The Work Programme New Thread

donnajunkie

imatt wrote: »

T'was ever thus! This was the case under the equally lamentable New and Flexible New Deals.

they had plenty of placements on the old new deal here. well on that companies could have people for 13 or 26 weeks. this to me proves that most companies are just after free labour. if they were genuinely looking to employ there would still be plenty of placements available.

imatt

donnajunkie wrote: »

they had plenty of placements on the old new deal here. well on that companies could have people for 13 or 26 weeks. this to me proves that most companies are just after free labour. if they were genuinely looking to employ there would still be plenty of placements available.

Well, when I was at A4e in Leeds some time ago under the ND, overcrowding was rife simply because they could not find placements for people. BEST (A4e lite) was just as bad.

I remember having to try to arrange my own placements (without success) using the SOLITARY phone available to clients. Quite shameful really.

That said, some of this was probably due to the sheer ineptitude of those particular A4e and BEST branches and their staff.

dandelionclock30

A lady I know went to one of those Best places in Mabgate Leeds,the one that is near the New Roscoe on the corner. She was wanting a job in a call centre or admin capacity.
Anyway they just had her doing jobsearch day in day out for weeks on end and a bit on computers which she could anyway. She said it was boiling hot, often there was not enough computers etc and it didnt help her.
I know other people who had to talk about barriers to employment and make paper planes and do teambuilding!

fiddlesticks

scooby088 wrote: »

Same here I only tell them about interviews after the fact, but when one is actually fruitfull I will only inform the JC when signing off and not my WP provider.

and the JC tells the WP and the money is claimed anyway.

looby75

fiddlesticks wrote: »

and the JC tells the WP and the money is claimed anyway.

not if you withdraw consent and don't tell the JC where you are working. The employer needs to confirm that you have started working for them before they get paid.

imatt

Latest from CH4 news about A4e's terrible performance figures:

http://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-a4e-finds-jobs-for-3-5-per-cent-of-job-seekers

Also see:

http://watchinga4e.blogspot.co.uk/

So it would appear that A4e achieves a 'success' rate of just 3.5% of job outcomes lasting 13 weeks / 3 months or more!

Looking at their site, they (A4e) claimed the company outperformed the market average on previous programs such as ND, FND and Pathways to Work. (WP data is is still very conspicuous by its absence, no surprise there).

http://www.mya4e.com/2012/06/18/a4e-the-facts-behind-the-coverage-2/

I do wonder whether A4e will claim better results than the market average with the WP? If so, I'd hate to see what the other W2W providers achieve!

This revelation should also make those who support the WP, esp the knuckle-headed Cameron, D Smith and Greyman Greyling think long and hard about how taxpayers money is not just being wasted, but deliberately misspent!

fiddlesticks

looby75 wrote: »

not if you withdraw consent and don't tell the JC where you are working. The employer needs to confirm that you have started working for them before they get paid.

Not in all cases. They can sometimes use 'off benefit' checks. And I don't think you can withdraw consent for the JC to tall to the WP, they don't need consent for that.

looby75

fiddlesticks wrote: »

Not in all cases. They can sometimes use 'off benefit' checks. And I don't think you can withdraw consent for the JC to tall to the WP, they don't need consent for that.

whats an off benefit check?

I didn't mean withdraw consent from the JC just the WP. If you withdraw consent from them they can not contact ANYONE about you, not the JC, not employers, not even the milk man.

If they can't contact anyone to talk about you how will they ask your new employer (if they somehow find out who they are) to confirm that you have started work with them, or follow up to see if you are still there after 13 weeks etc.

On of my neighbours is also on the WP and had an interview at a care home about a month ago, they offered her the job subject to her CRB checks coming back ok. She told the WP and they have bugged the life out of her ever since to see if she had started yet. On Monday they phoned her 4 times in one day, she found out that the manager of the care home has been off ill and thats why she hasn't heard anything back yet, told the WP thats why and she should hear in the next few days now the manger is back. They asked her which care home it was at (she found the job herself with no help from the WP which is why they didn't know) so they could phone the manager up to tell her to hurry up and give her a start date :eek: Luckily my neighbour told them to mind their own business. Can you imagine what would happen to the job offer if the WP started phoning the care home up and making demands of the manager.

I was speaking to her yesterday and she mentioned about how fed up she is of the WP hassling her and how she wishes she'd never told them about the interview never mind the job offer. Also how they started to get heavy handed with her when she said she wasn't happy with the possibility of them hassling her new employers, saying she'd signed the consent forms (which she doesn't remember doing or at least they weren't explained to her as being that she was told she HAD to sign them which I totally believe because I was told that too, I signed them for a quiet life but told them I knew it wasn't compulsory) so they can do whatever they want.

So I pointed her here (*waves* jic she's reading this ) and told her about withdrawing consent, which she's going to do. She won't take any rubbish off them either she's not backwards in coming forwards shall we say

kazzah60

fiddlesticks wrote: »

Not in all cases. They can sometimes use 'off benefit' checks. And I don't think you can withdraw consent for the JC to tall to the WP, they don't need consent for that.

my husband withdrew consent from DWP (JC) and also his WP provider - he was sent a letter which stated that consent could NOT be withdrawn for consent for JC

BUT consent CAN be withdrawn from WP provider

hth

donnajunkie

imatt wrote: »

Well, when I was at A4e in Leeds some time ago under the ND, overcrowding was rife simply because they could not find placements for people. BEST (A4e lite) was just as bad.

I remember having to try to arrange my own placements (without success) using the SOLITARY phone available to clients. Quite shameful really.

That said, some of this was probably due to the sheer ineptitude of those particular A4e and BEST branches and their staff.

i guess it was probably due to the incompetence of the staff or maybe they just made more of an effort to ensure employers had the right intentions(most dont). here they would aim to have people out on placement within a few days and in most cases they were. they didnt want people getting under their feet. many people got sent to the likes of poundland, tescos, local council, charity shops etc.