The devil is in the detail so it’s too soon to know exactly what George Osborne meant when he said today that the Government plans “a hard-headed assessment of under-performing (social security) programmes”.
This came along with yet more conditionality for those looking for work including weekly signing and forced English classes for non-English speakers. Both of these things will cost more money, not less, although mandatory ESOL – English For Speakers of Other Languages – has long been a feature of welfare-to-work style programmes and was originally introduced by Tony Blair. Meanwhile single parents with three year olds will now be subject to Jobcentre bullying, although they will not be required to take up work until their child is five.
The extension of the waiting period for unemployment benefits to seven days – a nasty little move that is squarely aimed at all those in work who may face unemployment in the future – will save pennies. Ending Winter Fuel Payments for those living overseas is also unlikely to bring the DWP a windfall. Osborne claims these changes will save £350 million.
The spending review document calls these changes to the Job Seekers Allowance regime a ‘significant reform’. It also says that the DWP will “test different approaches to supporting ESA claimants in the Work Related Activity Group to move closer to work”.
Currently these claimants are bundled onto the Work Programme, where sick and disabled claimants can now be forced to work unpaid for unspecified periods of time. There is no mention of Iain Duncan Smith’s flagship Work Programme in the spending review document which accompanies Osborne’s speech.
Already the Community Action Programme (CAP), the planned scheme for endless workfare once claimants have left the Work Programme, seems to have disappeared and been replaced with Jobcentre based harassment.
Scrapping the Work Programme would be a major embarrassment for the Government and call into question the entire payment-by-results model which has since been exported to probation services. But with the Work Programme performance figures continuing to show the scheme is a disaster, about the only thing more embarrassing than scrapping it would be keeping it.
Whatever turns out to be the case – and there will be no gushing press releases from the DWP announcing ‘woo hoo, we’ve scrapped the Work Programme’ – Osborne’s speech indicates a return to Jobcentre based policing for unemployed claimants. Jobcentres that are already at near breaking point due to soaring long term unemployment and already vastly increased workloads. Whether the private sector poverty pimps who have bungled the Work Programme are brought into Jobcentres as compensation for their failure remains to be seen. Either way the outcome for claimants themselves is likely to be more of the same shit just with longer queues.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
I really can’t see Jobcentres seeing every single claimant every week, I know for a fact our JCP is on it’s knees right now, then you have to remember there will be all the new school leavers for this year, the Work Programme finishers ongoing daily, together with the normal amount of jobseekers, not to mention those thousands who are losing their jobs on a daily basis.
No Chance!
Universal Jobmatch will do most of the work for them, automatically flagging people who have not applied for ‘x’ amount of jobs or spent ‘x’ amount of time searching.
freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Department for Work and Pensions
Rockingham House
123 West Street
Sheffield S1 4ER
24 June 2013
[FoI ref No 2822]
Dear XXXXXXX,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request dated 21 June which has been copied below along with our response.
I know it is mandated for people claiming JSA to create a Profile and Public C.V in Universal Jobmatch, however from what I can see it is not mandated that people claiming JSA have to use Universal Jobmatch to search for a job.
Can you please confirm this in plain english (i.e. Yes or No)
It is not mandatory for JSA claimants to use Universal Jobmatch to search for a job.
However, JSA claimants are expected to do all that is reasonably expected of them to actively seek work. As part of this, we would expect them to look for work through as many different sources as possible. This may include using Universal Jobmatch if it is reasonable, taking into account their circumstances, including whether they have suitable access to the internet.
If a JSA claimant refuses to use Universal Jobmatch to search for a job and as a result, they are unable to demonstrate they have taken all the number of steps to look for work on their Jobseeker’s Agreement without good reason, then benefit may be affected.
Additionally, JSA claimants who have a Universal Jobmatch account (either through their own choosing or through being directed to create one by an adviser by issuing a Jobseeker’s Direction) can be required to apply for any jobs advertised on Universal Jobmatch that the adviser thinks the claimant is capable of doing. If the claimant fails to apply for any of these jobs without good reason, then benefit may be affected.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
—————————————————————————————–
Your right to complain under the Freedom of Information Act
If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gsi.gov.uk or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team, Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within two months of the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF http://www.ico.gov.uk
Completely agree with you Workshy!!!
We know Jobcentre staff are crap at their jobs and so does Gideon and thats why he is praying that IDS and Co ‘Universal Jobmatch’ will ride the storm. Will it Fuck!!!!!!
Well, even if you have internet at home, they cannot make you use Universal Jobmatch at home because you can refuse to accept cookies set by websites on your own PC (smart phone or whatever). As far as I know the only way they can force you to use Universal Jobmatch is if you can use it at your own local Jobcentre and if every claimant only agrees to use UJM at their local Jobcentre how many times a week will that be possible to do for most people?
Fuck them!
Make it difficult for them.
Only use equipment that THEY provide for YOU at Jobcentres
Dear government,
(I only use dear in the sense that you are like a wealthy but unloved relative who may die soon, in the hope that some money may trickle down, except with the actual government it won’t, but our sentiments on your future wellbeing remain unaffected)
Here is a FOIR for you.
What percentage of Jobcentre staff are,
a) Cunts
b) Jobsworths
c) Sadists
d) SS guards in a former incarnation
e) Downright bastards
f) Straitjacket cases?
I had the impression that claiing after 7 days was conditional on the advisor being satisfied with the job search that had already been done before attempting to claim. What if they’re not? Claimants could find themselves denied benefits indefinitely on the basis their jobsearch wasn’t satisfactory without ever being told why and there’s no legal aid to help with this any more. We’ll have to wait and see with that one I think but it sounded sinister to my ears.
I ran into a former WP Adviser last week…He was signing on and being told not to be late again…In the blink of an eye things can change.
Haha brilliant!
There’s a few WP advisors I know that would deserve that. I doubt they’ll be getting sacked anytime soon though, they can do and say what they like and there’s no consequences.
I would have rubbed the cunts nose in it something rotten! Hehehe
Karma 🙂
Love it.. if it was me i would say oh hello.. you on this side now.. well good luck.. you know what they are like ..
If the Work Programme gets scrapped (which it should be, after having shown itself to be one big failure) then there’ll be many more WP staff signing on. I wonder if the adviser from my local A4e who recently told claimants at a jobsearch session that ‘it was a choice to claim benefits’ will then change his tune?
Was at a4e today and my adviser said he was rushed off his feet suddenly, just at the same time as this came to light..i am wondering now what they knew..
THis is exactly what they say at my WPP – but they sit around doing fuck all. And say they can’t see you, when you turn up after a very long walk to get there. They do pretty much nothing. And get paid for it. When the long hours of doing nothing, gets too stressful for the poor darlings (!), they can always go on a 2 or 3 hour lunch break. After lunch it is more nothing, unless they choose to go home instead – they’re PAID up to 5pm! They have still not found anyone a job.
Today there was a thing on the news about a man from the Vatican being charged with corruption, fraud, and embezzlement. My response was: “How did they NOTICE?”
Sic transit Gloria mundi! (so passeth away earthly glory)
As well, this whole idea of not claiming for seven days makes it much harder to take on a short -term job, say for a couple of weeks. How is this making work pay?
no jobs and no chance of one they can bully all they want,fact is they are running out of ideas except for forcing people to reapply for the same jobs over and over and using any old excuse to sanction them
who knows what goes on in the minds of these maniacs..
but i found out at a recent EOS appointment, that even EOS offices are in compitition with each other,,,how stupid is that,
i dont care about the internal politics of these companys, i just want help to find a job..but as far as EOS is concerned, they just want to waste time fighting each other.
for example if office 1 gets a 100 vacancys somewhere,
and cannot fill those vacancys, instead of sharing them with office b, it scraps them.
also EOS has some dealings with agency staffline, but the 2 business dont talk to each other, and all this bollocks is to do with payment by result, and childish spitfullness,
office 1 says if they are not getting the bonus nor is office b.. nah nah.
is it any wonder people are struggling to find jobs when this madness happens.. i just dont get it……… EOS’s own internal policy is stopping them from making more money with bonus’s than they do now..its as if the company is being run by an apprentice contestant who thought it was a good idea to call an english wine, by a french name….
I can see a major U-turn on the horizon – they can’t legally make you wait 7 days to claim JSA after you have paid N.I. contributions.
Think how this would affect your claim to housing and council tax benefit, you wouldn’t be able to claim those for 7 days either because to claim those you firstly need your JSA claim up and running and what about your N.I. contributions, you would still be liable for those at the full amount for seven days after you lose your job.
EU and international human rights law says you are entitled to unemployment benefit EVERY day you are unemployed. Do these people not read? Illegal DipShit and Gonorrhoea-Sores Osborne are benefit thieves – they are stealing our entitlement.
Why can’t you claim straight away? If you’re unemployed, you’re unemployed.
I assume that, whereas at the moment, when someone registers as unemployed, there is an implicit 3 day waiting period, a future claimant will have to wait 7 days after registering. One wonders whether the same pleb who introduced the 3 day rule also came up with the idea of the 7 day rule.
The longer they make you wait the more it ‘reduces’ unemployment figures. Eventually their have you waiting months and claim they made a huge reduction in unemployment.
I thought those latest Work Programme Provider performance figures where due for release this week.
Tomorrow.
Supposedly..
So if your employer goes bust overnight and in the morning you are told no work you’re unemployed how are you supposed to cope with living 2 weeks on one weeks minimum wage til you serve your time of one week before you can apply for JSA plus the extra days it will take till JC+ get your claim up and running
Exactly… and even worse under UC if it ever comes in as you will have to survive on your last weeks pay check for over 5 weeks… 1 week not allowed to sign, say 1 week to setup claim, then 4+ weeks as UC is monthly in arrears. What a fucking joke, not quite as bad if you loose a monthly paid job, but the most likely group to loose employment are usually min wage weekly paid zero hours contracts… although this gov is having a damn good go at totally destroying the whole economy!
Thing is a lot of people now move from one temporary job to another with periods of unemployment in between. So if somebody has five or six different jobs throughout the year they could lose five or six weeks of Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Weekly appointments instead of fortnightly. Osborne seems to think claimants will get more help too. I don’t think so. This will push “advisors” to the limit. There will be no time for appointments to be long enough.
Yes just more work for them and already they seem rushed off their feet. Personally it won’t bother me if I have to sign every week (if still signing) but what worries me is the toxicity of this government who never seem to tire of booting the vulnerable. The glee on Osbornes face at this announcement is so evident. Cameron the same. They get a buzz from inflicting pain on the poor it’s clear to see. I think thet are so immature and lack wisdom. Worrying really.
Don’t forget because each visit will be a “signing day” you will have to pay your own fares as far as transport goes. If you live in a rural area or miles away from your Jobcentre doubling your travelling expenses could be very costly for people already on the breadline.
It seems Universal Jobmatch is going to be the Big Brother style snooping cosh JCP are going to use to smash the unemployed with endless sanctions.
Looks like I’m going to miss my time on the Work Programme. I’ve been left alone for the last 2 years by JCP and the WP provider. It’s been blissful.
Problem with your job search being based upon big brother Jobmatch is that many people also find jobs elsewhere; Indeed, TotalJobs etc. Unless they all team together so that you log into all via Universal Jobmatch, it won’t work.
Total jobs is a far superior site to the god awful Universal Jobmatch. And the DWP’s hopes of using Universal Jobmatch as a snooping tool on the unemployed fly in the face of the Data Protection Act, among other things.
Hot air and spiteful rhetoric are all the government are capable of producing, because they know, deep down, that there simply are not enough jobs to go round. They just haven’t got the stones to admit that, as that would amount to an admission of guilt for their mishandling of the economy.
needs.co.uk is also very, very good.
Today our JCP sanctioned a man (in his absence) – openly discussing his case in front of other staff, security guard, other jobseekers! data protection violation! – because of UJM.
UJM, which, as anyone who has attempted to use it knows, is shite, was not working properly and showed him as zero jobseeking activity, because it didn’t work. So JCP staff decided to sanction him!
I’m locked out of my UJM account but bet it’s the same – when I could get on it it did not work, the staff had changed my personal details, and it would not let me apply for any jobs or record anything. So it looked like I’d done nothing. About 75% of the Jobpoint machines at JCP today were ‘Out Of Order’. The (fascist one) security guard was sort of using the kiosk thing to do vaults on!!!! And pushups! We’d be in trouble if we did that.
same here get letters to go but bin um bet you cant wait for ur exit report 🙂
if they put utter bollocks on mine ill sue the bastards for slander
When asked to write an essay on WPP: Say you want them to send a copy to the government, many of whom are clearly functionally illiterate, and for whose benefits you have framed your response using nonverbal communication. Message Body: Copy and paste a large, full-page, full-colour, clip-art image of: A large pair of BOLLOCKS.
As Osbourne announced all this, did you see IDS in the corner of the House of Commons sniggering – no sign of Hoban though.
🙂
i bet they never told jcp staff he was going to do that haha
they best stump up the bus fair or i will not be going got to look for work 8hrs a day n not open weekend and if i sign on ill be under the 35hr limit and no way to look for work at my jcp.
Yes Minister played out on the real screen intentional befuddlement of real people’s lives. Is this a dream? Surely not. Treating real people like disposable scum. Shuffle, fudge, fuck up and window dress the through.
I imagine that the end of the Work Programme will coincide with the end of Social Security. If we won’t work for free they’ll just end out of work benefits, full stop.
Reblogged this on kickingthecat.
Direct Line is axing 2,000 jobs. Jobs are going everywhere. When will the government wake up and smell the coffee?
The weekly signings will affect around half of jobseekers. This, along with the seven day delay in paying out JSA to new claimants, will be introduced next April.
Plenty of time to fight to get this overturned!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23058853
According to the BBC article no one will be able to sign on unless ‘they have a CV’- wtf?! What about people with basic literacy problems? Also, there are a significant number of jobs where CVs are not expected or are not judged to be appropriate. If Osborne’s being serious about this, it must all be to keep the Irritable Demonic one happy, as of course Universal Jobsfarce is designed around claimants having CVs.
My question is which claimants will be forced to sign on weekly? It said around half on the BBC website, so who knows? Perhaps those “only” applying for the bare number of vacancies as on their JS agreement? Or perhaps it’ll be the people who refuse to tick the box giving the DWP access to their UJ account (very much like IDS’ threat to haul in daily those who refuse the DWP consent, as reported on this blog last December).
One can only wonder at the sheer vindictiveness of this bastard government.
On Universal Jobwank is only mandatory to create an account with your profile and public CV, it is NOT mandatory for you to use UJM to search for a job.
It’s a contradictory joke. The CV of someone whose (truthful) CV would have to reveal they are longterm unemployed, possibly alcoholic or a drug addict, possibly ex-jail…. (and reveal their age), would work against them getting a job or even an interview. Are we meant to put down all the different Work Programmes we’ve been on? And then what reputable employer would touch us with a bargepole? Or a dodgy employer who, believing us to be scum, hires work programme people so they can bully them. And reduce the pay. But the contradiction is we are not supposed to make ourselves unemployable. So in creating such a crap and pointless CV, that would be doing just that. Brilliant. They’ve found out how to mandate us to knowingly get ourselves sanctioned, by following their orders. I heard a story about a Nazi guard that used to, as people were being herded towards the mass shooting or the gas chambers, pretend to let some people go. He said they had a chance to escape. But he told them to run, and as they ran he shot them in the back. Or they ran onto the electrified fence. This is definitely evidence of reincarnation!
Can anyone explain why there’s even a 3 day non payment of JSA
Jobseekers will also be required to have a CV before claiming benefits
cant wait to see what they do with me then hahaha its there bloody fault i got jack shit to put on 1.and i have done all they asked so not my problem is it.
cant wait to sign on and see what they got to say about that 1 🙂
As for Universal Jobmatch – they may be able to mandate you into creating an account but I don’t see how they can force you to use it. It’s crap. I use other job boards and always print off all e-mail notifications of my job applications to wave in their faces. Provided you can prove you are looking for work, I would have thought this should be adequate. I have also told them that I don’t have a PC and use my friend’s. They are not allowed to ‘force’ you into granting them access to your account (by accepting 3rd party tracking cookies), as this would contravene European Cookie law. I know of some ppl who have been told that they must use the job centre computers. Then surely this hinders the claimant’s job search as the job centre computers only have access to the crappy DWP site. It seems they will try anything just to justify it’s miserable existence.
Fun and games – coming to a jobcentre near you SOON!
fkt
go to my jcp they turned off all the job points and there are no pcs to use either bloody good idea that 1 got told to use the library for a 35hr a week job search pmsl
All this is to happen after the next election,so the chances are it wont happen anyway.But it does prove the simple mindset of these arogant fuckers in power.
April 2015 introduction I think
General elections are usually held in May
Gidiot says weekly signings for all, hip hip hooray.
Well half, and that’s about a million extra signings per week, JCP is going to implode with the work load and processing.
“The extension of the waiting period for unemployment benefits to seven days”
The only jobs around here are temporary agency jobs with no guaranteed length of employment — could be a day a week a month? Who’s going to take a temporary job like this then wait a week to get back on jobseekers?
In new Private Eye (No. 1343, 28/6-11/7, p.31) there’s an article on UJM entitled: “Empty promises” which says that thanks to a computer cock-up, tens of thousands of jobseekers may have been firing off blank email to prospective employers, instead of their CVs. Some jobseekers have recently been told by their JCP and employment agencies that if they opt to make their online CVs “private” rather than “public”, the system merely forwards blank files!
There follows some examples of jobseekers’ CVs not being received by employers. Also one jobseeker who had made dozens of applications but system was flagging up “alerts” on his account, indicating he hadn’t been “active” in his jobsearch when he clearly had been.
DWP says it is unaware of any problems with the system: “There has been repeated testing of the CV function and in all tests the employer received a complete CV. However, if we receive any details of specific incidents where blank CVs have been sent to employers, we would be happy to investigate.”
I read this in a comments thread over a month ago and blogged about it: I had recently signed off (no job, but I was fed up of jumping through their hoops) and was understandably pissed that all the applications I was being made to do via that site weren’t going through. I assumed that this must have been fixed by now (but have still been avoiding that site just in case). Am astounded that this is still happening and there isn’t a bigger outcry! What a massive piece of shit that god forsaken site is.
Here’s an interesting snippet from the BBC article
“He (Osborne) said weekly meetings with Job Centre staff would become mandatory for about half of jobseekers.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said these were likely to be jobseekers who were deemed not to be doing enough to find a job themselves.”
Isn’t this a little odd? At the moment those judged to not be doing enough to find work can be (and are being) sanctioned, so will this mean a reduction in the number of sanctions being imposed on people (unlikely). Or will they be expecting newly sanctioned claimants to sign on weekly as well?
Whatever, this sounds like more poorly thought out hot air from a government that is fresh out of ideas, and can only think of ways to make people’s lives more difficult.
Poorly thought out hot air is what the Tories do best. Osborne assumes that half of all claimants are not doing enough to find work, but where’s the proof of that? And, like you say, if that is true then why haven’t half of all claimants been sanctioned?
Are you sure that it’s just the Tories who are past masters at ideas that are poorly thought out hot air?
They are clutching at straws, seemingly convinced that these kinds of announcements will make good news for the likes of the Daily Mail, but seem to have overlooked the fact that even those who’s intellects have been severely retarded through reading it are beginning to tumble to fact that it’s not the fault of unemployed people themselves that they are unemployed as they themselves increasingly receive their P45s
“why haven’t half of all claimants been sanctioned?”
I assume most have already seen these from mylegal.
http://ilegal.org.uk/post/19593
http://ilegal.org.uk/post/19608
“And, like you say, if that is true then why haven’t half of all claimants been sanctioned?”
Give it time!
Weekly signing on at the Job Centre has to be an attempt to force even more sanctions. If people are having to sign every week, as opposed to the current once a fortnight, it means Job Centre staff will have even more opportunities to sanction people for being a few minutes late for an appointment.
But even if you arrive early you’ll be stood in a queue for ages as the Jobcentre staff won’t be able to cope with double the workload. It’s complete bullshit. Unworkable bollocks.
Wow, queues to sign on… brings back memories.
lets hope they got a big safe to put all the bus fair money in then lol 🙂
When is this government going to get challeged in court over all this?
This has now clearly become more than welfare budget cuts, it has become a specific and unjustified open attack on benefit claimants.
Obi…you can’t have failed to notice that legal aid has recently been cut for this type of thing. Coincidence? I think not!
What a an absolute load of bollocks. Osborne is off his rocker, he has shown himself to be completely incompetent and must now resign. Fuck off Osborne you clueless twat.
im getting a uniform to go sign on if they want to go on like dick heads
The undead nazis referred to in the Horst Wessel Song?
Also, there’s going to be a benefit cap. How the hell will this work if the unemployed numbers go up?
if the unemployed numbers go up?
JSA is not included in the cap, – would you believe.
“Also, there’s going to be a benefit cap.”
There certainly is. And on it will be written “arbeit macht frei” and you’ll have to wear it all the time!
I thought the benefit cap was a rubber device pervert IDS wanted to personally insert up all female paupers…
So many of osborns ideas will be quietly shelved as they wake up to the fact that most of them are probably breaking the HRA… for example, if it is not possible or allowable to vet a persons use of english to be employed as a doctor etc. then it sure as hell wont be allowable to stop someones benefit if they cant speak english and are from the EU, but probably ok if from outside the EU, so watch for more anti HRA & ECHR retoric in the coming months.
They really are all nothing more than a bunch of vicious, venal, and vindictive vestibules of vacuous cunts! (vendetta’esq, but couldn’t find a v word for cunts, so cunts it is!)
Jonathan….there’s a very obvious v word for cunts…..but the Tories aren’t that useful!
DOH! *epic facepalm*
A nest of fucking Vipers!….The cunts!
A nest of vipers is cute.
Tory ‘wedges’ (cuneus means wedge or slice): Not cute. Make a pitbull’s arse look cute. Eric Pickles=Epic Fail
(Private Eye style caption-swapping joke: I was looking at a picture of the EU’s lard mountain, when I realised it was in fact a photograph of Mr. Eric Pickles.)
Nobody mentioned: The cuts closed lots of English classes and stopped a lot of immigrants using them.
OR: WHAT ABOUT all the white, British people of all classes; underclass, working class, middle class, upper class: who can’t speak English properly?!
or that nice!
why tories don’t use the v word: it has 2 syllables too many; and the tories can’t even locate the ‘on’ switch
The Work Programme statistics for its first two years are out tomorrow!
Can’t wait for that Jumbo….I wonder where we will be able to access the true (i.e. unfiddled) figures(?)
Well, as the saying goes, “There are Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics”
Jobseekers Allowance will remain uncapped.
Eh? It’s already capped at 1% for the next three years.
Employment Support Allowance (ESA) will be capped.
Can the people that thought these cuts up, be kneecapped.
I have seen a few firms saying they dont want a CV but have their own forms they want completed so why is JCP DWP etc so anally retentive about having to have a CV?
With these measures, it’s almost as if they want the system to fail?
There was a hint that something was up in the work and pensions commitee report about the long term affect on poorly performing work program providers with G4s suggesting market share would get providers to perform better . This idea was shot down as other providers might not get a look in .thats how they see it. Who can profit the most not the consequences to claimants.
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Remember next year Gidiot will miraculously create 200,000 private sector jobs when the Royal Mail is sold off for buttons, doesn’t seem to matter to him that those 200,000 Jobs already existed in the public sector.
The resulting spin would be “Gidiot creates almost quarter of million new jobs” so the unemployed have even less excuse
BTW if you see Sid tell him to “Jog On”
A signed on today as normal and got given this
Changes on your signing day
From 1 july 2013 we are introducing changes to how you we aim to help you
When you sign on your usual signing day you may be seen instead by a personal advisor to discuss what help you feel you need from us to try to get you back into work as soon as possible you will also be told about the various forms of help we can offer and also what training and other courses are available to you these meetings will last up to an hour ttherefore please ensure that when you attend to sign that you allow sufficient time to take part in one of these meetings should it be that day participation in the meeting is a requirement of your continued entitlement to benefit
The irony is that help you has a line through it .
That was not writing on jobcentre headed paper so don’t know if it’s an internal letter
‘ help you’ crossed out? Well at least they are being honest but the blank sheet is curious to say the least.
Yes a thin line like a scribble were the help you is
Its all to do with the GLED MF47 form – it looks like this form has been adapted from the original MF 47 which was a form regarding benefit fraud.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/76479/response/194086/attach/html/5/04%20Undertaking%20the%20Customer%20Compliance%20Interview%20070711.pdf.html
Claiming benefit is fraud, because all jobseekers work at least 5 jobs and own 2 work vans! And own a doberman called Keith. On a bit of string. Their favourite breakfast is 3 cans of Special Brew, and their favourite leisure activity is beating up their wife (usually called Chardonnay).
-From ‘The Wet Dreams of Eric Pickles, aged 12 and 3 quarters’
Toilet Pulp Press (Remaindered)
If you read the work and pensions commitee report it is apparent that work program providers are shitting themselves as they will lose business.. they proved themselves unworthy in the first place something that was already known would happen. So they will be at each others throats trying to outdo each other ..trying to be market leader. Of course they are in impossible. Situation due to lack of jobs…but are aided and abetted by phoney statistics firms like CIPD and the other associations Who regularly pump out phoney statistics . I noté how many times they keep changing the figures to look postive not long After they have provided a dismal forecast
The work and pensions commitee report was about the future of work program providers in the face of damning results which showed they were crap. Ie the writing was on the wall for them it was saying in effect that they couldnt continúe following those figures. Thats why useless companies like G4s were desparately trying to use the market share concept to get them to perform better. Begging the question why they didnt do better in the first place..the reason was obvious because to save money they Only helped the easiest claimant and that employers would sack existing employees After getting cree labour thus adding to the dole queue .all this importante information was already known in consultation exercises set up before the sorry and expensive mess was started and yet they still went ahead..why ???
the work program is in effect dead in the water..unless work program providers decide to get off their arses and spend money on hardest to help but the nature of profit making forbids this…thus they are doomed..
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my provider was worst in the country last time bet there even worse when they come out 🙂
simple fact is,the government now full well that there isn’t enough jobs for every 1.,with 2.45 million unemployed and a estimated 400.000 jobs going in the uk,they can treat you how they wish also knowing they can take your money as soon as you moan,
How do they sleep at night after putting a sanction on some poor ol sod. Knowing that they could die without any food for months. How could some greedy money hungry arseole trying to get a bonus do this????? I could not do a job like this. I do not like the attitude of these jumped up little governments right hand men. They make me want to throw up. Those fat fucking security guards throwing their weight around too, at the minimum wage job centre. Wot the fuck is going on? Treating sick and disabled people like this . They missed their vocation in becoming a police officer ,because too thick, so this will be the next best thing. They really get a buzz out of harassing people, I hope they get sick one day and the boot is on their foot. They can have a Atos annihilation and sent to work programme when they are on their last legs and see how they like it.
Queuing to sign on reminds me of the recession in the 90s. For a while back then, we were signing on once every 4 weeks as they were so short staffed in Jobcentres. If only!
Our JCP does not have the time or space to sign on all the city’s and region’s jobseekers once a week. It hasn’t time/space/manpower really to do it fortnightly, as they struggle and act like they can’t get you out of the building fast enough. Here is another point: it is the designated JCP for the city and surrounding area, and can be the chosen JCP for people in the region. BUT: In the many years I’ve signed on, at least half a dozen other Jobcentres were closed down. Each time this happened, all of the people were transferred to my JCP. Not to cover the time/fuel/fare costs, but it was really stupid as the jobpoint machines brought up local jobs then in the wrong place for these people, and staff knew nothing of their home areas.
Now, most of those transferred people, dating back to 1994 in some cases, have NOT found work. All of them are still signing on at my JCP. Plus the city population rose by 25%. The unemployment figures are not the hundreds there were in 1994, but edging towards 10,000. The vacant jobs are in the hundreds. If they matched the people, or the employers wanted to hire the people, then there would not be vacancies.
How come ANYONE who isn’t a greedy snoutster EVER votes Tory? Yes, I do know some of the reasons but it is a sickening continuous repetition of greed before anything else, greed as a virtue, that these utterly immoral bastards believe in,that shafts everyone else. It’s been going on for hundreds of years. The spirit of 1945 was a delicious gulp of clean air, humanitarian socialist GOOD SENSE and morals. How come people spat it out????? How can we make positive changes when Labour are muzzy and apologetic around the issues? Who is there now, to insist on fairness?
When it’s all gone,Only then will there be regret at “spitting it all out”, but by then it will be too late & I cannot for the life of me see ANY politician being brave enough to propose a re-introduction of a form of Social Security. The right-wingnut media would savage him or her to an inch of their life such is the poisonous atmosphere the comdems have created.
I haven’t read all the comments but agree the weekly signing will put pressure on JCP staff as signings are done alphabetically: first half of it one week, second the following. Now the whole lot will descend over 5 days – chaos. The decent JCP people I know already hate the unrealistic targets set, there are no allowances made for the area in which you live for example. If they say 10 jobs a week so be it, even if you live in the most rural places where work is even more difficult to find. Then they add the 1hr each way travel time. No car, limited bus route? It doesn’t matter. The Work Programme is ailing badly, those charged with administering it are probably realising what the likes of the “thick, workshy, indolents” (me and you according to Ian Duncan – not really double barrelled – Smith and Co.)saw coming at the beginning – a stupid idea! But what if we look at this from a different angle? What if this is a smoke and mirrors job to speed up the Privatization of JCP and its staff? Handing it over to the Private Sector – owned by their friends, associates and in some cases family – makes control of it easier. The money pot has technically moved from the State into their hands and they call the tune and getting paid handsomely too. Do they really care about the sick, disabled, unemployed? From where I stand I doubt it. It’s all about the money they can make out of other people’s misery. Asset strip the very fabric of all we hold dear, the NHS, Police, Fire Service, Education, Industry, Pobation etc, etc. Cameron, Clegg, Miliband (like Blair), Balls, both sides leave the Government slipping into some cosy “Directorship”, again built on the breaking backs of the most vulnerable. “All in this together” Gideon said today. Indeed they are, all the way into their back pockets – wallets bulging! Sorry for the soap box rant but if I was fit, a man and close enough – I’d knock Cameron’s, Osbourne’s, Clegg’s and certainly Ian Duncan Smith’s teeth as far down their throats as my punch would allow!!!!!
I’m not sure about the alphabetical thing; my surname begins with G and I was a ‘week 2’ signing.
When I used to work for them, before retiring,, it was all alphabetical signing. But some areas have thousands signing on these days, so maybe they work it differently now. I still keep in contact with JCP staff, who have worked there from when they first began as JobCentres. They hate it, hate the way they are expected to treat honest, decent people in areas where there just aren’t the jobs – that’s why there’s the enforced 1hr each way travel to work rule – because there’s no work locally! Plus the reduction of the hours of work from 30 to 16, to make more people have to take part time jobs. “All work pays” according to IDS. Before you know it you’ll be forced to work even fewer hours – which obviously makes the employment figures look good. 6, 16 or 60 hrs, it doesn’t matter, you fall into the ‘Employed’ category – crafty eh? And don’t forget anyone ‘sanctioned’ also makes them look good – whilst you may still be classed as unemployed you are not claiming benefit and that’s still a win in their eyes. I used to calculate the stats in local offices, so believe me I know all the tricks from those days, which I am sure they still use now. In this Government’s Office it is actually possible to polish a turd – but they can’t hide the stink no matter how hard they try 🙂
I think now you’re expected to travel 90 minutes each way! Three hours travelling! Thankfully I don’t drive and my advisor took my travel problems genuinely, and my local train only goes a half hour each way; phew!
I signed off and went ‘self employed’, which is a joke! I just couldn’t stand how many hoops I was having to jump through. I’m lucky in that I live at home and have supportive parents, but I really feel for others who don’t have that support system. The way they treat people is vile.
@haven4plants: If you want to punch the creeps in the face, don’t be put off by being female! they will not be expecting it!
Lol! At my height, I’d just about manage a good blast in their goolies……. may be not such a bad idea. Now who to I goolie first – Cameron, Clegg? Nah, Ian Duncan not so double barrelled Smith – that would change his smug, self satisfied expression!
im also going to ask if i can put a kebab n burger van outside my jcp id make fucking thousands from the amount of ppl going every day and offer free wifi for ppl to use
qpounder with cheese n chips and coke 2.85
kebab n chips n drink 3.85
all i need is 50k for stock and van and a good place to put it 🙂
or if George Osborne wants a burger, charge him £10.00. He spends ten fucking quid on one posh burger when I spend £3 – £5 on a meal to feed me for one week! People I know are eating Nettles. I got through last week only because I got a food parcel, and a friend gave me a packet of pasta that she found in the street, 3 years out of date.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23077801
“a friend gave me a packet of pasta that she found in the street, 3 years out of date. ”
I bet that was pasta its best!
(Well you have to try to laugh or you’d cry)
This is awful, this food poverty. How can these malicious vipers called the Gov do this to sick and disabled people, and people out of work? People get ill if they do not eat properly. There have been cases of children with scurvy.This is dangerous. I can understand people eating nettles, at least they are free. I am now going to run out of food, as my last bit of savings I had when I worked before my accident, has run out. I am worried. Where do you claim for food parcel then? If I pay all my bills I can not have money left for food. Outgoings more than that rank rotten pittance barely coming in. What pittance I get the hostile Regime want it back i.e Council Fucking Tax Robbery.
Super Ted, don’t bover with that burger van idea, people coming out of the knob centre plus will not be able to afford it. Unless you mean the arsoles that work there.
I thought the point of the burger van was not to make money so much as to wind up the jobcentre. Refuse to serve JCP staff. I thought it was so people would come into the JCP and sit on the floor, and eat, and drop litter and bits of burger everywhere.
Today I did my weekly food shop, it is now called the Cameron Austerity Britain Diet,
and goes as follows:
4 500g bags of economy pasta at 30p each, half a bag per day for 8 days (then repeat, each week, for rest of life) =£1.20
1 special-offer milkshake (this week’s weekly luxury, and was thirsty) =£0.50p
1 plastic carrier bag =£0.05p
TOTAL: £1.75
This is on the model of Hoovervilles (shanty towns/camps of homeless evicted people), Hoover hogs (rabbits), and Hoover blankets (newspaper).
When I finally got in here, I had the added bonus of treating myself to a George Osborne Salad. A squashed, part-rotten grape I found on the floor.
Here’s 2 questions:
Do benefit sanctions have any basis in law?
Can a benefit sanction be enforced by law?
The 7 days wait for benefits, is in reality 38 days, as universal credit is paid 1 month in arrears, in Addition Say someone is offered a temporary job for a week, they sign off then have to wait another week to sign back on, so people will not take these temporary jobs if they refuse thats 13 weeks no money. How are these people to live they will have to go to payday loan companies, creating more financial hardships
In the How To Avoid Workfare leaflet, it says you don’t have to hand over your CV to a JCP/WP adviser.
Click to access occupy-times-info.pdf
What legislation or rule can I quote if an adviser calls my bluff and insists I hand it over under threat of a sanction if I refuse?
There is no rule specifying that you are not allowed to urinate on it first.
Are the DWP’s rules and regulations legally binding documents?
3:)
These are the kinds of questions we should be asking through FOI requests to the DWP.
The figures are out, they have failed in EVERY category, even the wp own success rates written by themselves have shown they have failed
Yet they are attempting to put a positive spin on their shambolic bullshit !
Any vanilla JSA new claimant will have to wait 5 weeks before receiving any benefit
1 week is automatically not counted and with Universal Credit it’s 4 weeks before first payment.
Two things will happen, the DWP will produce a handy guide on how to eat soil and Wonga will make a killing
Won’t this discourage people from taking short-term jobs?
£30 million pay rise for Queen. We are all in it together….
Ten quid burgers for greedy posh parasites like Osborne & Clegg.
Courtesy of taxpayer I expect.
We’re all in it together: and it’s so deep and big they can even smell it in Australia.
Work Programme official statistics
Organisation: Department for Work & Pensions
Updated: 27 June 2013 . . .
Work Programme official statistics on referrals, attachments, job outcome payments and sustainment payments.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/series/work-programme-statistics–2
A 89% failure rate, outstanding!
Don’t be decived, the Work Programme still has a Failure rate of 86.6% after 2 years – this is a monumental failure.
This can be looked at using an analogy:
You are told there is enough food to feed 100 people for 2 years, but at the end of the 2 years 86.6% have died because you were lied to.
End of analogy.
If 87% of us died, the government would respond: Result.
Obi
Then we have the likes of Janan Ganesh who stated on last sunday’s politics show “austerity is becoming less and less controversial”, he obviously hasn’t visited the Johnny Void site!
Johnny Void your a legend
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Im currently now on this bollocks, and now find on my next appointment that they want to see my last 2months worth of bank statements.
They asked me if anything was preventing me from getting a job I said no, but i’ve got a “unspend conviction” and what pisses me off is the JC’s aren’t exactly private when your talking to one of these muppets. I don’t want my business heard by every man and his dog. I don’t know wether to write it down and hand it to the advisor next time or not bother mentioning it. The issue is im not even sure the JC ever knew of this, and wether they may say “You never informed us blah blah, so were going to stop your money”
What would anyone else do in my position? stay quiet or write it down and pass it to the advisor and say this is what maybe preventing me from getting a job. Even tho the jobs I go for don’t require any CRB checks, they always ask if you have any unspend convictions.
I said to the divvy fool the other day that it appears to me that the govt are doing all they can to force people off the dole by means of work or not finding work. Making it as hard as they can
Cheers
I doubt they have any right to see your bank statements if you are talking about the WP people. The DWP have investigators who snoop around (had same once) but the WP nothing to do with them. I’d refuse!
Im sorry I mean i’ve just finished the WP now, and the JC are carrying out an intensive 6month policy were by people who have just finished the WP will have to come into the JC more reguarly, go on training schemes and maybe mandatory work placements.
The women said the DWP have told the JC’s that there is no carrot anymore just a stick approach
For people who are approaching the end of there WP be prepared, for the next 6 months there going to try and throw people at any shit job.
I said to the advisor bitch that it blatantly appeared like they were trying to force people off the dole anyway they can. She was going on about people who were on the WP weren’t properly checked for wether they were working on the side or not. When I was on the WP there was one chap from a certain african country who had only been to seetec twice in 2 years!
Complete joke
I think they have been using the stick approach for a long time. Not working though because no jobs. They seem either unable to comprehend that fact or simply unwilling to face the awful truth. It ‘must’ be the claimants fault.
As Ex-Forces,I love winding these toads up,recently my proof of a Job search was in doubt(WP) I asked if I could use their Computer and Printer to show them proof(UJM) they said fine…I not only printed off 812 job searches,times two(1 for the JCP) but also forwarded to every E-mail address for the WP Provider and Sub,slightly pissed off? Yes Sir,No Sir, Can you please clarify that? In writing,as we do not want a misunderstanding,can you please get a witness to this statement,can I have 2 original copies,1 for my records and 1 for the JCP…They now apparently have to pick a number out of a hat to see who gets stuck with my (although polite) ass.
You can always screw them on the paper work,as I have the time and they do not!
Hi..I have been on the Work Programme for four months now, and have to hand in my ‘coupons’ every fortnight. Today I was given one more set only (for the next two weeks) and was told ‘they are changing it’ does anyone know what is going on here please?
I have had it with these fools. It has only been 5 months on the WP and I cannot take another week of it. Phoning my mobile and land line, sending me letters, talking shite, wasting my time and worsening my health. I have an Autoimmune Disease and these imbeciles are making it worse. I have therefore decided that I am going to get a job and end my life prematurely. I have an interview next week. Wish me luck y’all….
Anyone know how to stop Work Provider pocketing £13,700 ?
I’ll need to claim working tax credits to survive in the interim. Will the HMRC fill them in? Because I am disappearing off the radar. My tardis awaits…
Just ignore them when you have got a job, they have no right to know and it will really piss them off. Dont answer them if they ring, just sign off there is really nothing they can do. Good luck Hun.
Why do they need to know when you have signed off? I never and shall not tell them anything, it is none of their business. Absolute cheek!
Thanks Paul. They will definitely get no information from me, but what I am wondering is whether the WP will go to the lengths of contacting the HMRC to obtain the info? My ‘Personal Advisor’ knows I will have to apply for working tax credits in order to survive, and I have a horrible feeling that as they are a government appointed organisation the information will be given freely. Thus allowing them to still receive this payment. I just feel so strongly about it. There is no justification for them receiving any monetary payment. All they have done is make my health deteriorate further, causing great distress to me and my family. Additionally, I feel my IQ has dropped a number of points, as a result of having to engage in conversation with my Personal Advisor who is undoubtably thick.
Hi – I doubt it – you know how incompetent these Government outfits are, I think that as long as you keep quiet, let them do the digging, if they get a result they do and there isnt much you can do to change that but at least you can feel satisfied that you didnt assist them….thats really the only option I think…after all you cannot actually prevent HMRC from giving them that info. however, in my experience (from my working career) getting a straight answer out of HMRC is virtually impossible so they will have to be quite tenacious if thats what they eventually resort to. Please try not to worry and take care.