rude, arrogant jobcentre staff.

raq

My first signing on was back in November 2006 and on my second appointment I was on time, yes on time. The lady at the front desk gave me such a hard time I also bit my lip. She spoke down to me really bad. I had to wait around to see another person explain why I was on time and not 5 minutes early to look at the job board. I was actually on the jobcentre website the night before from home. When I actually signed on I walked out of there, rang my husband and cried. She was so horrible. I have worked for the past 23 years and not once have ever claimed anything that I am not entitled to. Thankfully I no longer have to go there, but other than this person the rest of the staff was "TOP".

ianian99

If they talk down to you just tell them straight that you dont like the way you are being spoken to and ask to be seen by another member of staff and ask who the office manager is and the area manager and write a letter of complaint to both of them, making sure you let the advisor know that you WILL be complaining.
I found that most of the staff in job centres tend to be sound apart from the odd one who thinks that its their money they are dealing with.
The rudest tend to be in the BA offices, as they have bullet proof screens between them and you and in the closed offices that only deal with telephone claims now they are well stroppy as i found out last week calling on behalf of a friend.
The whole system is set up for the benefit of the blagger and not the decent person who finds themselves out of work for a short time.
for a start when you walk into either jobcentre or ba office you either need to tell some security guard your business (along with the 42 people behind you) who will then shout your business across the office to some advisor.the same with the ba, you stand in a queue waiting to stand in front of a glass screen telling the advisor along with the 75 people behind you all your business. Now a lot of people will just go without rather than have to tell the whole world their business, imagine some old pensioner thats wifes become incontinenet and needs a couple of quid extra to cover the washing, do you think he's going to tell the world his private business? I think not.
Whereas the scum bags that are down there every friday or monday with their lost wallet stories or whatever blag they have thought up that day don't give a !!!! what people here. But soon there wont be any ba offices left as they are all going to central closed offices and the only way you can claim is via phone which again is set up to put people off.
For instance if you want to apply for a crisis loan you need to call an 0800 number which sounds great as the call is free but if you are using a mobile it isn't free (most people on benefits have payg mobiles) now when you call you get an option "for crisis loans press 1 for social fund press 2" if you press 2 it tells you to call an 0845 number but 99 times out of a hundred when you press 1 you are told that all operators are busy by which time you have been charged 40 - 50p.Now you cant use the phones in the office to call the 0800 numbers so your only option is to either waste all your credit or stand in a phone box for an hour or so which neither is really feesible. Now the whole point about this is that the staff inj the offices will tell you that you can only claim by phone but the fact is that they can give you a form over the counter for you to fill out and they will fax it over for you. again all the dodgy geezers know this and use that method for applying for their bogus crisis loans.
The whole system is a joke and is geared up to help the scumbags but not the genuine neady.

Oldernotwiser

Aitch7 wrote: »

Hi,



Interestingly I received some quite shocking abuse on this board from benefit agency staff who insulted me on a very personal level - quite hurtful! - says it all really;-)

I've just read the thread you're referring to and this comment is totally untrue. You may not have liked the replies you received but nobody abused or insulted you. If you had ever worked in this sector you'd know what abuse and insults are really like; and no, I don't do this kind of work, thank God!

ianian99

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I've just read the thread you're referring to and this comment is totally untrue. You may not have liked the replies you received but nobody abused or insulted you. If you had ever worked in this sector you'd know what abuse and insults are really like; and no, I don't do this kind of work, thank God!

can we have a link to thread

msmicawber

Here's the link:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=317217

ianian99

msmicawber wrote: »

Here's the link:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=317217

i cant see anything about being abused by staff, not details anyway.
all i saw was the fact that they never got their hb in time and had to borrow 1000 quid off their old mum. or am i missing something?

msmicawber

No, I don't think you're missing anything. Various of the posters work for benefits agencies and set out their feelings, but I didn't think anyone was abusive.

dekaspace

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Why are you only working part time, at your age? Perhaps this is why she said you're lazy.

Its simple, most employers in my town only offer part time contracts, so they dont need staff when its quiet, but other times there was guaranteed overtime for weeks ahead.

Im getting a better response on this board than another, on there I said I spend 2-3 horus a day jobsearching, and was called lazy and why dont I do 7-8 as thats how many hours someone who works does,

Then I was told I must be doing badly as I have a bad attitude at interviews or something, and I must be lazy as I disagreed that a poster told me to walk around housing estates as far as an hour away offering to do grasscutting and window cleaning and was told I was just making excuses lol

Sylvester

dekaspace wrote: »

Its simple, most employers in my town only offer part time contracts, so they dont need staff when its quiet, but other times there was guaranteed overtime for weeks ahead.

Im getting a better response on this board than another, on there I said I spend 2-3 horus a day jobsearching, and was called lazy and why dont I do 7-8 as thats how many hours someone who works does,

Then I was told I must be doing badly as I have a bad attitude at interviews or something, and I must be lazy as I disagreed that a poster told me to walk around housing estates as far as an hour away offering to do grasscutting and window cleaning and was told I was just making excuses lol

I wouldn't worry about people calling you lazy or having a bad attitude. People who question other folk's lives are the ones who have the bad attitude. Do-Gooders etc who need something to moan about.

I wouldn't do a job I didn't want to do on the basis that job satisfaction is very important. I don't want to end up like alot of the population, being owned by life when life should be owned by the individual.

The sad rude people in life who tell you what to do, like your Job Centre staff, are owned by the system and are clearly unhappy with their jobs. I mean, would you want to deal with people you consider beneath you?

On a positive note, my 2 disability advisors are very helpful and very human and understanding and tomorrow I'll be able to tell them, thanks to their help and support, I now have a job with a local community centre which helps young offenders, drug abusers and alcoholics move on with their lives.

I wouldn't have been able to do it had my advisors been rude or arrogant.

dekaspace

The funny thing now is on that board this one guy is calling me a freeloader as he pays £15,000 a year tax and even though I have a job starting in 2 months, why should he pay my income, as he says even if someone on benefit does full time voluntary work, they are still spending his cash lol