After the Work Programme

mro

csmw wrote: »

Do you think we have never been unemployed and seen it from the other side?

Not the way system is now, you haven't been unemployed for many years.

AP007

mro wrote: »

I think all JC advisors should be put through mill to see how long all this really takes, searching websites & other places, reading job ads, using UJM to apply for jobs and all the new things like claimant commitment, because many have unrealistic ideas how long it takes.
.

It should be taking 35 hours a week - seriously.

csmw

mro wrote: »

Not the way system is now, you haven't been unemployed for many years.

2 1/2 years for me so please dont assume, we have advisors at my place who were unemployed 18 mths ago and signing on at our jcp

mro

AP007 wrote: »

It should be taking 35 hours a week - seriously.

But, you are not normal.

I think JC advisors should do it, living on benefits, trying to survive, then do that for weeks & months, then work programme & other schemes & see what really happens.

Theory & reality are not the always the same.

Saying people should just go on & on & on, as if they are robots is not the best answer.

AP007

mro wrote: »

But, you are not normal.

I think JC advisors should do it, living on benefits, trying to survive, then do that for weeks & months, then work programme & other schemes & see what really happens.

Theory & reality are not the always the same.

Saying people should just go on & on & on, as if they are robots is not the best answer.

LOL not normal? No, its called being determined!

Living on benefit and looking for work are two different things.

Podge52

Ok here's my experience that highlights the good and the bad.

The job center.
I never had any problems with my advisors, I was treated like friend by most of them with only one woman who looked down here nose at me and tended to treat me with contempt. Fortunately she only signed me a couple of times so no great issue.
I was actually looking forward to going on the wp because I believed it would help me find work and when I asked one of the advisors,after I had been signing for twelve months when I would be called up he said it would be soon. another six months passed with still no call up. I had been applying for voluntary work with various organisations all without success. Then after about eighteen months of signing on I managed to get a voluntary position as a computer buddy at my local library. I informed the job center of this and within a week I received a letter telling me i was being placed on the work program.
Now this may be just coincidence but the cynic in me believes I had just become more employable (I was sixty and had been out of employment for about six years) and now the work program wanted me. This cynicism was probably aided by the fact there were stories going around at the time of the work program providers cherry picking candidates who gave them the best chance of a return on their investment.

The work program.
Again I had a good (in the sense that she tried to be helpful) advisor. having said that, I was trying to find work and provided her with all the evidence of that. I was still called in to do workshops that were neither use nor ornament and had to spend hours job searching in their office.
While on the wp I gave up my voluntary role as a computer buddy because I felt I wasn't capable and the position was more suited to somebody with teaching experience which I didn't have.
I asked my advisor if she could open any doors for me with other organisations looking to take on volunteers and she passed me over to another advisor whose role this was. She found me work as a "lock keeper" working on the canals (clearing the towpaths), and when this finished found me work in a charity shop.

So far so good, but now the less helpful aspects.

When I had to attend the wp five days a week my daily bust ticket was £3.90 so £19.50 for the week. Aweekly bus ticket cost £12.00 and I asked could I get one of these. I was told I could but they would only reimburse me 5/7ths of this. This to my mind was petty, they would rather spend an extra £7.50 than allow me two days free travel at the weekends.

Again, while working in the charity shop they paid my travel expenses, however I worked in Stockport and my wp office was in Manchester, I asked could I get my expenses from their Stockport office to save them the expense and me the time of traveling to Manchester. They said they would see what they could do but it never happened.
The placement at the charity shop was for only six weeks but I enjoyed the work and wanted to stay on. That was ok they said but after the six weeks they would stop providing me with the travel expenses, which they did.

I'll end with how I found my present job.
I was at my wp monthly appointment and while waiting for my advisor to see me I was looking through the latest edition of the Metro. I came across a full page advert for customer service roles with a national company. Now I must confess that it was not a role I would have applied for simply becuse I thought I would never get such a position, but I knew my advisor would point it out so I took down the email address and the rest is history.

So all in all my experience of unemployment and the wp was not that bad it certainly wasn't helpful and in parts downright unhelpful I didn't feel abused by it.
According to some of the posts on here (and I have no doubts as to their veracity) I think I got off quite lightly.

Sorry for the lengthy post and if you made it all the way through thanks for reading.

Just let me add that I don't see myself as any different to the posters posting their experiences on here. I think I just got lucky.

If after me adding this any poster wishes to remove their thanks I won't be offended.

sniggings

Podge52 wrote: »

Ok here's my experience that highlights the good and the bad.

The job center.
I never had any problems with my advisors, I was treated like friend by most of them with only one woman who looked down here nose at me and tended to treat me with contempt. Fortunately she only signed me a couple of times so no great issue.
I was actually looking forward to going on the wp because I believed it would help me find work and when I asked one of the advisors,after I had been signing for twelve months when I would be called up he said it would be soon. another six months passed with still no call up. I had been applying for voluntary work with various organisations all without success. Then after about eighteen months of signing on I managed to get a voluntary position as a computer buddy at my local library. I informed the job center of this and within a week I received a letter telling me i was being placed on the work program.
Now this may be just coincidence but the cynic in me believes I had just become more employable (I was sixty and had been out of employment for about six years) and now the work program wanted me. This cynicism was probably aided by the fact there were stories going around at the time of the work program providers cherry picking candidates who gave them the best chance of a return on their investment.

The work program.
Again I had a good (in the sense that she tried to be helpful) advisor. having said that, I was trying to find work and provided her with all the evidence of that. I was still called in to do workshops that were neither use nor ornament and had to spend hours job searching in their office.
While on the wp I gave up my voluntary role as a computer buddy because I felt I wasn't capable and the position was more suited to somebody with teaching experience which I didn't have.
I asked my advisor if she could open any doors for me with other organisations looking to take on volunteers and she passed me over to another advisor whose role this was. She found me work as a "lock keeper" working on the canals (clearing the towpaths), and when this finished found me work in a charity shop.

So far so good, but now the less helpful aspects.

When I had to attend the wp five days a week my daily bust ticket was £3.90 so £19.50 for the week. Aweekly bus ticket cost £12.00 and I asked could I get one of these. I was told I could but they would only reimburse me 5/7ths of this. This to my mind was petty, they would rather spend an extra £7.50 than allow me two days free travel at the weekends.

Again, while working in the charity shop they paid my travel expenses, however I worked in Stockport and my wp office was in Manchester, I asked could I get my expenses from their Stockport office to save them the expense and me the time of traveling to Manchester. They said they would see what they could do but it never happened.
The placement at the charity shop was for only six weeks but I enjoyed the work and wanted to stay on. That was ok they said but after the six weeks they would stop providing me with the travel expenses, which they did.

I'll end with how I found my present job.
I was at my wp monthly appointment and while waiting for my advisor to see me I was looking through the latest edition of the Metro. I came across a full page advert for customer service roles with a national company. Now I must confess that it was not a role I would have applied for simply becuse I thought I would never get such a position, but I knew my advisor would point it out so I took down the email address and the rest is history.

So all in all my experience of unemployment and the wp was not that bad it certainly wasn't helpful and in parts downright unhelpful I didn't feel abused by it.
According to some of the posts on here (and I have no doubts as to their veracity) I think I got off quite lightly.

Sorry for the lengthy post and if you made it all the way through thanks for reading.

sounds very similar to my experience.

I do wonder what cleaning tow paths is going to do for a 60 year old tho they just seem to treat everyone as if they have never worked a day in their life, most of it is to just be seen to be doing something, so they feel they have earned their commision for leaving the Metro laying around



I too have just found a job and the feeling to say goodbye to the JSA advisers and the WP is :j

Well done on the job :beer:

Podge52

sniggings wrote: »

sounds very similar to my experience.

I do wonder what cleaning tow paths is going to do for a 60 year old tho they just seem to treat everyone as if they have never worked a day in their life, most of it is to just be seen to be doing something, so they feel they have earned their commision for leaving the Metro laying around



I too have just found a job and the feeling to say goodbye to the JSA advisers and the WP is :j

Well done on the job :beer:

Thanks. been their nearly twelve months now.

The canal job, I'd been teamed up with another lad and we were to meet the waterways guy outside Tescos in Stalybridge (for me two buses and about an hours traveling) nobody turned up to meet us. I phoned the advisor who had set it up and she said hang on there and I'll find out what's happening. It turns out there was some emergency and nobody was coming go home and come again tomorrow she said. :mad:

sniggings

Podge52 wrote: »

Thanks. been their nearly twelve months now.

The canal job, I'd been teamed up with another lad and we were to meet the waterways guy outside Tescos in Stalybridge (for me two buses and about an hours traveling) nobody turned up to meet us. I phoned the advisor who had set it up and she said hang on there and I'll find out what's happening. It turns out there was some emergency and nobody was coming go home and come again tomorrow she said. :mad:

god knows what they would have had me doing, was only there a couple of months so just had a couple of "training" classes on interviews and Cvs never had to do the volumtry work.

Podge52

sniggings wrote: »

god knows what they would have had me doing, was only there a couple of months so just had a couple of "training" classes on interviews and Cvs never had to do the volumtry work.

I didn't have to do it I was just bored sh1tless sitting at home.