WHY DOES ANYONE BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT COMES FROM THE DWP?

Cameron has been making much of the dramatic fall in unemployment, bragging about it like he has brought it about. 

But if one jobcentre can take 2,700 off its books in one month by sanctioning for minor misdemeanors, and get away with it, then surely we can wipe out unemployment, if not overnight, then at least within a couple of months. 

Simply sanction everyone for some perceived fault. Then Iain Duncan Smith can add that to his list of lies.

Having worked at jobcentre, I know that sometimes sanctions have to be used, but, in the absence of enough suitable jobs, and with tight targets to meet, there are reports of people being sanctioned for being a few minutes late from an appointment, although they are clearly dependent on unreliable privately-owned public transport; people being sanctioned for not having enough money on their cell phones to phone for jobs; people losing money because they got two interviews on the same day, at the same time, and failed to turn up for one of them; people being sanctioned because they moved home and were transferred to another jobcentre, and their details got lost in the system. 

Is it too much to ask that the DWP treat people like human beings?

Cruel, arbitrary and ridiculous reasons why people have their benefits stopped

It's not my fault. I'm too dim to do this job properly

Your gran dies during the night. The next morning your partner calls the jobcentre and asks if you can come in the following day instead. The centre agrees, and you sign in the next day. Then you get a letter stating that you failed to sign in and would be sanctioned if you don’t reply within seven days. You reply, explaining the situation. The job centre gives you a six-week sanction for not replying.

Source: Mari-claire M at Netmums

You get a job interview. It’s at the same time as your jobcentre appointment, so you reschedule the job centre. You attend your rearranged appointment and then get a letter saying your benefits will be stopped because going to a job interview isn't a good enough reason to miss an appointment.

Source: Daily Mail

You've signed in on time, been to interviews and applied for work. Your job centre advisor suggests you make a two-line change to your CV, which you do, but fail to give the updated CV to the job centre (you weren’t told you had to). You are sanctioned for four weeks.

Source: nciaw36 at MoneySavingExpert

You work for 20 years and then miss a jobcentre appointment because you haven't had the process clearly explained. You are sanctioned for 3 weeks. Source: Councillor John O’Shea

That's where you belong, you scroungers,
and that's where you are going

You get a job that starts in two weeks time. You don’t look for work while you are waiting for the job to start. You're sanctioned.

Source: The Guardian

You are forced to retire due to a heart condition, and you claim Employment and Support Allowance. During your assessment you have a heart attack. You are sanctioned for not completing your assessment.

Source: Debbie Abrahams MP

It’s Christmas Day and you don’t fill in your job search evidence form to show that you've looked for all the new jobs that are advertised on Christmas Day. You are sanctioned. Merry Christmas. 

Source: Poverty Alliance

And that's how much I care...on a good day

You are given a training appointment that clashes with your job centre appointment. The jobcentre is unwilling to rearrange its appointment and tells you to get a letter from the training organisation. The training organisation says it does not provide letters.

Source: Russell Brown MP

You apply for three jobs one week and three jobs the following Sunday and Monday. Because the jobcentre week starts on a Tuesday it treats this as applying for six jobs in one week and none the following week. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks for failing to apply for three jobs each week.

Source: Pontefract and Castleford Express (via Benefit Tales)

You miss your job centre appointment due to the funeral of a close family relative. You are sanctioned.

Source: Derek Twigg MP

You've been unemployed for seven months and are forced onto a workfare scheme in a shop miles away, but can't afford to travel. You offer to work in a nearby branch but are refused and get sanctioned for not attending your placement.

Source: Caroline Lucas MP

You have a job interview which overruns so you arrive at your job centre appointment 9 minutes late. You get sanctioned for a month.

Source: jsdk at Consumer Action

Ah darling, did you get your salary for not doing my diary?
Any news of your dear rich papa? Quite well I trust?

You can’t afford to travel to look for work so you get sanctioned.

Source: Citizens Advice Bureau

Your job centre advisor suggests a job. When you go online to apply it says the job has “expired” so you don’t apply. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks.

Source: Penny at Yahoo! Answers

You miss your jobcentre appointment as it clashes with your work programme interview. You get sanctioned.

Source: Citizens Advice Bureau

SOON THE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURE WILL DROP TO -200

It seems that our clever London government has found a way to improve the youth unemployment figures.


That nice Mr Grayling  came up with this little wrinkle last year, without giving it much publicity. Why so little fuss around a clever government initiative to get people back to work, you might ask. 


Well the answer is that this is actually a way of getting people to work for virtually nothing*. As the Jobcentre advertisement shows this permanent job on night shift is paid at JSA plus expenses.


And this work without pay is compulsory. If you are sent for an interview, and the company is prepared to accept you, you must work for Tesco (or any of the other companies participating in this project**) for your Job Seekers' Allowance, plus expenses, alongside other members of staff, who are being paid. If you refuse to do that, you lose your benefits for 13 weeks.


Now I, of all people, am keen to get people into work, and I'm not averse to people gaining experience and gathering new skills. Volunteering, or taking some sort of low paid job with training in new skills is a good way of beefing out a cv and making yourself more appealing to an employer.


But if Tesco has vacancies for night shift workers, or any other vacancies, why do they not advertise them normally, and pay people at the normal rate to do them?


Because, you might reply, this is aimed at people who have no experience in work and need to be given that experience before they deserve to be paid? 


No. I don't think so. Many of the night shift jobs involve filling shelves. Just how much work experience do you need to do that? And once you have gained some experience in the shopyou can easily be moved onto a customer facing job.


Sixteen years ago, when I was starting out working with unemployed people, politicians were arguing about the evils of a minimum wage and how it would ruin business in the UK, and a more experienced colleague foresaw that the one day a government would come up with a system of forcing the unemployed into working for nothing as a way of ridding themselves of this embarrassment.


Trust this government to be the one.


* JSA is not 'nothing'. In fact it is around £67 a week. I don't know exactly what night shift workers at Tesco are paid, but it is over the minimum wage, plus a premium (1.5x) after 10pm. I image that if this job is filled by someone over 21 (there is a limitation of night shift work under 18), they could only work around 7 hours before they were operating at a loss.


** Companies participating in this free labour scheme include:
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Argos, Asda, Maplin, TK Maxx,
Matalan, Primark, Holland & Barrett, Boots, McDonald's, Burger
King, Poundland and the Arcadia group which includes Miss
Sellfridge, Topshop, Burton, Dorothy Perkins. BHS, Evans, Topman,
Wallis and Outfit ...now there's a surprise!!!