Very Rude Job Centre Staff

mickyrod

My daughter was recently made redundant after 8 years with her current company. Yesterday she went for her second interview at the job centre, and the staff were very very rude and arrogant. My daughter works in the travel industry, and following her studies in leasure and tourism got her job. After just 2 weeks of signing on, the staff are now trying to force her to look for a job as a receptionist, and are saying that if she does not apply she will be fined!

I could understand this if she had been looking for a couple of months, but after 2 weeks? she loves working in travel and that is what she is qualified in. She left the job centre in tears yesterday!

As her company have kept her on for 14 hours a week to help wind down the company, she is not getting any JSA. So all she is getting by way of benifits is her National Insurance paid. I have told her that if they try to bully her next week, tell them to stuff their NA and we will pay any outstanding amount when she finds a job that SHE wants. Did I say the right thing?

Emmzi

as I recall you can ringfence work to your field for around 12 weeks before broadening the search.

Or, just do very bad applications for other jobs?

mmikailian

Emmzi wrote: »

as I recall you can ringfence work to your field for around 12 weeks before broadening the search.

Or, just do very bad applications for other jobs?

Exactly that I am in the same position was made redundent in June never went to sign on until end of Sept as i did not know I would qualify and they told me I would be ring fenced for 14 weeks!!

that i could look for a role in the same sector etc as before and the same wages after that i would need to start looking at lower wages and other areas.

I do wonder sometimes tho about the staff in the Job Centre I was told the other day that maybe i should take a lower paid job and work my way up !! (Oh thats a great idea why did i not think of that)

I was a self funding degree student I have paid for other management courses for myself and after 18 years I had worked my way up and to be told maybe I should do that again is not very nice. I was also told that i should make myself indispenable next time.

I do think sometimes that they think there are God !

DCFC79

Yes she might be wanting to stick to working in the travel and tourism industry but how long will it be before she finds a job in that area, why not apply for other jobs in other industries.

2sides2everystory

Job Centre Plus is of course totally unfit for purpose and has in fact been getting steadily worse for years. Their offices are full of threatening little hitlers.

On four occasions in the last 10 years I have been in a position where I could have signed on but I have only done so once.

I believe there are perhaps hundreds of thousands who would rather use their own resources to survive unemployment (if they are lucky enough to have them) than endure the experience of visiting Job Centre Plus.

Our local one has drug dealers in BMWs and goodness knows who else waiting outside for their prey and bouncers on the door.

I fully sympathise with your daughter.

It looks like she may well become another hidden statistic and the government love those.

scooby088

I can see where the jobcentre are coming from to limit your job search to one sector in her job search is in all honesty foolish from your daughters point of view. What i am saying beggars can't be choosers.

pillion

Our son was made redundant in June and I took him to his appointment at the Jobcentre myself. I was shocked to see a security guard on the door and couldn't understand why they would possibly need one, it is a very quiet town and certainly not known for trouble. By the third visit I understood fully why they needed a security guard! They had infuriated me no end and I wasn't even claiming JSA. I was told which chair to sit on while I waited and all around me there were desks where the Jobcentre staff interviewed those coming to sign on. I was able to clearly hear many conversations I shouldn't have heard where the staff gave claimants a really hard time regarding their job search and threatened them with the loss of their benefits. My son, who is 25, would come away feeling intimidated and demoralised. They never offered any constructive help or advice. He was going to just stop claiming because he couldn't face going anymore. In the end we set him up in business on his own. He's not making any money yet but at least he's got his self respect back. I realise not everyone has this option and have no choice but to sign on and I feel for them. Something really needs to be done about the Jobcentre, they do little or nothing to help with peoples job search and do far more harm than good.

2sides2everystory

scooby088 wrote: »

What i am saying beggars can't be choosers.

That is a disgraceful thng to say. You are not a man of this world, or if you are you wear blinkers.

Owain_Moneysaver

mickyrod wrote: »

As her company have kept her on for 14 hours a week to help wind down the company, she is not getting any JSA.

If she's working less than 16 hours per week she's eligible for JSA, and for the first six months it should be contributions-based, so no deductions for savings or income.

After six months it would change to income-based JSA which would have deductions for savings or income.

The only way to get any respect from many (not all) job centre staff is to put in complaints to an appropriately senior manager who has to compile complaint statistics and account for them to his manager.

bluenoseam

To be honest in a time when jobs are scarce enough as it is i'd be tempted to apply for everything i could do, even if i got a NMW retail job until something in my ideal sector came up wages are better than dealing with the facists at the Job Centre any day of the week! When i quit my job last year i didn't claim JSA & never signed on because of my previous experience with them back in 2003 where honestly i was treated like the scum of the earth because i didn't have a job, meanwhile the junkies who didn't want to work came in and got mollycoddled, after that experience if i could go the next 40 years without going into the place i'll happily do so! But yeah, try to find a job even if it's just a "bridge", i'm told it's also easier to gain employment when you're IN employment (i know, that's perverse in my own mind!), seems to be the key and atleast then she can tell the job centre where to get off being self righteous!

gravitytolls

It's normal, they are rude, judgemental and completely unhelpful. Of course there's the odd bad apple everywhere, but in the case of JCP, you only find fing the odd good egg.