»2nd April 2009

Decision Makers

You may recall about a month ago I started on a work placement at the Telegraph & Argus and the following week I started a two week placement at the Leeds Guide. Well, since then I have had to once more resume dealings with the Job Centre, who I may henceforth refer to as The Hopeless Fucktards.


Everything was going swell on the placements when I didn't have to deal with the Job Centre. Well everything apart from the fact they'd suspended my JSA.

You see, as a reward--an incentive if you like--to take part in graduate work experience, the Job Centre decided they'd suspend my Jobseeker's Allowance claim starting from the first day of my placement. This makes some sense I suppose, I mean they could argue I wasn't actually seeking work whilst on the placements (actively seeking work being the main requirement for claiming the JSA) and so it could make sense for them to suspend the claim to cover the period I'm not signing on.

Well you see, it stops making sense when I started signing on again two mondays ago only to find that my JSA would remain suspended until the situation had been passed by a decision maker. So despite having signed on for the past two weeks and seeking work in those two weeks, I still haven't actually received any money that I should be entitled to, which brings the time since I last received any money from Jobseeker's up to five weeks. That's five weeks without any money coming in and with money constantly draining out covering, you know, necessary expenses like getting buses to work placements, or you know, fucking eating.


The branch staff at the Job Centre are entirely clueless.

So for two weeks I've been shouting a lot about the Job Centre; going down to the Job Centre to sign on; ringing up whatever Job Centre office there is in Halifax; writing statements saying 'I didn't get paid at the Telegraph & Argus'; finding out these statements were lost; printing some more statements off; bringing these to the Job Centre; ringing up Halifax to ask what's going on... oh and looking for work.

The process to unsuspend a Jobseeker's Allowance claim involves you filling out a form lovingly titled 'B7' for each placement, as well as writing a statement for that placement saying what hours you did, whether you got paid, and some other stuff they weren't terrifically clear on, presumably some contact details for each employer go well on there too. With these forms fill out you bring them down to the Job Centre who then fax a copy of the documents as well as post via internal couriers to the mysterious decision makers who reside in one of the Great Pyramids at Halifax. Once the decision makers have... made a decision presumably your JSA is unsuspended and you recieve all the backdated money they owe you. I think, you see, I've not got to the stage of having it unsuspended yet. The process to unsuspend a Jobseeker's Allowance claim is also a tremendous waste of time.

So far, the Job Centre has managed a whole host of fuck ups. Time for a list.

1. At the thirteen week interview back in February, I was reassured that the work placements would not affect my Jobseeker's claim. A week later I received a letter telling me the claim would be suspended. The letter didn't give any reasons as to why the claim had been suspended and wasn't even very explicit as to whether I should even bother signing on after the placement. The previous time I'd signed on I had picked up two B7 forms which were filled in with the details of the hours and pay (i.e. nothing) of the placements and was told to hand these in next time I signed on. It was put down explicitly on the computers that my claim should not be stopped.
2. I sent a letter in reply asking why my claim had been suspended and explaining my situation which didn't get a response.
3. I went to sign on on the first Monday back after the Leeds Guide placement and wasn't able to get hold of any forms to appeal against the decision and was told just to ring the phone number on the letter.
   
   'Do you have the statements and B7s with you?' 'BOOYAH!' I handed in my statements. Shortly after, the Job Centre lost them.
   
   
4. I rang this number and was told to write statements on what I had done at the placements, the hours, pay etc. It wasn't terrifically clear if the employers were supposed to write these statements or whether I could. I ended up getting an answer that I could write them. I handed these statements along with the B7's in at the Job Centre on the next day Tuesday where they were faxed and posted off to the magical decision makers. Why was this the first time that the idea of a statement was brought up, after my placements had ended?
   
   
   Calling the Job Centre just puts you through to more people who still can't actually get things moving.
   
   
5. I rang up the following Friday only to discover that my statements had not reached the office. Apparently, in the intervening four days there had been some sort of problem with the fax machine. This didn't explain where the posted copies had ended up. No one thought in the four days to maybe chase up where my documents had ended up. I was told to bring in copies of the statements when I signed on the following Monday.
6. On Monday I brought two more statements down only to be told that I didn't need to and that they'd just send two more copies over again. This was where I found out that the office I'd rung on Friday had managed to lose two copies of my statements.
   
   I once again wasted my time on the phone with Job Centre staff in Halifax.
   
   
7. Today I rang up the office once more to find out whether the decision makers had managed to make a fucking decision yet and whether I'd be getting any money soon. No, apparently the statements went to the decision makers yesterday and though 'there isn't really a time frame on these things' I could maybe expect to hear something 'in a week'. Well, not actually in a week seeing as the Department of Work and Pensions only seem to use second class mail so you can add another two or three days onto that.

That should give you a little taste of how comprehensively the Job Centre fails at everything as soon as you do anything that deviates even slightly from their comfort zone of you turning up, signing on, and leaving. This is the sort of stupid process which could save the Job Centre a lot of money, I mean how many people would actually bother going through this process? I'd have saved myself a lot of hassle if I'd have just either kept the Job Centre in the dark about work placements or simply signed off for the three weeks. That would have the double advantage of 'resetting' the JSA claim which would mean I'd be able to avoid this annoying signing-on-every-week-for-six-weeks thing, not that I'm even getting any money for doing that of course.

Come this Monday, I will have once more signed on again without seeing any Jobseeker's Allowance for my efforts. Whether the fuck ups are intentional or not--and I can't see how the Jobcentre could muster the competence for it to be intentional--it's a good way to stop people from claiming back money they might be entitled to.


Somewhere further up the chain of command is someone who can actually make a decision.

At no point does the Job Centre let you talk to anyone with any sort of a fucking clue as to what you should do. Things like 'what details ought to go in the statements' are at best vague, I've heard it's supposed to come from the employers, I've heard that it's okay for me to write it, no one said if I'd need to put contact details for the employer on (I did anyway). The first person I shown the completed B7 forms to had never seen one before.


At some point, the decision makers might actually make a decision and I might start having money come through again.

The person who does your signing on refers any queries to one of the people at the desks, the people at the desks refer you to the bloody phone number to the office in Halifax (at least I think it's Halifax). And of course, the people in Halifax tell you that 'it's gone to the decision makers' which is where the trail stops. Presumably the decision makers sit in a darkened conference room with a wall of TV screens, watching and monitoring their employees in the branches.

Extar, over, out.

Gizza' job. I can do that.