Jobcentre Plus and New Deal 25

a3racerMon 05/05/08 09:44

On Tuesday 29th April I started on a government programme to find me a full time job. This is funded by tax payers. Its operated by the Career Development Group in Chertsey.

True they provide basic skills for a lot of people that need them such as reading, writing and maths. I have no issues with that at all and its doesn't even bother me that the bulk of those on that part of the course are not native to the UK.

What does bother me is the grouping together of people that are out of work for whatever reason be it ill health, mental health ill issues or indeed ageism.

Of course there is a core group that simply do not wish to work and make no effort to work or find employment.

Normally, when I am at home I have access to the computer and internet. So I can use the tools on board to create stunningly neat application forms. This allows me time then to do voluntary work and still fit in my part time paid job. I also go to college on a Monday to do my training as a chef.

Yet, I am treated as a waster as well which I object to. I have paid my taxes over the years and its because of this fact that I hate being treated as a waster.

So there are twenty or more people in this room using only six computers. The newspapers are some three weeks out of date. In fact I had to bring my own with me in the week! The job file in some cases is a year out of date!

So I am sitting around from 9.30am until 12.30pm until most of them go to lunch. Those that are on the computers are playing computer games online. There seems to be no policing of this. The staff seem totally disinterested in why they are there.

So the end result is that I work through lunch and leave at 3.30pm instead of 4.30pm. This means in real terms that productivity on my part is down by 80% of what I would normally do in the day.

Further, all the good works I used to do have come to a stop.

It makes no logical sense to me to be there sitting around chatting when I could be at home do something productive.

So being taxpayers I ask for your thought please! Is this a system you are happy paying? In fact the only reason its in place is to anger the wasters into a job but it won't work because said waster is getting paid to go to the course. So instead of dossing at home they doss at a centre instead chatting with their mates.

tavdyMon 05/05/08 09:54

I'm definitely not happy with the way JobCentre Plus operate, and not only because of New Deal. Much of the stuff they do for people once in employment (eg for disabled people) is piecemeal and frequently insufficient - like refusing to pay for a specialist support provider for a disabled person because a non-specialist support provider, who the disabled person considers to be substandard, is £25/month cheaper (seriously!!!).

a3racerMon 05/05/08 10:06

That does remind me of something else.

People that suffer from HIV have good days and bad ones. The medical profession accept this but under jobcentre rules you are only allowed two weeks off ill per year. If you take more than this off they put you on to incapacity benefit. Now the danger with this is that if you are getting DLA and then come off incapacity benefit to start a job that one can do. Shortly afterwards people on DLA end up with a review and could lose that extra bit of help and for many its a life line - it can be the difference between eating and not.

Yet, if you remain on jobseekers no review is activated.