daily signing at jobcentre

donnajunkie

slenderkitten wrote: »

also it is to stop people going on holiday without declaring it. I think your time would be better served in a job workshop and courses.

i dont see the point of this unless they are away on holiday alot of the time.

donnajunkie

Steve059 wrote: »

But your normal signing day will be every day.

And, signing on times are now different every time. Officially, this to make best use of resources. Unofficially, it should also cause confusion and missed appointments and therefore more sanction victims.

i dont think they class the rest as normal signing.

Wozzie

Mr_Falling_Star wrote: »

Where is the punishment in making go somewhere everyday to undertake a task...you know just like working people do. Daily signing will help as it will help those doing it (and remember they have not worked for three years) to get back into a pattern of having a task with a purpose. We cannot pay people to just sit at home.

So you're fine with people signing on as long as they take their dog for regular walks? If not I have to wonder what you're talking about because that's a far better use of ones time than going to a jobcentre everyday.

They're not inspirational places to be they sap every ounce of your being the second you walk through the door. Then you're forced to sit down and be chastised by a person who clearly doesn't want to be where they are and whose sole purpose is to antagonise you into signing off.

Not too long ago my nan had collapsed and was taken into hospital I was left alone caring for my grandfather who has dementia, I had to sign on but couldn't make it given everything that had happened but I made arrangements to sign on the following Monday.

The morning I went to sign on I got a call telling me my nan might not make it through the weekend and that I should go to see her as soon as possible, I thought about putting off signing on again but thought better of it knowing what the Job Centre are like.

So after waiting for an hour I sit down in front of my "advisor" who sneers at me whilst asking "Why you no com t' sign on ya date?" to which I informed her of the situation. Now I had told her that I went to see my nan on the Thursday afternoon in hospital and that prompted her to ask "So why couldn't you have come to sign on Thursday or Friday?" to which I explained that I'm currently the sole carer of an incontinent man with dementia who can't be left alone.

This... woman, then sanctioned me for not attending a scheduled appointment and having "insufficient" evidence of job search saying - and I quote "If ya can make de time to see ya gran ders no reason ya couldn't have come in ta sign on, which is most important!" to this !!!!!es mind the first chance I had to get out of the house I should have gone to the job centre to do their menial tasks so they can tick their boxes rather than check on my nan.

Incidentally my nan never came out of that hospital she died 5 weeks later and that day was the second to last time I ever got to speak to her, that was before her breathing was so bad she couldn't speak.

Claiming JSA as the system is now feels like a war, it feels confrontational like it's "us" vs "them" and it's messed up because everyone including "them" is just one bad day away from joining "us".

That isn't a good environment. They make you feel as though you've earned your JSA just because of the crap they make you go through and let's put this into perspective JSA is only £70 a week, so all these comments about "I have to go to work everyday blah blah" don't really apply because you're getting a proper wage.

I would have no issues doing your job for one day a week if they would just leave me alone to get on with everything I need to sort out. You need to grind out 10 applications a week which is fine if you're applying for jobs which require no talents, skill or expertise and if you are god help you because those jobs are just a lottery.

Anything with "no experience required" that pays a salary rather than commision will get hundreds upon hundreds of applications, sometimes I apply for them just to get auto-rejected to build up my numbers.

Although saying that I did get invited to interview with PC World surprisingly, even more surprisingly they turned me down because I knew too much about computers "We have to focus on unit volume and a unit is a unit, this is a retail industry not IT blah blah blah" so... yeah.

Bottom line being unemployed is hard enough. I don't mind them asking me what I've done to look for work but it should be with a view to seeing if I'm doing anything wrong and if they can help me, but all they're interested in is tripping you up for a sanction and winding you up so much that you sign off.

I view my looking for work activities as something completely independent of the job centre stuff, because if I did view it as the same thing I would feel inclined to not do it just to spite them.

lakes17

They make you feel as though you've earned your JSA just because of the crap they make you go through and let's put this into perspective JSA is only £70 a week, so all these comments about "I have to go to work everyday blah blah" don't really apply because you're getting a proper wage.


A lot of people who are on job seekers allowance actually get a lot more than the £70 per week when you add on the rent, council tax and free dentist/prescriptions on it comes to a few hundred pound a week. And before you get on your high horse about me being alright as I'm in work and receiving a proper wage etc, I am also out of work but not receiving a penny from the government.

dandelionclock30

When your with an NHS dentist you only get one check up a year and they only do the very basics. I've also yet to meet someone who is unemployed and who gets lots of precriptions as if you were really ill then you would be on the sick or exempt if you had a qualifying illness.

lakes17

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

When your with an NHS dentist you only get one check up a year and they only do the very basics. I've also yet to meet someone who is unemployed and who gets lots of precriptions as if you were really ill then you would be on the sick or exempt if you had a qualifying illness.

NHS dentist work is up to £219 depending on the work you need, which is more than a person on NMW could afford yet they have to pay. Also prescriptions are £8.15 per item so if you have 2 or 3 items on 1 prescription that is over £24 for just 1 bout of sickness. All of this is added on to an income -based JSA claimant as to what they in theory could earn.

duchy

Denning. wrote: »

That's not how it works. Forget the lingo and terminology. Anything more than one trip to the job centre a fortnight should be reimbursed, that is what the JSA calculators budgeted for.

As a matter of interest how long does this reimbursement take?
I'm thinking that a week of bus trips to a JC for daily visits around here would be at least £5 a day so £25 a week or just over a third of JSA income.
I could see a food, heat or fares scenario happening quite easily if people are expected to pay fares upfront and backclaim.

BigBoss

When I was unemployed, I had an internship. This internship eventually helped me to secure a real career.

Had I told the JCP/DWP about this internship, I would have lost my benefits.

Under this new rule I wouldn't have been able to do my internship.

The rules MUST change for graduates or people who can prove that their time is being used meaningfully i.e. with a letter from an internship provider or something. They are ill-thought out.

tomtontom

BigBoss wrote: »

When I was unemployed, I had an internship. This internship eventually helped me to secure a real career.

Had I told the JCP/DWP about this internship, I would have lost my benefits.

Under this new rule I wouldn't have been able to do my internship.

The rules MUST change for graduates or people who can prove that their time is being used meaningfully i.e. with a letter from an internship provider or something. They are ill-thought out.

The rules have changed to stop people such as yourself fraudulently claiming.

BigBoss

tomtontom wrote: »

The rules have changed to stop people such as yourself fraudulently claiming.

Fraudulent? I'd be careful how I use such terms if I were you. You clearly have no idea what fraud is.

I was working an UNPAID internship in a career path I wanted rather than go and take some bum-!!! administrative role as they wanted me to.

If I'd told them I was doing an internship, they wouldn't have given me the JSA that I needed to live, such is the retardation of the JSA mindset. They would rather I cleaned toilets than pursued a real career path.