The job centre and its staff are are all totally useless. They are rude and incompitent and treat you like your a bit of shit that they have just trodden in.
Awful place. I don't think I have ever found a job through them. All my jobs have come through word of mouth, adervtisments online, in shop windows or in the local paper.
A friend of mine signed on for job seekers. He was a skilled welder, but there were no jobs going. He was willing to do anything manual.
Everytime he went to the job centre he was spoken to as if he wasnt trying, when he was. We live in a small village, and there really aren't many jobs around. He tried everywhere within a 30 mile radius, and got nowhere.
He was then offered fork lift training which he did, and he enjoyed. He was then offered a job 60 miles away. It was a minimum wage part time job, which taking off petrol would be stupid to do. He wouldnt really earn anything. So he turned it down.
He was then removed from JSA, and he hasnt been claiming a penny since.
I watched a documentary a few months ago about an accountant in London who had lost her job. She went to the job centre and said she was treated appallingly.
The presenter of the documentary said Job Centre staff are not trained to handle "white collar workers" and there will need to be a whole new system put in place to teach them how to handle people who have worked in banks, accountancy firms, legal firms etc. as some of the people from those firms will have been partners, directors etc and the job centre staff do not know how to speak to people from those employment backgrounds.
I was horrified. Surely everybody should be spoken to politely, if somebody works in that sector of serving the public then they should be professional enough to be polite in their handling of "customers".
A friend of mine signed on for job seekers. He was a skilled welder, but there were no jobs going. He was willing to do anything manual.
Everytime he went to the job centre he was spoken to as if he wasnt trying, when he was. We live in a small village, and there really aren't many jobs around. He tried everywhere within a 30 mile radius, and got nowhere.
He was then offered fork lift training which he did, and he enjoyed. He was then offered a job 60 miles away. It was a minimum wage part time job, which taking off petrol would be stupid to do. He wouldnt really earn anything. So he turned it down.
He was then removed from JSA, and he hasnt been claiming a penny since.
That is just unbelievable! Would they have paid his relocation costs, as that would be the only way it could be worth his while to take the job.
I think bureaucracy has probably always been this mad, it just isn't recorded historically for us to learn from the way wars and genocide are, and look how we don't learn from that!
bloody hell i'm terrified now. i still cannot believe how little you guys get over here for JSA
how can anyone live on that?
I know, what bothers me is that even people who are fortunate enough to be in work at the moment, myself included, have no disposable income to save for the "rainy day", so once the job goes that's it, and people with families have to fight tooth and nail to get any help from a system they have paid into during years of employment. It's an absolute disgrace.
And don't even get me started on pensioners and what they are supposed to survive on!
I know, what bothers me is that even people who are fortunate enough to be in work at the moment, myself included, have no disposable income to save for the "rainy day", so once the job goes that's it, and people with families have to fight tooth and nail to get any help from a system they have paid into during years of employment. It's an absolute disgrace.
And don't even get me started on pensioners and what they are supposed to survive on!
I literally have no disposable income whatsoever. pretty much everything goes on food & bills. I am terrified of spending money on anything as i don't know if my current job is going to last or my contract picked up for another year.
I moved over here from ireland as i had bugger all chance of finding a job where i was. Granted the benefits system over there is better as you get just slightly under £200 a week & thats just for a single person.
my heart goes out to everyone looking for a job at the moment & struggling to get by. i take my hat off to you people.
I watched a documentary a few months ago about an accountant in London who had lost her job. She went to the job centre and said she was treated appallingly.
The presenter of the documentary said Job Centre staff are not trained to handle "white collar workers" and there will need to be a whole new system put in place to teach them how to handle people who have worked in banks, accountancy firms, legal firms etc. as some of the people from those firms will have been partners, directors etc and the job centre staff do not know how to speak to people from those employment backgrounds.
I was horrified. Surely everybody should be spoken to politely, if somebody works in that sector of serving the public then they should be professional enough to be polite in their handling of "customers".
Maybe I expect too much or I'm just naive
No your not naive. You should speak to people as you wish to be spoken to. Most job centre workers are just jobsoworths with a superiority complex. They probably can't handle the fact that most of these people are far better qualified than them.
My brother was actually thrown out of our local job centre for arguing with the person who was dealing with him. They were very heavy handed, threatening police and all sorts. Its ok for them to speak to us like shit, but god forbid you do it back to them. They don't have to take 'abuse':rolleyes:
The presenter of the documentary said Job Centre staff are not trained to handle "white collar workers" and there will need to be a whole new system put in place to teach them how to handle people who have worked in banks, accountancy firms, legal firms etc. as some of the people from those firms will have been partners, directors etc and the job centre staff do not know how to speak to people from those employment backgrounds.
They shouldn't need training on how to speak to people from the professions. They should all be retrained in how to speak to people in general, politely and appropriately, whatever their background.
They just look blankly at you if you ask if they have work outside the ones they normally deal with. I also have a current application process going with a call centre..:D.. that and DWP jobs seem to be all that is going.
I agree. Job Centre staff seem to be only able to deal with a limited range of basic jobs. Anything outside of that and they haven't a clue. It's not their fault. It's the training they have, small cogs in a big, bueraucractic machine.
bloody hell i'm terrified now. i still cannot believe how little you guys get over here for JSA
how can anyone live on that?
I have reluctantly signed on for JSA after 46 years of continuous working and receive £18.41 per week, no other help whatsoever with council tax etc.
I was told by job centre that "because you have savings" you do not qualify for any help.
I have reluctantly signed on for JSA after 46 years of continuous working and receive £18.41 per week, no other help whatsoever with council tax etc.
I was told by job centre that "because you have savings" you do not qualify for any help.
You've just got to love how the benefit system penalises people for being financially prudent and actually putting money aside to supplement the state system in times of need! :rolleyes: Totally arse-about-face. Basically, the system says "Spend all your money while you can! What you don't spend will be held against you later in life"
When I got laid off I applied for help with mortgage and council tax. The witch in the Job Centre asked me why I was filling out that form and I explained that, without help, I'd run out of money in six months. Her reply was, and I quote, "Well, why are you applying now, then?"
my mother worked in a school kitchen years, and before that in a canteen in a big factory, she had worked straight from school, through two pregnancies, going back to work 3 weeks after having me and my sister,
anyway, the school joined into another and she was made redudant so off she trotts to the job center at the age of 47 for the 1st time in her life, she came out in tears, said the way she was spoken to and treated was disgusting, there was smackheads in there demanding emergency giros and the staff were falling over themselves to help them and helping them fill out forms for loans from the social fund, telling them to claim for everything and anything whilst my mother was made to feel like dirt, they made no effort in even showing her how to use the self service computer job search things .
she left the job center that morning, had found a new job that tea time and vowed never to step foot in the job center again, ( this was a good five years back now, no such luck of finding a job so quick these days eh?)
I got made redundant about 5 years ago and had to go to the JC for the first time. I was treated like crap. I took my CV in with me and the advisor barely glanced at it and they proceeded to offer me totally unsuitable jobs. As another poster has commented - they were falling over themselves to help the drunks and druggies. I only found out recently that if you are an alcoholic you actually get MORE in benefits!
I literally have no disposable income whatsoever. pretty much everything goes on food & bills. I am terrified of spending money on anything as i don't know if my current job is going to last or my contract picked up for another year.
I moved over here from ireland as i had bugger all chance of finding a job where i was. Granted the benefits system over there is better as you get just slightly under £200 a week & thats just for a single person.
my heart goes out to everyone looking for a job at the moment & struggling to get by. i take my hat off to you people.
I'm the same MC, no disposable income left, food and household bills eat it all up now. My job is looking rocky at the moment, and for people who have lost jobs and already feel awful about what's happened to them, to be treated so badly by what are meant to be public servants is shameful.
No your not naive. You should speak to people as you wish to be spoken to. Most job centre workers are just jobsoworths with a superiority complex. They probably can't handle the fact that most of these people are far better qualified than them.
My brother was actually thrown out of our local job centre for arguing with the person who was dealing with him. They were very heavy handed, threatening police and all sorts. Its ok for them to speak to us like shit, but god forbid you do it back to them. They don't have to take 'abuse':rolleyes:
I always try to speak to people they way I would like to be spoken to Shadowmaiden, that is why I am so horrified that people to are going to Job Centre's for help, many who have worked for years up until then and so do not know how the system works, are treated as though they are some sort of sub-species. It sounds to me as though the sub-species are on the other side of the counter!
One of my fears is if I ever have to deal with these people and start to challenge their attitude I will end up like your brother being threatened with the police, simply for standing up against unnecessary aggression.
They shouldn't need training on how to speak to people from the professions. They should all be retrained in how to speak to people in general, politely and appropriately, whatever their background.
I completely agree Mallaha and cannot think of any reason why they would be continually rude to people who are seeking help. Maybe the Job Centre employee needs to remember that until the person who has lost their job is sitting in front of them asking for help, the job seeker had been paying for the Job Centre employees wages for the amount of years the job seeker had been working!
Heh.
Reminds me of the one and only time I went into a JobCentre Plus place. I'm in the same boat as you and thought that I wouldn't really mind getting in somewhere as a lab tecnhician, even though I'd finished my last job as the QC Manager in a pharmaceutical company. I didn't want the stress of being in charge again. A nice little routine bench job doing assays on shift. That would have suited me down to the ground.
The lad who spoke to me didn't know what a lab technician was. Didn't know what a laboratory was, had never heard of QC and said there was no work like that to be had here. And why didn't I apply for a job in telesales?
Any casual stroll round the industrial estates near here would show that there are any number of food and plastics manufacturers. There is no way that none of them have any labs.
Mind you, maybe you should go and work for them, Starpuss, then if I have to go through it all again, at least I'd have a chance of meeting someone who had a vague idea of what bloody language I was speaking.
I would love a nice, routine little bench job. It would be perfect for me, I'd still be using my brain and it is something I enjoy.
Sadly it looks as if it will have to be the DWP for me. But that is wrong as well as it is a job I have no interest in, I don't want to do and one that I have no experience of (though I have worked in an office). Apparently you get a few days training...:eek::eek:
bloody hell i'm terrified now. i still cannot believe how little you guys get over here for JSA
how can anyone live on that?
Although it is (thankfully) a very long time ago now since I claimed the dole, I do remember getting a letter that stated how much I would get and that the amount was what "the law" says I needed to live on.
Is it still worded this way ?
I'd love to meet the person responsilble for this law.
Regarding the original poster's experience, it's not very surprising for a Government department to behave this way as we have no choice but to use them if we need their help. Therefore they can be as rotten as they like and what can we do ?
I guess they have to be nasty as there are so many people on the fiddle. As is often the way, the deserving get very little and get treated like dirt and those that see benefit claiming as a way of life get the red carpet treatment while their 4x4 ticks-over outside the Job Centre.
The system is a mess.
I hope something turns up soon for those that are looking.
Although it is (thankfully) a very long time ago now since I claimed the dole, I do remember getting a letter that stated how much I would get and that the amount was what "the law" says I needed to live on.
Is it still worded this way ?
I'd love to meet the person responsilble for this law.
Regarding the original poster's experience, it's not very surprising for a Government department to behave this way as we have no choice but to use them if we need their help. Therefore they can be as rotten as they like and what can we do ?
I guess they have to be nasty as there are so many people on the fiddle. As is often the way, the deserving get very little and get treated like dirt and those that see benefit claiming as a way of life get the red carpet treatment while their 4x4 ticks-over outside the Job Centre.
The system is a mess.
I hope something turns up soon for those that are looking.
Surely as someone who has used the benefit system you must know this isn't true?
The right wing papers bandy all these stories about, but I would like to know what benefit enables you to afford 50" plasma TVs and 4x4?
I went down there last week at least expecting to be able to book an appointment with them but was handed a card with a freephone number and shown the door.
I admit that i should have looked online before hand but I would have at least thought with the size of building they have they would offer to take your name down in a free slot or something.
Sorry that its really tough on you folks today~Since 1979 welfare benefits have decreased by *40%* so jsa would be around £25pw more and old age pension around £37pw more,if kept solely at those rates!!For years the media and politicians have constantly highlighted abuses,consequently allowing parliament to keep trimming these benefits.Around £10Billion goes unclaimed yearly,wonder why!(false claims are around £800Million which is much less than the unclaimed figure)Fraud on invalidity is just 0.5% of those that claim,this was whispered when revealed in parliament!,looks like they pulled a fast one,imo!!Anyhow good luck!All the best.:rolleyes:
I work for them. On the frontline, signing customers. In the year I've been there, I've had people threaten to sit on my face, call me filth, swear at me and threaten to burn my house down. Yet day after day I go in, and try my level best to help people as I know that the majority of people would not do the above. I see people pissed out of their brains, people high on drugs, and people who have pHDs...yet I treat them all the same - with respect.
Try to remember, as I do for 40 hours a week I work, that JCP staff are humans just the same as you are. I know there's rude members of staff working for us, but we're not all like that!
I claimed JSA briefly at the start of last year after my temporary contract was ended much sooner than expected and I too found the JCP staff extremely unhelpful and very cynical towards me. I see myself as a fairly intelligent guy but I was treated like some junkie waster who didn't want to work.
Perhaps the only help they gave me was give me the drive to get any form of employment so that I didn't have to go back there.
:eek: Jesus H!....that's all you have to do each week to get your benefits? I was thinking the requirement was 3 job interviews or at least applications!
I've always asumed that "Job Seeking" was supposed to be a full time activity in lieu of actually working - i.e. you were expected to spend approx. 35 hours per week looking for work? :eek:
No not until you reach, "New Deal", then it gets a lot tougher. On the intense activity period, it's full time. Their are good and bad providers and good and bad provider branch's. Definitely worth finding out the best place to go. You get a choice of your area and adjacent areas. Some are hell holes and some fairly OK.
The are bring out community service for those unemployed for over two years.
Most people even on New Deal don't even get any replies never mind job interviews. It's how much activity and paper work that you produce that matters. You just have to do what the advisor and if your at a centre tutors tell you to do. If not they will stop your benefits.
I do all my job seeking at a resource centre one afternoon a week. That's just to keep the Job Centre happy. The rest of the week I spend doing what I need to really find a job.
Comments
Awful place. I don't think I have ever found a job through them. All my jobs have come through word of mouth, adervtisments online, in shop windows or in the local paper.
Everytime he went to the job centre he was spoken to as if he wasnt trying, when he was. We live in a small village, and there really aren't many jobs around. He tried everywhere within a 30 mile radius, and got nowhere.
He was then offered fork lift training which he did, and he enjoyed. He was then offered a job 60 miles away. It was a minimum wage part time job, which taking off petrol would be stupid to do. He wouldnt really earn anything. So he turned it down.
He was then removed from JSA, and he hasnt been claiming a penny since.
The presenter of the documentary said Job Centre staff are not trained to handle "white collar workers" and there will need to be a whole new system put in place to teach them how to handle people who have worked in banks, accountancy firms, legal firms etc. as some of the people from those firms will have been partners, directors etc and the job centre staff do not know how to speak to people from those employment backgrounds.
I was horrified. Surely everybody should be spoken to politely, if somebody works in that sector of serving the public then they should be professional enough to be polite in their handling of "customers".
Maybe I expect too much or I'm just naive
That is just unbelievable! Would they have paid his relocation costs, as that would be the only way it could be worth his while to take the job.
I think bureaucracy has probably always been this mad, it just isn't recorded historically for us to learn from the way wars and genocide are, and look how we don't learn from that!
how can anyone live on that?
I know, what bothers me is that even people who are fortunate enough to be in work at the moment, myself included, have no disposable income to save for the "rainy day", so once the job goes that's it, and people with families have to fight tooth and nail to get any help from a system they have paid into during years of employment. It's an absolute disgrace.
And don't even get me started on pensioners and what they are supposed to survive on!
I literally have no disposable income whatsoever. pretty much everything goes on food & bills. I am terrified of spending money on anything as i don't know if my current job is going to last or my contract picked up for another year.
I moved over here from ireland as i had bugger all chance of finding a job where i was. Granted the benefits system over there is better as you get just slightly under £200 a week & thats just for a single person.
my heart goes out to everyone looking for a job at the moment & struggling to get by. i take my hat off to you people.
No your not naive. You should speak to people as you wish to be spoken to. Most job centre workers are just jobsoworths with a superiority complex. They probably can't handle the fact that most of these people are far better qualified than them.
My brother was actually thrown out of our local job centre for arguing with the person who was dealing with him. They were very heavy handed, threatening police and all sorts. Its ok for them to speak to us like shit, but god forbid you do it back to them. They don't have to take 'abuse':rolleyes:
They shouldn't need training on how to speak to people from the professions. They should all be retrained in how to speak to people in general, politely and appropriately, whatever their background.
I agree. Job Centre staff seem to be only able to deal with a limited range of basic jobs. Anything outside of that and they haven't a clue. It's not their fault. It's the training they have, small cogs in a big, bueraucractic machine.
I have reluctantly signed on for JSA after 46 years of continuous working and receive £18.41 per week, no other help whatsoever with council tax etc.
I was told by job centre that "because you have savings" you do not qualify for any help.
You've just got to love how the benefit system penalises people for being financially prudent and actually putting money aside to supplement the state system in times of need! :rolleyes: Totally arse-about-face. Basically, the system says "Spend all your money while you can! What you don't spend will be held against you later in life"
Nice country this, isn't it?
anyway, the school joined into another and she was made redudant so off she trotts to the job center at the age of 47 for the 1st time in her life, she came out in tears, said the way she was spoken to and treated was disgusting, there was smackheads in there demanding emergency giros and the staff were falling over themselves to help them and helping them fill out forms for loans from the social fund, telling them to claim for everything and anything whilst my mother was made to feel like dirt, they made no effort in even showing her how to use the self service computer job search things .
she left the job center that morning, had found a new job that tea time and vowed never to step foot in the job center again, ( this was a good five years back now, no such luck of finding a job so quick these days eh?)
I'm the same MC, no disposable income left, food and household bills eat it all up now. My job is looking rocky at the moment, and for people who have lost jobs and already feel awful about what's happened to them, to be treated so badly by what are meant to be public servants is shameful.
I always try to speak to people they way I would like to be spoken to Shadowmaiden, that is why I am so horrified that people to are going to Job Centre's for help, many who have worked for years up until then and so do not know how the system works, are treated as though they are some sort of sub-species. It sounds to me as though the sub-species are on the other side of the counter!
One of my fears is if I ever have to deal with these people and start to challenge their attitude I will end up like your brother being threatened with the police, simply for standing up against unnecessary aggression.
I completely agree Mallaha and cannot think of any reason why they would be continually rude to people who are seeking help. Maybe the Job Centre employee needs to remember that until the person who has lost their job is sitting in front of them asking for help, the job seeker had been paying for the Job Centre employees wages for the amount of years the job seeker had been working!
I would love a nice, routine little bench job. It would be perfect for me, I'd still be using my brain and it is something I enjoy.
Sadly it looks as if it will have to be the DWP for me. But that is wrong as well as it is a job I have no interest in, I don't want to do and one that I have no experience of (though I have worked in an office). Apparently you get a few days training...:eek::eek:
Although it is (thankfully) a very long time ago now since I claimed the dole, I do remember getting a letter that stated how much I would get and that the amount was what "the law" says I needed to live on.
Is it still worded this way ?
I'd love to meet the person responsilble for this law.
Regarding the original poster's experience, it's not very surprising for a Government department to behave this way as we have no choice but to use them if we need their help. Therefore they can be as rotten as they like and what can we do ?
I guess they have to be nasty as there are so many people on the fiddle. As is often the way, the deserving get very little and get treated like dirt and those that see benefit claiming as a way of life get the red carpet treatment while their 4x4 ticks-over outside the Job Centre.
The system is a mess.
I hope something turns up soon for those that are looking.
Surely as someone who has used the benefit system you must know this isn't true?
The right wing papers bandy all these stories about, but I would like to know what benefit enables you to afford 50" plasma TVs and 4x4?
I admit that i should have looked online before hand but I would have at least thought with the size of building they have they would offer to take your name down in a free slot or something.
I don't know how it is possible either, but many seem to have them.
I work for them. On the frontline, signing customers. In the year I've been there, I've had people threaten to sit on my face, call me filth, swear at me and threaten to burn my house down. Yet day after day I go in, and try my level best to help people as I know that the majority of people would not do the above. I see people pissed out of their brains, people high on drugs, and people who have pHDs...yet I treat them all the same - with respect.
Try to remember, as I do for 40 hours a week I work, that JCP staff are humans just the same as you are. I know there's rude members of staff working for us, but we're not all like that!
Perhaps the only help they gave me was give me the drive to get any form of employment so that I didn't have to go back there.
No not until you reach, "New Deal", then it gets a lot tougher. On the intense activity period, it's full time. Their are good and bad providers and good and bad provider branch's. Definitely worth finding out the best place to go. You get a choice of your area and adjacent areas. Some are hell holes and some fairly OK.
The are bring out community service for those unemployed for over two years.
Most people even on New Deal don't even get any replies never mind job interviews. It's how much activity and paper work that you produce that matters. You just have to do what the advisor and if your at a centre tutors tell you to do. If not they will stop your benefits.
I do all my job seeking at a resource centre one afternoon a week. That's just to keep the Job Centre happy. The rest of the week I spend doing what I need to really find a job.