JSA Sanctions - Beer Money for Claimant Advisers?

Charityworker

sammyjammy wrote: »

Indeed it is lies, I spotted it earlier but made the assumption everyone would know it was rubbish. In fact 20 years ago the only real sanctions people got were on availability issues on making their claim and LV and Misconduct on leaving a job.

At the end of the post I did say that sanctions only happened then for genuine reasons. Staff also used to get incentives for 'shopping' friends and family who they knew were working and not declaring.

sofaman

Mara69 wrote: »

sofaman, look!! Quick, over there! It's the point. Ah, no. You missed it.

Better luck next time.

Have to say, there are a lot of hysterical drama queens on this thread. My son claims JSA. He gets on well with his advisor and is looking hard for a job. He meets all their criteria but has been late to sign on a couple of times....he apologised and wasn't sanctioned. He was put forward for a training course. When we received the details we realised it was not possible to get to it via public transport. He explained, they understood and he wasn't sanctioned.

Perhaps it is just his charm and winning smile that hid advisors like.

Care to elaborate on this 'point'?

sofaman

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver wrote: »

The way Advisors relate to Claimants is a profoundly asymetrical and uneqaul relationship.
They would therefore have a professional incentive to sanction as detailed in their Circulars though I am to sure my description is anything but wholly inadequate).
I reckon it's a philosophical thing.
Maybe I should ask my Adviser when I meet him or her what Paper she reads and his or her political philosophy.
I reckon I would learn a lot.

I agree. This directive from the DWP creates a damaging, even suspicious, relationship between the claimant & adviser.

A JCP employee on this thread spoke of the victimization that they encountered due to these stringent, and damaging policies (as always, the fallout effects both the frontline staff & claimants).

MissMoneypenny

shedboy94 wrote: »

Presumably you have some sort of underlying problem..........but anyway...

Here you are always moaning about your job along the lines of civil servants getting "shafted" and yet you think others are the one with a "sort of underlying problem".:D If you don't like your job, then you should have worked harder at school and that would have given you better choices.

If you have only worked as a civil servant under the Labour government, then you might be in for a shock. My mother was a civil servant for years (although not a moaning one) and the long term staff always said that when Labour got in, they didn't have to work hard and were overstaffed; but when the Tories got in, they had those staff numbers reduced again and had to work harder.

shedboy94 wrote: »

Just speaking through personal experience, if we were overstaffed, calls to the Taxes and Tax Credit helpline would be answered straightaway, and claims would be processed immediately.

Yet not that short staffed that you can't spend time on the internet.

shedboy94 wrote: »

It is personal chice to work in the public sector - I chose to get a job in it 10 years ago,

Ahh...I see, you have only worked as a civil servant during a Labour government, hence all the moaning now they have gone. Tories are in now and as ususal when they get in, you will be required to work harder.

shedboy94 wrote: »

Why do you refer to "taxpayers".....I must speak to my own tax office as apparently as part of the public sector I shouldn't be paying tax....only the private sector do......according to you.

Where have I said you shouldn't pay tax? You are paying taxes, but just giving back some of the money that the taxpayers give you. State workers don't make money for the country. We can't afford to overstaff on state workers.

shedboy94 wrote: »

If you aren't happy in your own job,

You're the one who keeps moaning about your job. I don't moan about my job as I'm very happy; I worked hard on my education and encouraged my children to do the same.

MissMoneypenny

sammyjammy wrote: »

I have many friends who work for Barclays bank, guess what hours they work? Yes you've got it 9-5 with an hour for lunch. That's a 35 hour week for those not contracted to work Saturdays a whole 2 hours less than civil servants.

Ironically, I know a working mother of young children, who left Barclays as she could never be sure when she finished work. She now works in a job centre and told me that she was amazed to see that they always lock everything away at 4.30pm, ready to all walk out of the offce by 5pm.

eadieb

This may be incorrect as it is second hand info but recently one of my clients (i am a housing support worker) was under threat of a sanction for not preparing a cv and bringing it in to her jsa meeting. She was set up to attend the local library for a special job centre session to prepare the cv and thought she would be helped with preparing it as she did not know how to use a computer, has poor literacy and is not able to type. She asked for help but was told she had to do it herself and was ignored. She ended up in tears through the stress as she could not complete the task and left. The man running the 'prepare your cv' course said he would note she attended but did not prepare a cv.

I helped her prepare a CV at our offices instead and she took the completed cv to her next JSA meeting. She saw a different advisor, and she complained to him that she felt like she was set up to fail. He apparently told her that at that time they had been told to sanction as many people as possible because it was leading up to the end of the financial year and there were targets their office needed to meet.

Not sure about what these financial targets were, but there is certainly a problem when vulnerable claimants are expecting real help and are let down.

Since then, we have found that various job centres in our area have vulnerable adult link workers who are specially trained advisors and are meant to deal with any difficulties. So if you feel you might fit into this category it would be worth asking who the person is in your job centre and get help from them.

MyFurrySwingers

Over past Couple of Months have had made some mistakes ..
1. forgetting to set alarm for signing day/time then signing next day
2. getting signing week wrong because lot,s of stuff happening same day in previous week (could have swore i signed on in that week)..
so thought next signing fortnight later ...WRONG
3. have been missing A4A Working links Appointments due to not receiving appointment letters through post or emails or phone calls to tell me about these appointments (but cannot find way to prove it)..

SO I made mistakes And gave Explanations was not good enough
Jobcentre Decided to hit me with 2 big sanctions ..so far

sanction 1 and 2 (2 weeks benefit each sanction )craftily set one week apart so that i cannot claim hardship payments

So My Punishment for this is to be pushed into poverty..?

seem to remember at top of most unemployment letters "this what the LAW says you need to live on" around £67 a week ie not ZERO

and recently was late for a4e appointment so ..another automatic sanction letter dispatched
worried it will get worse
:mad::(

seven-day-weekend

......must be nice to newbies....

So what do you think would have happened had you 'forgotten' to go to work, if you had a job?

MyFurrySwingers

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

......must be nice to newbies....

So what do you think would have happened had you 'forgotten' to go to work, if you had a job?

Jobs for the most part are a daily event ..alarm set but a lot can happen in two weeks between signing on ..and "forgetting things" is not something i do deliberately ..but being made to feel like it is...:(

Riversong

I don't think they get bonuses or targets for sanctions. My friend quit her job voluntarily, straight away put in a JSA claim and was given money and is still being paid. she would be an easy sanction now as she is not entitled to the benefit, goodness knows how she got it, but nobody has bothered to sanction her.