howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
courtesy of the telegraph, i cannot find the original thread.
"The mandatory work activity scheme, which forces people on the dole to do community work, is to be doubled
The scheme offers a month's full time work to unemployed people who in the view of Job Centre staff are not "pulling their weight". Whitehall sources described the scheme as "a kick up the backside" or a "big push for people who are struggling".
Mr Grayling refused to be drawn on the details of the announcement.
He told The Daily Telegraph: "We will be giving more details about our plans next month. But it is the case that Job Centre Plus staff have said this has proved to be an enormously valuable tool in trying to focus people on their job search."
In the past year 18,000 unemployed adults have been gone onto the scheme, which Job Centre staff - which decide who goes on the scheme - say has proved popular.
Next month Mr Grayling will say that the scheme, which for those on the dole who are aged over 24, is going to double in size.
Mr Grayling is also understood to be looking at forcing people who miss two fortnightly job interviews to go on the scheme.
Detailed statistics of the scheme, which was started last year by Mr Grayling as part of a "carrot and stick" approach to benefits, will be published next month.
They are likely to show that half of the people referred for a month's activity were coming off benefits, or were not turning up and having their benefits as a result.
Ministers like the scheme because it stops benefit claimants from working on the black market at the same. One source said: "They can't do both."
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#2
When using the Jobcentre for recruiting in the past we have had people turning up for an interview only to say : I don't want the job, please sign here to say I turned up.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
#3
We have all, as employers, had people apply (badly) for jobs and if somehow they make it through to interview fail to turn up. That is for only one purpose - to meet the tickbox criteria for claiming benefits. I have always made a habit of phoning DNAs - I do not want to either diss them inadvertently or miss a good applicant who has failed to turn up for good reason. One I called told me she was "in the bath", and could she come anyway. This was after the interview time and date. Another told me the same thing on another occassion and asked if she could still have the job. They both got the same, short, answer.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
this plan does not look to be well thought out as judging by the posts above and what i have been told by someone who works at the jobcentre, claimants that do not want a job know how to play the game.
full details have not been published yet but i suspect that not much will be done to dent the unemploymen figures.
#5
Peter and I must have posted at the same time with the same thing - it probably is significant! We can't be the only ones to notice it!
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#6
We used to get some bring their CV into the shop looking as if they had just got out of bed, come to think of it they probably had as they always turned up near lunch time never just after we opened.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
#7
Jan, they were probably tired walking around from shop to shop presenting their CV, being turned down, and realising they were not going to get a job anyhow.
Guest 705- Registered: 23 Sep 2010
- Posts: 661
#8
Community work is a farce. I know supervisors who just let their charges sit around do nothing for fear of retribution. I was on benefit for about 6 months during the early 90's and frankly if I had got any patronising crap from anyone at the job centre- I would have told them to shove it. As it happens the staff at Folkestone were brilliant and they really helped me get back on track.
Never give up...
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#9
richard.
but there are those who are willing to help in a good way,and then there are some who are bloody minded jobsworthys.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
#10
it s this once again of'
those swinging the lead the govt needs to hit
but other more worthy people will get caught up in the net(as garyc has highlighted)
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#11
impossible to stop the genuine skivers who know how to work the system and follow all the rules laid down by the job centre.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#12
It does tend to be the easy to hit genuine people who suffer, the path of less resistance.
Audere est facere.
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
#13
The ethics of community work are sound, but it is the way it is organised and managed that is the problem.
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Guest 753- Registered: 23 May 2012
- Posts: 146
#14
First time poster.
After 18 years at the Royal Mail I took redundancy so had to go and sign on.
I was told I'd need to bring at least 3 copies of proof that I was looking for work.
So next time in I went with copies of letters I'd sent, websites I'd visited and circled job offers in the local papers that
I'd written to.
I heard from a couple of other ex Royal Mail workers that there were people in front of them that just turned up, signed on with no proof of trying find employment. When they asked the officer why he/she didnt supply any proof of looking for work
they were told some people are a hopeless case.
When one responded with 'Can I be a hopeless case then' they just smiled at him.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#15
welcome ian.
there is not much the jobcentre staff can do in such cases other than go through the motions of the signing on and moving on to the next one.
Guest 753- Registered: 23 May 2012
- Posts: 146
#16
You're right Howard, but it was frustrating as although I found a job within 5 weeks, there were times when it felt I was
running out of companies to write to that fitted in with what experience i had.
Thankfully it worked out in the end.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
#17
Instead of them picking up paper, why not give them the opportunity for educational training loans, so they can train in the skills needed for the job market.
We do this for university level training, why not for colleges and other training outlets
For instance if theirs bus driver jobs, lone them the money for the licence training.
some people just need a leg up.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
#18
Things have changed at the Jobcentre since the early 90's
I only ever signed on for a period after late 2009, but from what I know, in the early 90s you only had to look for work that was not below your qualifications.
Since then, the rules changed, and you must be looking for any kind of work which you can do, even if below your qualifications.
After about 1 year, the Jobcentre offers you courses for free to get you back into employment, but they don't give a loan for training.
I was going to sign off in mid 2010 when I became part-time self-employed, but the Jobcentre wouldn't let me sign off, as there would not have been enough income for me to live off.
For one whole year now I've been in full time self-employment, having managed to sign off in June last year. To everyone's disappointment, I made no use of the qualifications achieved for free at Pitman Training, but went back to my old traits of painting and decorating.
There was a time when, many years ago, I would literally count bundles of money at the end of a work contract, could throw big notes across the table at my mum, and still have thousands for myself.
That was in Europe! I even could afford luxury holidays, like renting a house all for myself for a month at the sea, but blast... those days are gone!
Now I work for peanuts... people haven't got the money here in England to pay a proper price.
