‘Every Time I Visit The JobCentre, Staff Treat Me Like A Subhuman’
The New Statesman carries this, a freelance journalist’s account of her experiences at her local jobcentre. An extract is below:
On each visit to the job centre, there were more members of the security team in the building than claimants. Three uniformed G4S employees manned the door. There were more security guards than in a club or in front of a particularly troublesome pub when there’s a football match on. I was instructed to sit down on a bench and wait, with a member of the G4S security team hovering behind me, as though I required some kind of supervision. I wondered if they’d been told that smiling was not permitted, and if the advisors had been briefed to speak to claimants in comically slow voices. It was as if they’d decided that anyone claiming benefits must be either monumentally stupid or a criminal, or some unfortunate mixture of the two.
I saw advisors taking personal phone calls at their desks on more than one occasion when people were waiting to see them and the job centre was unusually busy. My advisor cancelled my claim by accident because she “didn’t really use computers”. I also heard a member of staff telling someone who had called the job centre, clearly distressed, that nothing could be done and they should try a food bank. I was aggressively reprimanded for “wandering around” by an intimidating member of the security team after being told to go through into the next room by an advisor.
Same Difference 
Reblogged this on sdbast.
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“If some people who work in the DSS (DWP) were to treat me as a human being, then I wouldn’t be in your surgery wasting your time asking for antidepressants.” Unquote. Exact words I said to my own doctor after yet another dehumanisation encounter with a member of the DSS (in those days). Some who work in the system are helpful, but others seem to have an inbuilt hatred of disabled people. It hasn’t changed, in fact it’s just as rife today as it was when I first became disabled.
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I can only speak as I find, but on the whole the people in my local Jobcentre are friendly and helpful. There was one nasty piece of work there a little while ago, but so many people complained about her that she’s on the other side of the desk now.
I can understand why the system would grind them down, though – especially in a town like mine, where as well as the genuine cases, there’s a daily parade of alcoholics and/or junkies passing through the office. However, because we’re a small(-ish) town, I think they soon learn to distinguish between the two groups.
The system itself is deeply inefficient, though, and I’ve complained several times about missing/delayed paperwork, appointments being cancelled with no notice, or blatant failures to communicate with each other, never mind with the clients. Maybe that’s why they’re always nice to me – they know I won’t shut up! 😉
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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