»26th June 2009

The New Deal

I recently passed the six-month mark at the Job Centre and so I was put onto the New Deal. The New Deal is a scheme available to 18-24-year-olds who have been unemployed for more than six months and is supposed to help them get back into work. It is a collossal wasted opportunity, is overly prescriptive, inflexible, and is mismanaged at every opportunity.

I can't see a terrifically good reason why it has to kick in after six months, they should be helping you to get a job right from the word go. I received a letter telling me about the New Deal around the beginning of May telling me that I would have to go to an appointment at the Job Centre in Dewsbury. When I went to sign on in Liversedge, my enquiries as to what exactly the New Deal entailed were met with a wall of ignorance and surprise. I eventually found out that I would probably have to start signing on in Dewsbury once the New Deal kicked in. This started to annoy me.

Instead of it taking me ten minutes to walk down to the Job Centre, it would now take me twenty minutes walking and twenty minutes each way on a £4 bus ride, this was most aggravating.

For my first meeting at the Job Centre in Dewsbury I had an interview with my personal advisor at nine. Naturally, despite arriving ten minutes early, they only opened the doors at five past nine and I had to wait another fifteen minutes once I was in before I could see my advisor. Whilst I was stood outside, waiting for them to open up, one of the other people waiting started talking to me about how shit the Job Centre are. This hip-happening individual was coming all the way from Cleckheaton to sign on, which seemed a long way.

'Well I missed a couple of signing on dates. But you know, I've had a lot on my plate lately.'
But you're unemployed...
'I mean I found out I had a kid.'
Well we've all been there.

So I hadn't even made it past the front door of the Job Centre in Dewsbury and the demoralisation had already begun.

It seems that the hardcore unemployed are sent over to Dewsbury. There were two security guards in the foyer by reception and another one upstairs who sat me down whilst I waited for the advisor. I mean if you've been unemployed for six months, then you just have to be some kind of perpetual fuck-up who might start a fight or something. Fortunately whilst I was waiting, Devvo didn't keep talking to me about his plate and his kid.

Once I was sat down with my advisor, I was greeted with several forms to sign. It was explained to me what the New Deal was about, then I had to sign some more forms and then I was given... an exam!
So I have to do this?

Yes, it's mandatory.

So I have to do this?

The exam was to test my reading and writing, because presumably my GCSEs, A-Levels, BA, and MA don't already prove that. It was a kind of comprehension test, there was a sample job sheet and some questions afterwards. The job was some kind of security/caretaker job and the questions were along the lines of 'What is the job title?', 'Which of the job duties are related to security?' Then just to keep me on my toes I had to work out how much I'd earn from 20 hours at the regular rate. I mean you just can't get a job in today's market if you can't multiply £5.52 by twenty hours.

So now that I've proved I can read bullet points and understand the concept of being paid at an hourly rate, what about the New Deal? Well before that you need to sign here, and here, and read this leaflet. I'll write out the name of the leaflet and the section headings for you to give you an idea of what it was about
Your opportunities and responsibilities while on New Deal for Young People

While you are on New Deal for Young People (NYDP), we are committed to helping you to find a job, or to get training or work experience to help you move towards getting a job.
Following this were descriptions of the three parts to the New Deal.
Gateway - Lasts up to four months. You will receive help from a New Deal personal advisor who will support you in your search for work. You and your personal adviser will draw up an action plan of steps for you to take to find work. We hope that if you put that plan into action you will leave the Gateway because you have got a job
Because everyone knows you can't find work without an action plan. This action plan as far as I could tell was just the same old Jobseeker's Agreement which states what areas of work I'm looking to get into and what I'm going to do to find work (look in the paper, apply for jobs, etc.) The New Deal advisor changed my Agreement to say I'd do four things to find work each time I signed on, instead of three. So that was my 'action plan'.
If you are still unemployed 4 weeks after joining the Gateway your personal advisor will arrange for you to attend a two-week Gateway to Work course, which will help you to become more job ready.'
So my qualifications weren't doing that already?


"You and your personal adviser will draw up an action plan of steps for you to take to find work."

For the next section of the leaflet, the DWP turned the irony up to ten.
Options - If you do not get a job while you are in the Gateway, you and your personal adviser will agree a package of training and/or work experience that will help you get back to work.
First off, I'm not trying to get back to work, I'm trying to get into work, you see I actually bothered to get some qualifications instead of going to sign on at sixteen.
Secondly, a package of 'training and/or work experience' was not 'agreed', it was imposed. I was told that I would have to attend a two-week job skills course, followed by a thirteen-week job skills course. Oh yeah, you did catch back there who both of those options are mandatory, right? More on the options later.

With the actual benefits of the New Deal dealt with on pages 2-3, pages 4-11 cracked on with exciting topics like 'What happens if you do not meet your New Deal Responsibilities?'; how you'll face a 'sanction' if you do not meet your Option responsibilities; 'How can you get money if you receive a New Deal sanction?'; 'Helping you enter a New Deal Option quickly after a sanction has been imposed'; as well as a delightful section telling you what will happen if you lose your place on an Option 'because of your behavior.'

That's right, almost an entire leaflet on what happens if you don't sign on, miss an appointment, try to commit benefit fraud etc. Thanks for that. So are you going to actually give me a detention or is this just a bollocking?

I'm trying to move on from this leaflet, but then I read the summary on page 11. I wish I was making this up.
In summary
To be honest, I think they missed off the sections where they put you on lunchtime detention and send a letter home to your parents.
'Have you considered factory work?'
No. No, I haven't.


Factory work!?

So what are the actual benefits of the New Deal again?
So basically, the New Deal helps me by giving a future-employer money; by giving me a piece of paper to say 'Yes indeed, you can do unpaid work.' and by making me go on compulsory skills training courses?

So that was another trip to the Job Centre that left me demoralised and angry.

Cawley Lane

Before uni I had volunteered on wednesday afternoons at my old junior school helping out in a year four class. It was pretty enjoyable and had given me the idea of going into teaching. Then at uni I was able to forget about that for a while and along with talking to a couple teachers--who in retrospect I should have ignored--I was put off the idea of teaching.

However, things seemed to be coming to a head at the Job Centre and I could only see unending bleakness on the job search horizon so I decided to stop fucking around and get back onto the road to teaching. How best to go about this I wonder? After a second and even more depressing wednesday trip to the Careers Centre at uni, which resulted in me plumbing the depths of misery once again, the next day (thursday) I went crawling back to my old junior school looking to help out there again.
When can you start?
Well to be honest, I didn't expect to be asked that question.
Well, uh, I'm signing on at the Job Centre, and last time I did some voluntary work they stopped my payments for nine weeks.

Well get in touch with the Job Centre and let me know what you're doing.

I'll be signing on on Monday, so I'll call you back on Monday.

I'll call you back on Monday.

Monday 15th June

My second meeting with my personal advisor.
I'm planning on doing some work experience at Cawley Lane school in Heckmondwike. Is that going to create some problems with my JSA? Last time I had to fill out loads of B7 forms and I didn't get paid anything for nine weeks.

You shouldn't have needed to fill in the B7s for the work experience you did if it was unpaid.
If there's one thing the Job Centre isn't, it's consistent.

My personal advisor informed me that I'd have to start one of my 'Options' soon and that she was going to book it to start on the 29th June. I had initially thought that these skills courses would be in the region of a couple of hours a week for two weeks in line with similar Job Centre initiatives I'd heard of. Oh no, turns out it would be seven hours a day, five days a week, for two weeks.
And what's this? The only thing the advisor mentioned I'd be doing would be CV writing. Last time I checked, I'd already written one of those and didn't need any help. So what's going to be happening for the rest of the time?
You'll receive help in your job search.
Help in my job search? Am I missing something here? I find jobs related to what I want to do, I apply for them, I look for more. What help can they possibly give me? Getting good information from Job Centre employees is like drawing blood from a stone, and I couldn't get any more information on what I'd be doing on a two week course I was booked on to start in two weeks time. The only thing I can see that they'd mean by 'help' with my job search would be leaning on me to apply for more jobs, because I'm clearly being so totally unrealistic in not considering the likes of factory work (what factories anyway? Why would they give a graduate a job over anyone else? In a bloody factory!) So two weeks of coercion and 'Well you could use the internet facilities too.' Sign me up I guess--oh yeah I forgot, I'm already signed up.
I don't really think the course will benefit me, is there any way around this?

No, it's compulsory.

I'll still be volunteering at the school in two weeks time though. I mean I'll only have five or so weeks at the school before they break up for the summer holidays. Can't you reschedule it to after the schools break up?

No.

But if I want to get into teaching, getting experience at a school would be the best route to go if I want to apply for teaching courses or for any teaching assistant-type jobs for September.

You have to attend the two-week Options as part of the New Deal.

But can't it be put back a few weeks until the summer holidays?

No.
What did it say on the first page of that 'What is the New Deal?' leaflet again?
'While you are on New Deal for Young People (NYDP), we are committed to helping you to find a job, or to get training or work experience to help you move towards getting a job.'
Progress

So after the highly productive and helpful meeting at the Job Centre I went to see the Headteacher at Cawley Lane and said I'd like to do three days a week. He came up with plan to move me through the different year groups, starting with Year 3, so I could see how the children develop across key stage 2. I started in Mr Harris' Year 3 class the next day.

Last week was Mr Harris' Year 3 class, this week it was Mr. Bird's Year 4 class, next week I move up to Mrs Hardcastle's Year 5 class, and the week after that it'll be year 6 and then I think it will be just helping out wherever I'm needed. I've been in a teaching assistant role gaining experience working in the classroom, I have been speaking to the teachers and teaching assistants who work at the school and have picked up a lot of knowledge and plans to help me pursue teaching. The possibility of being able to get a job there in September when some teaching assistants are due to leave has presented itself. It's also been a lot of fun.

Friday 26th June

Today I had to go for my third meeting with my personal advisor. I was intent on not starting the course on Monday and missing valuable time at Cawley Lane in the process and was all prepared to sign off from the Job Centre entirely, even if that would mean me losing out on the £50.95 a week from the Jobseeker's Allowance.

I don't want to have to interrupt the work experience at Cawley Lane so if the course can't be rescheduled then I want to sign off.

Let me talk to my supervisor.

[...]

Okay I'll be able to cancel your place on the Gateway to Work course.

If the course can't be rescheduled then I want to sign off.

So there's a top tip for you: Threaten to leave the Job Centre and they might start bothering to work around your plans. The personal advisor didn't seem too pleased with my unreceptive attitude toward the course.
Well don't you feel that New Deal is helping you?

The problem is, every time I get something sorted out, like at the school, the New Deal seems to be in the way.
It was as if I'd somehow hurt her feelings by not particularly wanting anything to do with the courses and pulling my best sceptical-raised-eyebrow-frown every time she mentioned anything about these compulsory courses.

I was once again reminded about how various parts of the New Deal are copmulsory. I once again tried to extract details of the courses and how they might conceivably help me. It was less a meeting and more a stand-off. After more wrangling, the advisor signed me up for the thirteen-week(!) course to coincide with the end of term. And what could they possibly have for me to do over the thirteen weeks, which will be thirty hours a fucking week?

A placement. That's right, a work placement in an area I'm trying to get work. So the Job Centre is going to open a school especially for me over the summer holidays to get a placement in? Okay, I'm not being entirely fair, thirteen weeks from the middle of July would take us well into October, so that'd be plenty of time to get a placement then...

Ah! But, the advisor said that my current voluntary work could count as part of the placement! But that'll be over before I start there anyway, so do they think I'm going to go to a thirty-hours-a-week bollocking over the summer? If there is something else particularly awesome that B.E.S.T. (Business Employment Skills Training) of Batley are going to teach me on this course, why don't they tell me? I don't often quote Will Ferrel, but I feel like I'm taking fucking crazy pills here.

Before I can go to the thirteen-week bullshit I have to attend a 'pre-Option interview'. This was helpfully booked for 3:30pm on Wednesday 1st July, which will mean I'll have to leave Cawley Lane early on that day. The advisor also booked my next meeting with her... on Monday 6th July. This is after I've made it pretty clear that I volunteer at the school from Monday to Wednesday each week...

'Can't we reschedule that to the thursday of that week or something when I'm not at the school.' The advisor rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Yeah, sorry for being such a fucking pain volunteering at a school trying to get a job and all. 'What time do you finish at the school?' '3:30 or later depending on what the teachers have me doing.' 'How about four o' clock?' 'That should be okay.'
So when am I supposed to sign on next?

Next Monday.

I'm going to be at school on Monday.

Well, you can't change the sign-on day without delaying your payment.

[So volunteering at the school doesn't count as a legimate reason not to sign on?]

Well if it's supposed to be at quarter to four then I'll just have to be late.

I don't know how clearer I can be, I'm at the school from Monday to Wednesday.

So, the way to combat the fuckings dealt by the Job Centre is to be prepared to 'go nuclear' and to make threats to that effect. As a result of threatening to sign off so I wouldn't have to go on the course I can now continue volunteering at Cawley Lane uninterrupted until the end of term and still receive my JSA payments. Success? Well, for a time at least, another three or four weeks to try and find a job, any job to remove the necessity to deal with the Fuck Centre, err- to deal with the Job Centre, rather.

Conclusion

Conclusion is too precise a term, so I'm just going to generally comment about the Job Centre for a while before I invoke History Power! and try to bring this thing together into some kind of neat ending.

The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Did I need to fill in those B7's back in March/April, were the entire staff at Liversedge mistaken, did the office in Halifax not understand that I didn't get paid when they stopped my payments for nine weeks, was my personal advisor just mistaken? Fuck knows.

The Job Centre has moved onto actively undermining my attempts to get a job. They were content in March merely to make doing the work experience at T&A and Leeds Guide difficult and to punish me with non-payments when I returned to sign on. Now, it seems that their goals run entirely counter to me getting a job in teaching, first by getting experience in school and then by applying for teaching assistant jobs and teaching courses. 'Yeah, fuck that, he needs to get a job in a factory!' So I'm guessing that even though they namechecked Roosevelt's New Deal with this new scheme, really they were taking their cues from China's Cultural Revolution, pens to plougshares right?

The New Deal offers few benefits. So besides, some bonuses for the employer for taking me on in the event of me getting a job, what do I get? I get a piece of paper saying that 'yes, you can do work experience' as though I wasn't aware of that already. I am forced to go on skills and nebulous employability courses which seem unlikely to be of any use to me. In return for doing the thirteen-week course, it looks like I might get an increase in the payments I receive, which is still pointless seeing as it comes at the cost of being tied down to a bullshit 30-hour-a-week course in Batley where I'm just going to be lectured about not applying for enough jobs or being 'too fussy' or something.
I can't really envision me going on that course for anything more than a few days after the schools break up seeing as they won't be able to get me a placement (which I can already get myself, much to the chagrin of the Job Centre apparently) as the schools will all be on holiday and seriously, how the hell could they help me in my job search at all? How would they be able to provide any better information than I can get straight from the horse's mouth at my Cawley Lane placement, or if need be from the Careers Centre at uni? And for that matter, the Careers Centre at uni are informative and demoralising in equal measure and best case scenario is that B.E.S.T. somehow manage to match the Careers Centre in terms of information and demoralisation. Oh yeah, but the Careers Centre specialise in graduates and B.E.S.T. presumably don't if they're being contracted by the Job Centre.
So yeah, looks like I'm just going to get a little bit more money and hassle out of the Job Centre before I finally do sign off and put down that poisoned chalice.

A bad attitude. The sense I'm getting from my Personal Advisor is that I'm somehow making her life awkward by doing things like arranging my own work placements and having the temerity to give her the heads up as to what I plan to do. She looked genuinely irritated when I said that I'd rather be at a school gaining experience in the career I've decided to pursue than sat in an employability skills seminar with Devvos and their plates and kids.

The hardcore. Signing on continuously for six months was a mistake. If I'd have signed off if only for one week or for the three weeks whilst I had the placements, I would have been £150 down but the job centre process would have been reset and I wouldn't be counted as 'long-term unemployed' by the DWP's Master Control Programme. Take heed, kids. Don't sign on at the Job Centre unless you absolutely have to, and if you do have to sign on, don't sign on for more than three months at a time or risk suffering at the hands of their 'You're a lazy fuck-up and you're going to get a job whether you like it or not'-initiatives. Which neatly brings me to my next point.

You're a lazy fuck-up and you're going to get a job whether you like it or not. The New Deal feels like it was cooked up back in the Good Times™ back when if you were unemployed then you probably were a lazy fuck-up... or- no, there's no justification for it. As demonstrated by the New Deal information leaflet, 90% of the Job Centre's time is spent warning you of the dire consequences of breaking the rules, namely stopping payments for a while--which they might do anyway of course. In signing on for six months I have been lumped in with people who need cajoling into fucking turning up to sign on in the first place.

You can do it your own way, If it's done just how I say. The New Deal could legitimately be helpful to people who haven't ever had to write a CV; who may not be aware of opportunities like voluntary work or never had to consider it; or who may be looking to re-train into a different sector. They're determined to fit the square peg into the round hole though. I don't need help in those areas, the Job Centre only sees long-term unemployment as a result of lack of skills, they've barely moved out of the eighties. The only thing that seems to have changed from the Job Centre that you saw in The Full Monty is that you don't queue up at a counter any more. It's as if they've never even seen a graduate before. Despite being told that I'm going to be shown how to write a CV, they've never once asked if I already have a CV or if they could have a look over it. I'm not entirely convinced that my personal advisor believes me when I say I've been to university.

I haven't done any haikus in a long while. These things are always better in threes.

New Deal is for me,
I have skills but cannot say,
C.V. J.S.A.

This is the Option,
The way that things have to be,
Hinder to find work.

Do not help yourself,
Invite a world of trouble,
Looks like I'll sign off.


Extar, over, out.


TCP/IP, it's fucking me off. Other protocols doing little more. Definitely got worse. Now making me curse. Removing IPX. Will it ever work? Never!