ceridwen

Right - now back onto the actual topic itself:

- My first reaction was that it will take bad employers (ie a lot of them:() about two seconds to work out that its financially beneficial to take on someone for that 18 months/2 years (dependant on which source one reads) and then find an excuse to sack them a week after that time period is up. Which would mean the employer could get that bonus for having taken on employee 1 and, as soon as the bonus was safely "in the bag" (because the employee had lasted long enough) they would then be replaced by employee 2 (ie another bonus for the employer).

I can foresee a lot of employers deciding that these bonuses were a useful way to get subsidised labour costs ad infinitum and a lot of jobseekers finding themselves back on the dole queue after the 18 months/2 years was up and perhaps with a bad reference in their pocket (as the employer had racked their brains to drum up something bad to say about them to justify having sacked them).

The Government must know this would happen - so they might just as well "cut out the middleman" and hand the bonus money straight to the employers regardless. Oh - I forgot - they wouldnt then have a "stick to beat the unemployed with" if they just passed the money straight over...:cool:

The only good thing is that those who are imminently going to retire and wouldnt want another job anyway if they got made redundant would only have to tell the employer that they would be retiring in a few months anyway - and the employer wouldnt take them on (ie in order to avoid having to hand the bonus back) and those peeps wouldnt find themselves inadvertently getting given a job they didnt want anyway. Bit hard on those close to retirement who DO actually want another job though (ie knowing they wouldnt have a chance compared to a worker who wanted a job permanently, rather than as a very temporary "fill-in" to retirement).....

EleanorRig

Firstly, I'd like to be able to pose a question without receiving the usual barrage of assault for daring to be one of those pesky unemployed. A highly unlikely possibility but for those of you that will be attacking me with your Daily Mails rolled up, you really are wasting your time.

Ok, I am currently on JSA, I am a lone parent with two children and I am trying to get work as a teaching assistant. I have passed two courses with the Open University and am currently studying a third to put towards a degree in Childhood Studies. I have gained 15 months experience in a school, I am currently training to be a Home Start volunteer (to add to my experience for my cv)
I apply for, on average, 3 jobs per week. All of which I find myself online, some in local papers. I have never been referred by the Job Centre, schools simply don't advertise there. In the past 6 months I have attended 5 interviews. Unfortunately (obviously) I haven't been offered the position and the reasons are always the same, someone else pipped me to the post by having more experience (hence my working with Home Start to increase that particular skill I am lacking in, according to employers)

As I am not clear as to what the new Work Programme will entail (there appears to be no clear guidelines anywhere online) am I to assume that I will undergo a programme where I will be given training on how to search online for jobs (teaching me to suck eggs there) If so I feel that their resources will be wasted as I am more than capable of finding jobs, even securing interviews, and I feel confident that, given all that I am doing to enhance the probability of procuring a job, I will get employment soon.

My question (to those who are prepared to answer it in a calm and informative fashion) is, what benefit would I gain from the Work Programme?