The Work Programme New Thread

donnajunkie

EndlessStruggle wrote: »

My work programme adviser has also said that she won't contact the employer as long as I give her all the details and check in with her once a month.

if you didnt give her the details of the employer how exactly would she contact them? i would also say if you want me to contact you once a month you can put £10 credit on my phone to cover the cost of the calls.

donnajunkie

KevInChester wrote: »

I go to sign on and despite listing 10 jobs applied for I get a lecture on how they could refer me to a Decision Maker as I have to put 1 thing for every day!

the requirements are per week not per day. i would remind them of that. so theoretically you could fulfill all requirements on monday and do nothing the rest of the week. however it looks better to spread everything you did throughout the week even if you didnt do them throughout the week. for example, say you have to apply for 5 jobs. you may get them all done by midweek but i would still just put 1 for monday, 1 for tuesday and so on.

KevInChester

It's one of those things that they are doing not because they have a legal leg to stand on, but because they know that they can just lose the papers for the appeal and continue sanctioning the benefit.

The woman told me it was targets they had to hit with regards to sending things to decision makers.

EndlessStruggle

I'm not sure how it's gonna work I'd just not like my new company to know I was on the WP but she's gonna phone me when I start and every so often instead of phoning the company to check I'm still in work as long as I give the start dates and company details. Suits me.

fiddlesticks

kazzah60 wrote: »

I'm afraid this is not accurate- if the WP provider is to be paid for you gaining employment ( whether or not THEY sourced the job for you) they will HAVE to contact the employer to verify your start date etc- also in order to get more money after you have been employed for 6 months they will contact them employer AGAIN to verify you are still employed there

No they don't.
The WP providers are paid to keep people off out of work benefits. So long as there is no sign that you are on JSA or another out of work one then theoretically they can claim. They don't always have to contact the employer to show that you are working.
Depends on the provider I guess but you can refuse permission to contact your employer and legally they cannot insist on you giving it.
As for staying in touch with with the WP provider... can't say I can see why thats a big task, they give you a call every few months and see how its going. 1 minute of your time.

EndlessStruggle

I was told I was contracted to the WP for 2 years whether I have a job or not and that I can call at any time for work and employment advice as that's part of what they have to provide.

kazzah60

fiddlesticks wrote: »

No they don't.
The WP providers are paid to keep people off out of work benefits. So long as there is no sign that you are on JSA or another out of work one then theoretically they can claim. They don't always have to contact the employer to show that you are working.
Depends on the provider I guess but you can refuse permission to contact your employer and legally they cannot insist on you giving it.
As for staying in touch with with the WP provider... can't say I can see why thats a big task, they give you a call every few months and see how its going. 1 minute of your time.

so if I understand you correctly - the government simply hands out money to this company once a "client" stops signing on - what if they died? what if they moved abroad ? the provider could claim a "success " fee of up to £3,600

that system would be open to MASSIVE abuse - and even I don't think the Government is naive enough to pay WP providers for people simply dropping off the benefits system.

Another flaw in your argument is this - my husband was only signing on for NI contributions - he did not receive any JSA - but he was still referred to the WP- on a mandatory contract - so why was he referred if he wasn't getting any cash benefit?

Alos - not sure if you work for the Job Centre or a WP provider but a friend of mine does and it was she who advised my husband to withdraw consent to share his information and not to tell the WP provider when he got a job so that THEY couldn't claim the funding for having found him work

and as for keeping in contact with the provider - these people hounded my husband and phoned our home at all hours of the day and night to get him in for the most useless and meaningless "job search activities" - his advisor admitted that my husbands area of working was " well over my head" and she didn't even understand what his job was - and it's not that specialised!




things that were offered to him;

• checking his CV - which was a waste of time because our mortgage insurance provider offered him a 2 day course on CV presentation and job applications run by a professional recruitment agency - no charge
• a work benefit assessment - to show how much better off working he would be than claiming benefits - he didn't get any JSA or other benefits- so therefore a waste of time
• training on how to conduct yourself at an interview - my husband is a senior manager - he knows what to do and what NOT to do - so pointless
• a 2 hour session cold calling potential employers such as local Government offices, NHS authorities, major Charities etc - all of whom said exactly what my husband told her they would - any vacancies they have are advertised on their websites

NONE of this was in any way conducive to helping my husband back into work - and I don't see why a person who doesn't even understand what my husbands job is needs to contact him every few months - WHAT can she offer him that he can't already do or access himself?

EndlessStruggle

Well I'm definitely still alive and not left the country. My experience with my WP has been different and has been nothing but positive. Sure I got my job and the one before on my own, nothing to do with them whatsoever but my advisers have always been cheering me on and nothing but friendly and positive so I don't have any strong negative feelings towards them and don't really mind if they want to keep in touch with me.

saxonrosecliff

I've now been for my second work programme appointment - with the money advice people. He was a really nice chap (far nicer than my advisor was on my first appointment) but what a waste of time. He told me all about changing energy, broadband etc suppliers regularly and getting the best deal. I guess you can tell that being a member of this website I already do all this.

Tomorrow I've got to go for interview skills and mock interviews. This will be the third time in about 18 months that I've done interview skills so I can't wait.

I wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I didn't know that you could refuse to sign the data protection thingy so will see how I go with them about that.

I can't wait for the job search session when they get me to ring the NHS as it was me that used to answer the phone and tell jobseekers to look on NHS jobs. They did not replace me at the end of a temporary contract so I'll get to speak to one of my old colleagues!

dontone

Well I went.
Waste of time. My appointment was at 10am (don't be late) The place doesn't actually open till 10am, and the bullies..er, I mean Security guards didn't open till 10.05am MEH!!

Anyway, I got some mousey voice woman with bad halitosis who told me something about A4E will call within 3 weeks and tell me where to go, I also have to keep signing on at the J/C. She also kept altering my file without asking, apparently there's no reason why I can't travel 30 miles+ to work (silly me saying at the beginning that I have a car) and she was going to put me down for night shifts until I pulled her on it. Cheek!!
I had to sign to say that I have received the letter she gave me and then she said that my benefit would be sanctioned if I didn't show up - to which I replied "So it's basically blackmail"*
she wasn't impressed and it ended there, all 10 mins of it.

*re the blackmail comment - I'm a bit miffed as I only get NI, don't get anything as I'm on contributions based and it run out a year ago, you know, penalised for working many years, married, no kids. Can't get anywhere in the job hunt as around here there's not much and whatever is there seems to favour the migrant worker......YET there's people who seem to always get away with stuff. I know I'm not singled out or anything, but it seems like a kick in the teeth, that I have to go through all this rigmarole for nothing. It wouldn't be so bad if I got JSA, but I don't think it's fair on us who don't get anything to run around like headless chickens going to other places and yet others get off scot free.

Sorry, just wanted to rant :rotfl: