Jobcentre harrassment

WhiteHorse

Oneday77 wrote: »

You would have to advise her it was being recorded,

You only have to warn them if you record telephone conversations.

especially if your wanting to mention DPA.

Recording them has nothing to do with your DPA request.

clairelh

I'm not going to defend how the advisor spoke to your wife, however as the others have said, it will seem a bit strange that for the two appointments your wife was asked to go to, she wasn't available for either. Isn't one of the main requirements for claiming JSA being available for work and for activities relating to her jobsearch (attending interviews, going in to the jobcentre etc)? They have found in a short space of time, two times when your wife wasn't available. Unlucky, coincidence?? Either way, she wasn't available. Regardless of whether you like or agree with it, personal appointments such as Doctors appointments etc do count towards unavailability, I guess they have to, otherwise there will be so many people who will just always say they have an appointment, day in, day out. If these are the first two occasions your wife has ever failed/been unable to attend anything they've asked, then IMO they are being harsh, however if this is the third/fourth... then I reckon they are going to start questioning.

With regards to you giving them dates when she can't come in - well, I would imagine that if she was being invited for an interview with Argos, it would have been Argos who had set the interview times, not the Jobcentre. It may have been them who could only do interviews at that particular date/time and that's why the advisor couldn't change.

Your wife is expected to arrange her appointments around the jobcentre, not the other way around. I know you've said the hospital are booked up in advance, but did your wife offer to phone the hospital to see if they've had any cancellations or they can change on the off chance? If your wife was employed a lot of employers would probably ask her to arrange, at the very least, her weekly blood tests around her working hours and not expect time off once a week, in her working time, to go to these. This is how the jobcentre will view it.

Granted, this was a short notice interview, but often real job interviews don't give you much notice and some employers wouldn't be able or even prepared to rearrange those.

As for Whitehorse's suggestions - I'm pretty sure phonecalls from a jobcentre won't be recorded. If they have been, I reckon you would have been informed at the start of the phonecall. As for recording the conversations yourself for evidence - I believe that would be illegal to do so because you would need to present this to a third party to make your complaint and to do that the person you are recording needs to be made aware. You can only record conversations without consent/knowledge of the other person if it is for your own personal use and does not get shared. If you attempted to use any recorded conversation where one party did not know about the recording as evidence I reckon it would be inadmissible. You can request details of written notes, however it will take months, not because the Jobcentre will necessarily hold, it's simply all FOI and Data Protection requests have to go through a lengthy procedure and in the meantime your wife will still have to sign on and comply with the requirements of claiming.

Your best bet right now is for your wife to sit down with the advisor and talk to her - your wife needs clarity on where she stands with her appointments. For the appointments she feels cannot be rearranged, she should take in and give to the advisor a list of these appointments. Then she needs to find out how she can ensure she can still attend these appointments and not have her benefits stopped (if at all possible - I don't know). See if there is anything afforded to her in terms or relaxation of the rules because of an existing medical condition. If the advisor is adamant and will not budge on her stance, is rude etc, then ask to see the manager. However, rules and regulations are just that, you should not expect the advisor to bend what is written in law because it you don't agree with it.

WhiteHorse

clairelh wrote: »

You can request details of written notes, however it will take months, not because the Jobcentre will necessarily hold, it's simply all FOI and Data Protection requests have to go through a lengthy procedure ...

They are required by law to supply the information within 40 days.

See their own website:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/privacy-policy/data-protection/

Vejovis

whitewing wrote: »

My eyesight is really bad but I don't have spare glasses because the lenses are so expensive.

ah well, my priority would be to ensure i had spares, rather than spend on other things. each to their own.

clairelh

WhiteHorse wrote: »

They are required by law to supply the information within 40 days.

See their own website:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/privacy-policy/data-protection/

That's still 40 days in which the OP's wife has to sign on and if necessary, attend the Work Programme.

It still won't change the fact that as far as the regulations go, she wasn't 'available', that is indisputable, even if for a couple of hours over 2 days. It may be she should be afforded some allowance for appointments which she wasn't given (although if they've not stopped her benefit it could be argued she has been given this). She would only be able to complain about the attitude and service she has received and unless the advisor wrote her notes in a subjective, not factual manner, there will be little that can be done as it will be only one person's word against another.

Don't get me wrong, I don't condone any person being spoken to in a disrespectful way but telephone conversations are a classic way to mis-interpret attitudes etc. We do not know how the advisor felt she was being spoken to by the wife - she may have felt the wife was being very uncooperative in return (which is why I asked if the wife offered to at least try to rearrange her appt). And vice versa, the wife may have taken offence to something which wasn't meant how the advisor was trying to communicate. I remember signing on and feeling as if I was in the dock everytime I went in to the jobcentre (pretty much how I feel when I go into a bank now. ), I do think that as a result you are constantly on the defensive. That's why I suggested a good face-to-face meeting. If you feel the advisor is against you personally, it's never going to help you in your jobsearch and tbh I'm sure the advisor isn't going to go out of her way to help the wife if she feels the wife is taking the proverbial.

KiKi

Vejovis wrote: »

ah well, my priority would be to ensure i had spares, rather than spend on other things. each to their own.

Glasses wouldn't help the OP's wife in any case. She has to have contact lenses actually fitted at a hospital to hold her pupil up. No good having prescription glasses if your eyes won't focus in the first place!

KiKi

Vejovis

KiKi wrote: »

Glasses wouldn't help the OP's wife in any case. She has to have contact lenses actually fitted at a hospital to hold her pupil up. No good having prescription glasses if your eyes won't focus in the first place!

KiKi

i wasn't replying to the op, so what's that got to do with my post?

t0rt0ise

Vejovis wrote: »

ah well, my priority would be to ensure i had spares, rather than spend on other things. each to their own.

I wear glasses and I don't have a spare pair. I also only have one eye and don't have a spare eye. My bad then.

Vejovis

t0rt0ise wrote: »

I wear glasses and I don't have a spare pair. I also only have one eye and don't have a spare eye. My bad then.

oh ha ha, how witty, give yourself a gold star for that millisecond of thought

KiKi

Vejovis wrote: »

i wasn't replying to the op, so what's that got to do with my post?

Your first post: "doesn't your wife have spare glasses in case her contacts break, if her eyes are that bad?" was to do with the OP, so I was continuing along the conversation, despite the fact that what I quoted wasn't in a direct response to the OP. But then I'm sure you knew that.

My reply was perfectly polite, so no need to be so defensive.
KiKi