Job Centre Work Programme?

Firetastic

The WP for me hasn't been too bad. Ok so they haven't managed to find me a job but the area I live in is a very deprived area.

I've done Interview skills to death lol. The tutor actually joked that I should be taking the course.:rotfl: My advisor says I am one of their hardest working jobseeker and is a lot more flexible than the Job Centre. My advisor sends me out another appointment if something comes up eg I was at an employment fayre last Friday which clashed so emailed and she will send me out another appointment.

Just like anything in life it depends. There is only so much they can do to help you. The one thing I would like to see changed is more Work Experience. Maybe if they're reviewing it things will get better??

Batman_100

Mersey wrote: »

Post-WP support must be different in your area.


In Merseyside, it merely consisted* of claimants seeing a different advisor at a JCP and having to sign weekly or at different times rather than the same time each fortnight.


*I say consisted, rather than consists, as I've not heard any claimants be referred to it of late, so not sure if it went in the NW after the demise of A4e (who dealt with half of 12 month+ JSA claimants in the 2008-2013 period in my area).


Jane - As for the WP, it shouldn't be dreaded. A claimant I advised said the welcome session involved a 30 minute introductory talk and form filling. After that, he merely had to attend around once a month to see his advisor and he was a lot more polite than the JobCentre Plus advisor! They also provided £ for his first month's travel costs when he got a job [which JCPs can do but they don't advertise the fact]


It largely depends on which 'welfare to work provider' you're referred to and which part of the Country you are in. An announcement may be made in this month's Autumn Statement, but the new PM & DWP seem underwhelmed by the WP performance (as with the WCA and a few other initiatives they're currently reviewing).

I was with Inspire 2 Indipendence in the West Midlands and you had to go in a lot more than once a month! 3 times a week was the bare minimum although one of those visits could have just been for a supervised job search where you'd have to spend at least an hour at a computer doing online job searches with an advisor watching over you and about 10 others. I knew it was pretty pointless going into the office do something I could do at home but I knew they had regulations to bide by.

They also refunded all of my bus tickets which saved me about £12 a week.

On the whole the advisers were very friendly and would only make life hard for you if they thought you weren't serious in looking for a job.

They also managed to negotiate with the job centre once to get me excused from signing on and doing job searches for 6 weeks while I did a Princes Trust programme. I was very pleased with them for fighting my corner with that as I doubt I could have done it on my own.

I'm also have my doubts to as to how successful the WP is in actually getting people back in to work. I was with I2I 15 months and when I eventually found a job I went into town to go to the job centre to terminate my JSA claim and also booked an appointment with my I2I adviser so I could clear up a few things and say bye to the staff. When I arrived for my appointment the branch manager and most of the advisors were standing in the reception are waiting for me, they gave me a round of applauds as I walked in and the manager gave a sort speech about how proud of me they were.

Now I would have thought people leaving I2I because they've found a job rather than going back to the job centre at the end of their 2 years was something that happened on a fairly regular basis and therefore something they wouldn't make a big fuss about. So this makes me question how effective the programme really is.

Regarding the post work programme, I2I sent me to a seminar run by a job centre advisor shortly before I left and post WP is basically to make life so difficult for people they hope the scrounges will crack and terminate their claims. I was told about people being made to go in to the job centre every day from 9 to 5 to do job searches and how they sanction you for trivial little things. They also don't accept lack of childcare or transport problems as an excuse for non attendance. But I've also heard on the grapevine about how job centres don't actually have the resources to do this, so I'm not 100% how they actually do it.

Mersey_2

That's good to hear. Yes, the 'success rates' were woeful. No better than the previous cohort not on the WP in some areas, or 2% better in some districts.