Rant - Jobcentre Plus is useless.

[dullonien]

I accompanied my girlfreind to the jobcentre yesterday, because she's recently finished university and is looking for a job. Because my gf has Chron's disease and has struggled with anxiety in the recent past, we were looking to speak to an advisor in order to get advice on writing a CV. She isn't sure what to put on a CV, and what to leave out etc.

When walking into the jobcentre, we were greeted by someone on the door who enquired whether we were on benefits. When we said no, she just told us they don't help people unless they are first on benefits, gave us a leaflet about how to sign-on and tried to shoo us out the door. My gf wasn't even looking to sign on immediately, but instead was going to first look for a job and then if needs be sign on at a later date. What a great system, which basically pushes people on to benefits, no chance on getting any advice beforehand. The staff were extremely unhelpful and wouldn't answer any of our questions, instead just handed a bunch of useless leaflets at us. No wonder there are so many unemployed people, they basically encourage it!

 

[lucky number 7]

Civil service sadly is very often full of ****ing idiots who put nothing into the job save for the bare minimum.

Not true for all individuals as there are plenty of people who put their heart and soul into their work and enjoy helping others and doing the best job they can , but **** me it's shocking how some are so carefree about their occupation

 

[SelimNiai]

Tell me about it, I've had to sign on again recently and hate it all. They treat you like a total moron, I had to attend a "Jobseeker Basics" seminar the other week, telling me I need a CV, that I can do apprenteships (for less than 3 quid an hour and I have to pay for initially). The biscuit was well and truly taken when this man was handing out leaflets;

Man: Here, take this, it's for a course for 16-19 year olds.
Me: No thanks, I'm 23
Man: Take one anyway.

When I was signed on in Southampton after Uni, I had to come back to Cardiff for the weekend as my Aunt was getting married so I gave them 4 weeks notice to say I was not going to able to sign on on my designated date and each time I was told "Ok, thats fine, we'll do a double next time". I come back to find they had cancelled my claim as I missed an appointment and had the temerity to call me a liar when I told them the reasons and that this had been OK'd in the office twice.

 

[Peat]

My commiserations. I remember my period signing on with the minimum of humour - incidentally, do it, I forget what it keeps topped up but there are valid reasons that aren't obvious now - and I had it fairly light. Newspapers are beginning to pick it up as well, the Jobcentres are beyond useless.

Incidentally, tell your gf to go back to her uni, the careers people there will talk to her - and they should be able to swing it for her to talk to careers people at any uni. Or hunt around for jobs fairs, most of them have free career advice.

 

[dullonien]

My commiserations. I remember my period signing on with the minimum of humour - incidentally, do it, I forget what it keeps topped up but there are valid reasons that aren't obvious now - and I had it fairly light. Newspapers are beginning to pick it up as well, the Jobcentres are beyond useless.

Incidentally, tell your gf to go back to her uni, the careers people there will talk to her - and they should be able to swing it for her to talk to careers people at any uni. Or hunt around for jobs fairs, most of them have free career advice.

Yeh, we're going to go into uni instead. They'll be 100 times as useful.

I'm not going to put all the blame on the staff in the jobcentre, because ultimately who thought it would be a good idea to combine the dole office with the jobseeker's office? It just means the people who are meant to be helping you find a job are too busy dealing with the people who are happy to live on benefits and have no intentions of finding a job.

The whole system needs a complete overhaul. It should be rewarding those actively looking for a job and punishing those who don't give a f**k, instead it seems to be the complete opposite.