Jobcentre Worker: ‘We Are Not There To Help Or Advise’
I think this should go viral.
Kirsty Mum
Please check out this comment posted to this article in The Guardian … it says it all
ID8923117
19 January 2014 9:42am
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As a Jobcentre worker who took early retirement last year to get away from the pressures & stress I can confirm what many contributors are saying. Since the change of government in 2010 there was a total shift in emphasis in what we are there for. It is now to “police” the benefit system, “protect the public purse” & deter people from claiming anything. We are NOT there to help or advise people anymore.
We had a mystery shopper process where we would be rung up & visited several times a year & mystery shoppers would ask questions about claiming, ask for leaflets etc. This was fed back to offices & used to improve the service. The new government scrapped it. Staff now know that they can say any old rubbish to customers, forget to mention things that can be claimed for & no one is going to challenge them. We were even told by management that “x” was available but that we were not to tell claimants & only discuss if asked by them.
The job is now to discourage as many people as possible & harass them into signing off, not try to get them a job or what they are entitled to. Claimants are referred to pointless courses in the hope that they won’t go….so then we can stop their money. It does not matter if anything we do is of use to claimants. If staff don’t do this they are threatened with disciplinary action & possible dismissal. Staff are left with a” them or us” attitude. Many of my ex colleagues have mortgages & kids & are trapped. As jobcentre workers they know how hard it is to get a job & no one wants ex Jobcentre staff!
Same Difference 
true there are plenty of people to say true but they do it also for other claims esa pip
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Govt, the publicly paid “entitled ones”, always saw legit claimants as cheats – cancer victims, stroke victims, Parkinsons victims all ill and disabled became the “cheats” right from the start. This Govt made it “us & Them entitled trampled on deserving dis’abl’d
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Govt made in the mould of very rich who lie and cheat and look down upon the deserving poor & scoff in snearing Bullingdon language Is such crude Neo -Thatcherism benefiting society?
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Govt unable to think outside its clawssy box & reach out to people. Its lies and cheating are ruining their party
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I’m sorry but job centre staff have a union. Seek advice from them if you are being bullied in the workplace. There’s a chain of command that you can follow to root out your complaints. Your lucky you got a job. It’s hard to feel sorry for any of you
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The chain of command goes right to the top , Who is at the top the Government there is nowhere for them to go they have to follow the rules set by them at the top or join every other poor sod on the receiving end of this terrible Government .
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linda e my reply was to your first January 26th post, not your second!
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WELL SAID, Linda e. I’ve been saying the same,. myself, for some time now. Bleat bleat bleat. They’ve got mortgages and kids…. ! Is that supposed to excuse sanctioning the already destitute? How can they do that job? Just following orders…
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I was sent on a CV writing course for 4 days last August. On how to prepare and write one to help get employment.
I ran my own company for 20 years and now having reached the age of 58 I saw many CV’s and produced many CV’s for my family and friends. A complete waste of time and money all round. My CV contains too much information that is not true and valid but just the JCminus
take on the way it should be.
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My sis who has a degree in dentistry and for many years trained dental nurses at the local college, was retired early on grounds of ill health….MS… had to attend disability advisors at job centre…and was asked if she would like to do a reading and writing course to help her with her basic skills????? Then the advisor also asked her how long it would be before her MS got better???? She asked him he if had any concept of what MS was and replied “not really”.
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Reblogged this on Diary of an SAH Stroke Survivor.
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Outrageous but hardly surprising is it. I once asked a job centre employee what their purpose and reason for existing was, seeing as I was getting no help from her and she just looked at me like I’d asked her in Russian. Needless to say I didn’t get an answer.
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Reblogged this on Faith, Hope and Chocolate and commented:
It’s no wonder the unemployed in the UK are struggling when this is taken into account. I’m beginning to wonder how much longer things will go on like this before we sink into anarchy.
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Did you allso no the dwp have allso become debt collectors now for the banks on personal loans you have had and default on. Allways thought that wos the courts job ??? Seems not .
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Reblogged this on THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN and commented:
People have been saying this for a long time. THIS NOW CONFIRMS IT!
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Maybe you shouldn’t have got into bed with the fuckin government then
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EXACTLY! Do the decent thing – strike, walk out, refuse to sanction! Or shut up.
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.http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/18/benefits-claimants-shortchanged-5bn-housing#comment-30959084.
comment found under this article.
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Don’t work for them! People have some conscience about what you’re doing.
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An important point here is that we pay the taxes to provide these benefits so that should we become unemployed, ill or long-term disabled, in a job that does not pay enough to live off we have a modicum a protection against what can become for many absolute poverty and for an increasing number homelessness. While we also pay thousands of government advisors to prevent and mislead us as to what benefits we are entitled to, if we are ever unfortunate enough to need claim some of that money back. It’s like saving money in a safe for a ‘rainy day’ while at the same paying 10,000’s of people to build and maintain a security system that stops you getting at the money when the rain starts coming down by the tanker full. Worse still the ‘rainmaker’ is the organisation that controls, or some might argue caused, the rainstorm.
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I’d advise anyone having any contact with the DWP to buy a Dictaphone and record ALL contact. Don’t tell them your recording the conversation or they’ll refuse to speak to you.
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Anonymous, very good idea, but, isn’t it law that if the person being recorded doesn’t know they are, then it cannot be used in a court of law. I photocopy absolutely everything and attach a copy of my reply to their letter, and like someone else said, they are not bothered really whether they are recorded because they know it won’t go anywhere, nobody will take them on, the government has stopped the legal aid making this impossible for those on low pay or on benefits to get help with solicitors fees etc to fight their corner, this is so wrong as these are the people that need it most.
This government needs to go ASAP, another thing they are doing and getting away with, is discrimnating against disability, basically saying that it is wrong to have a disability, some people out there will say this is their go ahead to bully the disabled, everything has just gone crazy.
You know, what did my Grandparents fight and die for, this Government needs to go.
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