walked out of jobcentre work experience

topaztiger1983

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I don't "heckle" people who are genuinely seeking work - I've spent several years of my working life helping them to do so. I have the occasional prod at a couple of people on here who are long term claimants who have no real intention of looking for work and who put up barriers to any suggestions that're offered to help them.

Hear!, hear!

red_devil

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I don't "heckle" people who are genuinely seeking work - I've spent several years of my working life helping them to do so. I have the occasional prod at a couple of people on here who are long term claimants who have no real intention of looking for work and who put up barriers to any suggestions that're offered to help them.

Whose to say they have no intention? how are you qualified to help them when you don't know them? How do you know your suggestions are helpful?

Its probably best not to make sly remarks at all.

dktreesea

red_devil wrote: »

Whose to say they have no intention? how are you qualified to help them when you don't know them? How do you know your suggestions are helpful?

Its probably best not to make sly remarks at all.

True, we can't be sure. But the frustrating thing is how some people on JSA or whatever it's UC equivalent is are expected to jump through every hoop and spend a lot of time doing unpaid work placements while others, some of them long term unemployed if the latest benefit programme on Channel 4 or 5 (can't recall offhand which one) is to be believed, seem to just sail on by, signing on every couple of weeks with a nice job centre plus advisor who requires nothing from them except a booklet which, for all we know, could be full of fictitious job searches.

missbiggles1

red_devil wrote: »

Whose to say they have no intention? how are you qualified to help them when you don't know them? How do you know your suggestions are helpful?

Its probably best not to make sly remarks at all.

I have professional qualifications in guidance and no guidance professional "knows" their clients - they come through the door and you take it from there, usually with far less information than people give out online.

dktreesea

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I have professional qualifications in guidance and no guidance professional "knows" their clients - they come through the door and you take it from there, usually with far less information than people give out online.

It's a pity all job centre plus staff who are customer facing aren't required to have those kinds of qualifications before being let lose on the public! They don't seem to have the concept that they are meant to be helping people, not harassing them and taking delight in leaving them with nothing to live on. I was shocked at how they lie, saying people have missed their appointments, or not even updating the computer , when they've come to their appointments. And no sanctions for them whatsoever, even when you make a formal complaint.


If all a person is trying to make is the £73 they would get from JSA, maybe they would be better being self employed, even selling the Big Issue. At least they could be fairly certain of having some money in their pocket by the week's end.

Flyonthewall

red_devil wrote: »

Whose to say they have no intention? how are you qualified to help them when you don't know them? How do you know your suggestions are helpful?

Its probably best not to make sly remarks at all.

It's often clear who has no intention on here I'd say. They make it obvious by what the say and their attitude to everything and the fact they don't do anything. Some will hide it better than others, but on here they can hide behind a username so they're more likely to make it obvious.

That's why people talk to each other.

No idea what was sly about their comment.

andygb

dktreesea wrote: »

It's a pity all job centre plus staff who are customer facing aren't required to have those kinds of qualifications before being let lose on the public! They don't seem to have the concept that they are meant to be helping people, not harassing them and taking delight in leaving them with nothing to live on. I was shocked at how they lie, saying people have missed their appointments, or not even updating the computer , when they've come to their appointments. And no sanctions for them whatsoever, even when you make a formal complaint.


If all a person is trying to make is the £73 they would get from JSA, maybe they would be better being self employed, even selling the Big Issue. At least they could be fairly certain of having some money in their pocket by the week's end.

I totally agree with your post, particularly the bits I have highlighted.
Our "advisor" is a very overweight woman, who has a very poor grasp of English grammar, and cannot understand the jobs/careers which we are trying to get into. I overheard her talking to another jobseeker one day, and she was downright rude to him, telling him that he should "look after himself and lose some weight":eek:
If you could see her then it was the ultimate pot and kettle situation:(
We have been trying for ages to find work, and for the past seven months have been trying to start our own business - without any capital, which is blooming hard.
Hopefully it will change, because I think this whole thing is like a downward spiral.:(

Flyonthewall

dktreesea wrote: »

It's a pity all job centre plus staff who are customer facing aren't required to have those kinds of qualifications before being let lose on the public! They don't seem to have the concept that they are meant to be helping people, not harassing them and taking delight in leaving them with nothing to live on. I was shocked at how they lie, saying people have missed their appointments, or not even updating the computer , when they've come to their appointments. And no sanctions for them whatsoever, even when you make a formal complaint.

Same goes for work programme advisors.

I read a job description for one of the WP advisor positions. Load of rubbish. It said that you must have really good English yet I had an advisor who made so many mistakes on a cover letter it was unbelievable.

Don't get me started on how slow they all type too. Their job involves using the computer a lot but I've never had an advisor (JC or WP) who types at a good speed. Had one who typed at a fairly decent speed but he made mistakes so still took as long. The rest have been so slow that I've been tempted to push them to one side and type it myself! lol.

So they can't even get the basics right, nevermind about anything more.

missbiggles1

dktreesea wrote: »

It's a pity all job centre plus staff who are customer facing aren't required to have those kinds of qualifications before being let lose on the public! They don't seem to have the concept that they are meant to be helping people, not harassing them and taking delight in leaving them with nothing to live on. I was shocked at how they lie, saying people have missed their appointments, or not even updating the computer , when they've come to their appointments. And no sanctions for them whatsoever, even when you make a formal complaint.


If all a person is trying to make is the £73 they would get from JSA, maybe they would be better being self employed, even selling the Big Issue. At least they could be fairly certain of having some money in their pocket by the week's end.

I've never worked for the Jobcentre (although I've done some interviewing in a couple of them) and I have to say, a post grad guidance qualification (and the skills is reflects) would be wasted on frontline staff.

Independence and confidentiality are important aspects of guidance work and you couldn't expect that of Jobcentre staff.

dktreesea

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I've never worked for the Jobcentre (although I've done some interviewing in a couple of them) and I have to say, a post grad guidance qualification (and the skills is reflects) would be wasted on frontline staff.

Independence and confidentiality are important aspects of guidance work and you couldn't expect that of Jobcentre staff.

Nevertheless, maybe not up to post grad level, but I really do think, just in my limited experience of going with people to the job centre, most of the front line staff seem more excited about finding ways to sanction their "clients" and save the taxpayer some money rather than guiding them onto courses and into strategies that could land them some work. The work programme advisors are just as bad. And rude! My goodness, I have never met such a rude bunch as the current crop of front line job centre staff.


This site gives me the impression I'm not alone in having a bad impression of Job Centre Plus staff. I would go so far as to say many of them are not fit for purpose:
https://welfaretales.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/stitching-up-claimants-is-all-part-of-the-job-says-jobcentre-insider/


If Job Centre Plus staff are meant to help the claimants, and one manager at a job centre assured me, after I had helped the person I was with make a formal complaint, that this is the case, why is the process so adversarial? Why are job centre staff incentivised for sanctioning claimants?