What is 'The Work Programme' ?

donnajunkie

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

Can you do voluntary work instead of their placement?
I cant see them getting all the unemployed in my city on this, there isnt capacity.
I remember when a couple of people I know were on this they had them doing all sorts of stupid stuff like making paper aeroplanes and flying them,handing out their c.vs throughout the city centre and looking for jobs a hundred miles away.
People were very scathing!
They didnt get jobs.

they may let people do voluntary work as their placement but they wont be keen. they will want people to go somewhere were there is a chance of a job. of course if they get to the end of it without getting a job offer they wont be too happy having been made to give up the placement they wanted to do.

dandelionclock30

I dont think they will get jobs from these placements anyway.TBH.
Does anyone know anyone who has got a proper job from a placement?

donnajunkie

mattw7 wrote: »

As for being slow and incompetent isn't that just opening yourself up to a sanction too? The way DC is making this threat of stopped benefits every week I wouldn't put it past them.

i dont know but really they can sanction people for a bad attitude, refusing to work etc but people cant help it if they are genuinely not very good. so theres no reason why people couldnt fake not being very good. i mean in a subtle way.

mattw7

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

Can you do voluntary work instead of their placement?
I cant see them getting all the unemployed in my city on this, there isnt capacity.
I remember when a couple of people I know were on this they had them doing all sorts of stupid stuff like making paper aeroplanes and flying them,handing out their c.vs throughout the city centre and looking for jobs a hundred miles away.
People were very scathing!
They didnt get jobs.

Well according to JSA agreements you cannot do voluntary work or training unless it is under 16 hours per week, anything over that and you are then deemed unavailable for work. This is why the WP has a legal issue because surely the it goes against JSA rules as you do 30 hours per week. Why is it you can't make your own rules up but they can!

donnajunkie

mattw7 wrote: »

In all seriousness you are not going to get a a good quality job or company in this programme and therefore the vast majority of companies are going to exploit this, especially given the economic situation this country is in. The timing of this programme is bad too, this should have been rolled out when the economy picks up and jobs are freely available, therefore it would help those who need placements like this and not demeaning those honest people who have found themselves out of a job simply because of the state we're in. I find it remarkable that so many companies have signed up to this yet there are so few jobs around, I think that speaks volumes itself.

true but there are varying degrees of rubbishness. some will be genuinely looking to employ and wont be so bad. some may not be looking to employ but are still enjoyable to work at and appreciate your situation and do things like let you get away early. with anyone that is really bad i would be either stopping or slowing right down every time their back was turned.

dandelionclock30

What type of buisnesses offer placements is it anything and everything?

donnajunkie

mattw7 wrote: »

Well according to JSA agreements you cannot do voluntary work or training unless it is under 16 hours per week, anything over that and you are then deemed unavailable for work. This is why the WP has a legal issue because surely the it goes against JSA rules as you do 30 hours per week. Why is it you can't make your own rules up but they can!

i know many people who have done full time voluntary work while claiming in the past and the jobcentre knew about it. they arent going to waste time following people who do voluntary work to check they arent doing too many hours anyway. they have bigger priorities like following people working illegally for money while claiming.

donnajunkie

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

What type of buisnesses offer placements is it anything and everything?

in my experience its mostly local council, retail and warehousing.

dandelionclock30

And what were they like? ok ish or desperatley bad?

donnajunkie

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

And what were they like? ok ish or desperatley bad?

i know of some bad ones but dont know enough to know what they were all like. i know the council treated people as if they were normal employees but rarely ever employed anyone. even when they did it would only be at the end of the course when they have had them for free as long as they were allowed to.