A complaint regarding someone on New Deal for Young People (NDYP) who spent 2 weeks of his Gateway 2 Work course playing games such as Jenga and when sent for an interview with Pizza Hut was used to cover rush hour for four hours with no training opportunities.
Complaint:
Job Centre New Deal waste of time?
My 19 yr old son has just completed the two week new deal scheme that the jobcentre plus runs.He hated every minute of it.He played jenga! what this has to do with finding a job i do not know,then went for an interview in Pizza Hut that they sent him on to do 4 hours work one night only to find out he had been used for their rush hour,is this what they mean by training them up i wonder,has anyone found this new deal a help or a hinder!
Source:
Yahoo Answers.
This is the worst course of all time, The job center bully you into doing this courses and all you do is sit there doing nothing all day, Iv been forced to go on a 10 week course 9-4 everyday of the week and all we do is sit there doing nothing all day, Tbh i think they make it as bad as possible so it forces people to sign off whether they have a job or not, They treat you like a five year old there and give you work sheets that a 6 year old child could do, Like add 20p to 5p what do you get? i also got told off because i didnt put my hand up to go to the toilet when im a 23 year old man
trevor webb
12 Aug 09 at 4:18 am
Im on Gateway to Work at the moment and although my experience isn’t as bad as the guy playing jenga, some of the stuff is a complete joke.
Today we played hangman and got an “IQ Test” that had questions like “how far into the woods can a dog run?” and “six fat men under an umbrella, why do none of them get wet?”.
They said these questions were becoming popular in job interviews. First time i’ve heard of it.
Chris
3 Sep 09 at 11:32 pm
I am currently on the gateway to work course myself and find it a complee farce. most of the time our ‘tutor’ isnt even in the room, and all we can do is sit around doing nothing. We are told to do our ‘job searches’ but there are only so many jobs one can apply for, and having been job hunting for so long I have already applied to those I can.
So far the only content of this course than can be considered training has consisted of reading photocopies of print outs on how to write a cv, or using the computers to read the .pdf versions of leaflets on how to write a cover letter and speculative letter. But that is assuming the inefficient amount computer work stations provided are even working properly.
It is quite obvious to me that the people running the course (Careers Development Group inmy case) don’t give a damn about getting you into an apropriate and sustainable job, but only in getting you into any job at all while they can still claim credit.
Martin Gray
5 Oct 09 at 5:29 pm
thats the trouble with jc staff they will force claimants into the first crap job they put you forward for
when the idiots(as i call them) put me forward for a job in glenrothes working seven days a week paying min wage i pointed out that my mum claimed housing and council tax benefit and that this wage would have to be declared thereby increasing the rent and council tax payments which i would have to give my mum along with housekeeping money plus bus fares i would be left with £5 in my pocket i was told its a job its not our problem it gets you off benefit prats its okay for them they work five days a week finish early on a friday and have the weekend to pursue a social life including hobbies but the unemployed scum have to work seven days a week.
another job i was put forward for again in glenrothes(cupar jc idiots seem to have an obsession about cupar claimants working in glenrothes) i asked if it was five days a week why? i was asked so that i can get another job working saturday and sunday because after all my outgoings i will have nothing left in my pocket to live on the idiot was not best pleased at this remark but i liked winding them up like that, another time when i was pulled in for a jsag review i was asked what i had worked at when i left school(I WAS 35 AT THE TIME) and told the woman that that wasnt relevant as i had left school at 16 and was now 35 another woman jc idiot said to me you can find out about jobs in the pub to which i told her i didnt go to the pub as i didnt drink and anyone unemployed shouldnt be drinking anyway amazingly she apologised!
in conclusion the job centre staff are a waste of space youd get better respect from monkeys than these idiots!
allan johnstone
23 Oct 09 at 6:55 pm
out of curiosity how can six fat men under an umbrella not get wet when it is raining?
allan johnstone
24 Oct 09 at 10:38 am
i have been on new deal for 3 weeks (18-25) and this course or what ever it is disgusts me 9-4 each day i sit around doing nothing these centres are under supplied and most of the time the staff are’nt even in the rooms i know this is just a way to get the unemployed people stat numbers down but these courses are childish and pointless its like being back at school i hope that soon a petition or some form of vote is cast to discontinue this new deal i would gladly sign and so would my whole family and the 50-60 people in my group at the moment
i hope action is taken ASAP
john davis
25 Oct 09 at 10:17 pm
Signing on at your local job-center is like digging a hole. Sure it seems like a good idea at that time, but when you have been doing it for a while you realise getting out is not going to be easy. Because if you do get out you’re still back at square one, jobless and hungry. But not to worry eh at-least you have the survival skills they teach you in school, oh wait they don’t teach you anything like that, still at-least i know 1+1=2 right ?
burntfaceman
3 Nov 09 at 4:30 pm
I am at the moment on a goverment sceme it should come under the human acts its pure hell you are treated like an imbocile with no rights they look down on you like filth on there shoes
DAVID AYRE
13 Nov 09 at 12:57 pm
I dunno who invents these Jobcentre courses,but they are a complete joke.
As someone else said;I think they try to treat people like idiots to make then sign off.
noom
25 Nov 09 at 11:49 am
Hi Everyone…Like you all Ive been on a couple of those courses and think they are an embarassment to the government (although no doubt theyre behind it somewhere), anyways I took it into my own hands and created a petition which is sent directly to Number 10, Its a new one and ive set it to be active for a whole year so please sign it.
DOWN WITH NEW DEAL (what deal there is I really do not know!)
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/notonewdeal/
Tim Hoggarth
7 Dec 09 at 4:25 pm
I have just had a letter notifying me that I will be starting this after Christmas, the letter itself is totally unclear as to where I go and as to putting an action plan together what the hell do they think I’ve been doing when I present them with evidence of the methods I use and jobs I have applied for each week at my normal meeting.
Englishguy
15 Dec 09 at 6:37 pm
not sure if this has changed. but in Peterborough i did new deal about 6 years ago and parts of it was a joke you go and do bowling and get a meal out how does that get you a job. the 26 week course was ok if you did work placement and if you got a job from it. you signed off and had a job (happend to me) but sadly after 4 years was jobless so back to sign on and after 2 years of it now doing new deal again but different since i am 29 and dosen’t seem the same
Matthew
18 Jan 10 at 3:01 am
I’m currently on New Deal and my mother was unemployed for a while and she had to do it too, a complete waste of time in my opinion it is just to put everyone on jobseekers in a room together and watch them so they are not cheating the system and working while claiming benefits. Everyone on the PC’s was playing card games while i was sat in the middle at a table with no help for hours when i wanted to talk to someone and get my CV looking better. I can make better progress in one hour looking on my own outside of New Deal than i could with them, waste of time. My mother was also having kidney problems and had to go to hospital and New Deal told her she has to attend or lose her benefits, so she went in terribly ill, they’re seriously stupid.
Nat
10 Feb 10 at 6:41 pm
2 weeks left.
I have been on the CDG “Course” for 11 weeks, What have I seen? Overcrowding of cash cows. there is no intention for the “clients” to be helped back to work. The ‘Brown’ initiative FAILS.
If you are not wanting a security license, a CSCS card for building sites or your health and safety certificate you will NOT be helped. You will go over basics of how to create a CV and cover letter, You will practice interview questions and be guided into a prepared state of mind for the interview, both of which will take up maximum of a week in a well organised program. But this is CDG, Staff members are sparse and under qualified with the minium of adult teaching qualifications. The time created to help individuals with their needs is blocked by the staff’s mandatory paperwork ALL DAY EVERY DAY. For the tutors that indeed what to make this a better place and genuinely want to help are behind on timesheets and induction classes that leave the current ‘clients’ to either wait for a timeslot on 1 of the 10 computers or search through outdated local newspapers.
The corridors are filling up faster than people are leaving. Privatised organisations like Career Development Group (CDG) are here to pocket the millions of pounds of funding (£3mill to be exact) and leave the tax payers shelling out for the £50 per week travel money i get as well as an extra £15 a week on top of my usual Job seekers allowance.
This is not right. I am writing this from a computer in a CDG building and people are walking around like headless chickens as their is TOO MANY here. To travel in and immediatley be told to do ‘External job searches’ basically go back home because the weekly load of ‘clients’ have arrived and their is no room and no staff to develop anyones career because of the paperwork involved. HEALTH & SAFETY??? come see for your self and tell me having this many people in one small building is safe..
Paul C
23 Feb 10 at 12:38 pm
Are you able to email over a photo to flexiblenewdeal@live.co.uk?
I respect peoples privacy… I wouldnt publish without obscuring their faces with a blurring or smudge tool in photoshop or something.
We at Ipswich Unemployed Action ( http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com ) and New Deal Scandal have been highlighting this problem for some time now (over a year personally!) and we thought they were looking into it with Flexible New Deal coming up in phase 1… it seems like the phase 2 areas like the one you are in are not being improved too. This is disgusting – is it alright to allow it because it is ending soon?
I believe that it will be packed… Government promised every young person within 6 months to get a job secured…… or training (New Deal!) The Community Task Force isn’t mandatory until April so they have seemed to overlook that and stick people on New Deal.
Flexible New Deal Scandal: New Deal Complaints Administrator
23 Feb 10 at 6:04 pm
I forgot to mention… its good that CDG hasn’t block this website!
Flexible New Deal Scandal: New Deal Complaints Administrator
23 Feb 10 at 6:06 pm
I was unemployed for > 18 months, signed off for 2 months for medical treatment and signed on again and was put onto new deal in 2 months.
I’m on flexible new deal and I’m required to attend jobcentre twice a week. Is this normal?
Also my PA seems to insist that I apply for the jobs she wants me to apply for even though I want to apply for jobs in another area which is part of my jobsearch. Can she insist on this?
I’d like to know more of my rights and would welcome some clarification.
Mark
8 Mar 10 at 9:38 am
Hi Mark
Who is your provider?
Your Flexible New Deal provider can only insist you apply for a job when they create a Jobseeker Direction (that is any “written” notice be it an Action Plan or letter).
You should only be attending Jobcentre once every 2 weeks. obviously, if you choose to use jobpoints instead of using the website you would need to go there more frequently. However, if you use the website then there is no need to use jobpoints too as they use the same jobs database.
So to answer your question it isn’t normal to be “required” to attend Jobcentre other than to sign on.
I hope this helps.
Flexible New Deal Scandal: New Deal Complaints Administrator
8 Mar 10 at 1:44 pm
i have just started a lone parent new deal course with cdg in portsmouth. i actually voluntered myself and almost begged to get on this 13 week course as a way to find sustainable, decent employment. day 2 and its already obvious that i have been wrongly advised about the course but i trusted my lone parent advisor so ill perservere. ill keep you all posted.
tim
17 Mar 10 at 12:43 pm
I think media should be informed about this action. It is unacceptible to spend so much money for New Deal programme, especially when the goverment makes cuts on the other fields. We must do something!!! Isn’t better to spend more money on any medical programmes or education than spend millions pounds on something what does’t work?
Kate
17 Mar 10 at 1:10 pm
spent the whole of day two doing less than nothing. too tired to go into detail but will try tommorrow.
tim
18 Mar 10 at 12:37 am
I have one day left of this two week course. A complete waste of my time. Sweet FA ‘training’ and just left in a room with a bunch of chavs and imbeciles. The final straw today was two pikeys discussing which drug dealer they use. I am meant to find a job in this environment?!
Gary
18 Mar 10 at 4:31 pm
Six fat men don’t get wet under an umbrella because it’s not raining, it doesn’t state that it is raining in the question just what they are doing.
Anyway, i too have been on these courses and am soon to be on a 13 week course. It is ridiculous, I’m currently finishing the 2 week course which i have done before already and know all they have said from the last time i went which isn’t of much use anyway apart from writing spec letters which i never did.
They only do these courses to make the unemployment rates look lower because when you are in training it doesn’t statistically count as being unemployed. Rather the back these stupid courses it would be better and more convenient if the job centre actually did their job properly. Set you a target of say 10 applied vacancys per two weeks and let you do this in your own time.
I hate them morons.
Steve
19 Mar 10 at 7:02 pm
I am 51, and highly skilled in my field, with over 30 years experience working in it, but have been unemployed for 18 months, due to the incompetent labour government buggering up the country. I’ve suffered with no wage, all that time, whilst doing everything I can to get a job.
I now face having my time wasted too by being forced into New Deal. The Jobcentre staff are absolute morons, and are incapable of thinking. If I needed help to write a CV, shouldn’t they have given me that help 18 months ago?
I doubt whether anyone is going to get free work out of me.
Leaving aside the discrimination against fat men, they do not get wet because they are standing on each other’s shoulders, with the top man holding the umbrella.
Ray
29 Mar 10 at 5:26 pm
cdg…week two… WHAT A WASTE OF TIME AND PUBLIC FINANCE. two weeks into this course and all ive developed is a contemptive attitude!! eleven weeks left…i can barely stand another eleven seconds. apart from the constant threats of sanction,the teen age teagirl/travel expense form filler with attitude and in need of a slap,the ten jobs per-day search(90 people in the room x 10 = 900 jobs per-day or 4500 per-week!) jesus im turning into an advisor myself with that math!!, staff shortages,abusiveness,incompetence,illadvised,unimaginative and utterley inept work ethic……on the plus side..the coffee is free!!!
tim
1 Apr 10 at 11:49 am
Is the coffee good though?
Flexible New Deal Scandal: New Deal Complaints Administrator
1 Apr 10 at 12:59 pm
lol yes the coffee is good and on-tap
tim
2 Apr 10 at 11:07 am
On these courses they do treat you like a child. Here in York, A4e has been the main provider of these courses but now there is a rival called Working Links, but is is just as bad. York may have some nice buildings but the local jobsearch facilities leave a lot to be desired.
Chrisinyork
4 Apr 10 at 9:03 am
Hi Chris – can you give a brief description of the local jobsearch facilities?
Flexible New Deal Scandal: New Deal Complaints Administrator
4 Apr 10 at 10:35 am
It’s most important for GtW customers to ensure their
action plan doesn’t get ‘nobbled’ by their adviser. The
action plan should be created in conjunction with the
customer but is often created unilaterally by the NPDA without the customer’s knowledge. They put down your living circumstances (if you claim HB, have kids, etc)to flag you up to the provider. The provider will know how far they can push you if you’re troublesome.E.G. If you really NEED your benefits you’re more likely to do what they say. Customers are entitled to two half days per week leave for medical appointments or domestic issues/crises(babysitting, gas or utility visits). It’s a good idea to book optician, doctor, dentist, physiotherapy, etc, appointments during your GtW provision. If you book them around midday you may get away with a day off due to travelling time affecting your attendance. Also look out for the provider adding yet more crap to your action plan and trying to get you to sign it without showing you it properly.
It’s worth noting that your jobseekers’ agreement is the key to your new deal future. NDPA’s will try to put low-wage low-skill jobs on your action plan without you knowing. Legally, this is YOUR information so must have your input. check it out b4 you’re committed.
Jonah
5 Apr 10 at 6:27 pm
i must agree completely with all that has been said,i recently injured myself and was told to claim esa the new word for incapacity benefit(yet another government attempt to fix the figures).and whislt on this benefit i was forced to go on a course run by ingeous in old street london.this actually seemed unlike many of the other courses to be actually quite good,they even promised to find a part time vacancy within 6 months.and that we did not have to attend the course regularly if we didnt want to.
then i was thrown off esa and all the help stopped.the ironic thing is that when i was too ill to work they actually wanted to help me find realistic work that would mean i was better off in work than on the dole,they promised all these things.
and as soon as it all stopped i got no help,i then volunteered to go back to ingeus to be told i wasnt entitled to any of the help i had previously had because i am now not ill,even though i am.they said they could not guarantee to find me work,they couldnt find me part time work as they were not allowed,and they could not help me with starting a buisness.there are over 30 people working there at a salary of at least 20k a year how much money does that cost a year for what is baiscly a waste of time.they wouldnt even listen to my job preferences and put retail decorating and caretaking as my job prefs.even though i have 2 slipped disks in my back and can only stand or sit for around 20 mins at a time,so how am i meant to find work as a caretaker?
i have been on many even more ridiculous courses,one i remember was action for employment where we had to draw a fear circle as to why we couldnt get work i wrote 1 word in my fear circle and it said RECESSION they didnt accept that and i had to redraw my fear cicle what a load of complete crap,the advisors were imbociles i mentioned that i needed help with driving lessons and from then on i was sent job vacancies for a job a delivery driver,car salesman and bus driver.i also told them that i can use a computer WOW they thought i was bill gates i kept getting sent vacancies for senior i.t managers and finacial consultant and system and network managers.i did a photoshop course that hardly means im an i.t expert.
these courses are a total waste of time and money and we all know it,so do the people working there,they offer no real help.and if i find a genuine college course i will get no help and no funding and if its more than 15 hours ill lose my benefit.
instead of forcing people into crappy jobs they really should help people and just let the alchoholics and junkies as those poeple are a lost cause.the jobcentre is a complete joke as well they have in the 3 months ive been claiming managed to fk up every payment,always late or money is missing from my giro,the only people who work in these places couldnt get a job any were else as they are so incompitent and have poor customer service skills
ed
12 Apr 10 at 11:02 am
the worst thing of all is that most of the job vacancies out there pay so badly that you would be significantly worse off than staying on benefits.
the real dole scroungers are the employers who pay the minimum wage,as they are well aware that for poeple on very low incomes will get government help,so why pay more,surely the government should subsidise employers to raise the minimum wage to around £10 per hour.look at scandinavia they have minimum wages between 11 and 16 pounds an hour,so any job is worth doing.
i hate people who point their finger saying that immigrants do the jobs the british are to pround to do,no immigrants cant claim benefit so they have no choice.i would happily stack shelves or pick fruit (if it wasnt for my back) for 11 pounds an hour but try living on min wage id be left with 4 pounds a week to buy food and pay bills,poor immigrants are being exploited,whilst we languish on the dole and big buisness rubs it hands as they can keep wages at rock bottom.we have the lowest wages compared to cost of living in europe and also the lowest benefits compared to cost of living in europe too.in finland uneployment benefit is around 500 a month,but then they have 11 pounds an hour min wage,so there is the incentive to find work straight away.
whilst the bankers in this country rob us all i feel totaly justified being on the dole,its my way of sticking 2 fingers up at the world.and i see the young poeple out of control,they aint stupid they know there is very little hope for them,so why not join a gang and sell drugs at least it pays above minimum wage,and you dont need a c.v or job interview.not that im condoning criminality but i can understand why these youngsters behave as they do,my fear is what will become of this country when they grow up.we will be a nation of semi literate drunken criminals who are all on the dole
ed
12 Apr 10 at 11:34 am
i have been at new deal seen december 2009. the job centre foce me to go on here for 26 weeks.
tracey
13 Apr 10 at 12:49 pm
I am on Jobseeker’s Allowance, and have just gone onto New Deal 25 plus.
I have a personal advisor,(personal pain in my arse)that is saying I have to go on a Intensive Activity Period (IAP) which is for 13 weeks.
Now I have also been on TWO other courses from the job centre, that were a complete waste of time. You get told the same crap, it is MANDATORY, if you do not attend we just sign you off.
Even this IAP is MANDATORY apparently, so anyway I asked my advisor about this course, as obviously all their courses are total tut. Surprise surprise though, as they tell you the bare minimum about these courses.
They just put a gun to your head and talk to you like shit on your shoe.
DISGRACEFUL.
Hannah
13 Apr 10 at 12:58 pm
im getting so bored of this thing
tracey
13 Apr 10 at 3:15 pm
In my experience you only get out of these courses what you are prepared to put in ? HELP & ADVICE is available to those who want it and are prepared to listen.Put NOTHING IN and sit there all day SLAGGING the system off and you WILL get NOTHING out of it. EFFORT REAPS REWARD……..
HAPPY CUSTOMER
18 Apr 10 at 11:35 am
I doubt you have had “experience” as you put it.
If you had you would not make such a swinging statement that totally contradicts the thousands of people who have to endure these pointless soul destroying courses.
That reeks of a very shallow minded view if you ask me.
That comes off as very condesending.
Hannah
18 Apr 10 at 9:15 pm
To Happy Customer.
I went on the 2 week course. I sat there day in day out reading the same month old, yes month old, local newspapers looking for jobs. A group of over 10 people with 2 computers working. Do they think we are that stupid that we don’t know what a CV is after 18 months of looking for work. I’m a 45 year old builder and they got me phoning for a receptionist job, how humiliating that was. Most of it is geared up towards office work. The place is depressing, the people who run it are moronic individuals who just chat amongst themselves most of the day. I could be doing EXACTLY the same at home, in fact I do more at home as I have continual access to a PC and telephone. grrrrrr
Dazzlin
20 Apr 10 at 12:21 am
Absolutely great point… I am also sick of hearing about lectures on what a CV is, what it stands for/means, and how it should be written!
No one there should be able to claim Jobseekers Allowance if they don’t have a CV… they can’t really be actively seeking employment if they don’t have a CV. I always apply for jobs requiring application form to be filled in but I also apply for jobs with a CV – this taps into the “hidden” job market via speculative letters and is a simple way of seeking employment (upload it to those websites, agencies, send it off to job requesting a CV).
Although I think spec letters are over rated and believe that the “hidden” job market is restricted to internal candidates (hence not formally advertised) – CV’s do indeed help and after spending a good hour or 2 (maximum!) on writing your CV and updating it from time to time it is dead easy to be sending out copies of it with a covering letter – requires much less effort than application forms.
Flexible New Deal Scandal: New Deal Complaints Administrator
20 Apr 10 at 10:11 am
I am on the 50+ New Deal scheme. I have been unemployed for over 18 months due to a problem similar to RSI and carpal tunnel syndrome, but has remained undiagnosed, despite 2 years of fighting my way through the health system. In effect, I cannot spend more than about 2 hours a day on a computer, so I more or less lost my livelihood as a PA. The only courses offered to me – requiring the least amount of computer input – have been customer service and HGV driving (I am 5’2″ and weigh 8st). I wrote a long letter to the manager of the scheme at my local JC, explaining why it was not appropriate for me, and how ridiculous it is to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach. At this point nobody had ever seen or asked to see my CV, so how did they know what skills I had or didn’t have and what I was capable of?! Utterly ridiculous. The response I got was that the government is committed to getting people back into work at all costs, especially those with health barriers, blah, blah, blah, so I could not get an exemption from these compulsory training courses, which are aimed at ‘refugees, asylum seekers and previously disadvantaged people’ (I am quoting from one of the training centre’s websites). The only information my personal adviser has offered is that I could sign off for 13 weeks if I really didn’t want to do a course. Who can afford that in this recession. They have got us by the short and curlies and we are supposed to be living in a democracy. Ha!
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF YOU CAN GET OUT OF THIS IF YOU TAKE A PART-TIME JOB, i.e. less than 16 hours a week? One would then presumably be claiming income-based JSA. Does that still leave you in the same boat and stuck on the New Deal scheme?
Pauline Swank
22 Apr 10 at 2:25 pm
im on my second week of the gate way to work course and te be honest i think they actually are tryin to get us into work but they are really strict about things, out of a group on 12 theres 6 of us left and they all got booted of the course except one, but the thing what gets me is for a laugh earlyer they let me ring up and apply for a job in an adult film and after a 20 minute call i was acutally accepted for the film (lmao) but the sick thing was is a couple of the staff were acutally saying i should go for it, i mean come on, would they get screwed on film if they didnt work for the JCP? i am actually considerin it tho tbh, good money and well you know but can you see the plus sides but still the JCP should be not be coersing vunrable young people (im 22) into doin such things
Edd
26 Apr 10 at 5:19 pm
Hi,just found this site and can understand where these feelings are coming from. My 25 year old son has studied for and has a degree, but has not found a job yet. He is too qualified for most of the jobs in our rural location but has no experience for others. He would prefer a job in the city but can’t afford to move, there is a shortage of jobs in this area but he would work if he could find work in a shop or an office.
He has experience of these jobcentre providers and his experience has been poor to say the least it has made him very depressed to have people tell him the same thing over and over and over again they tweak his CV as a token gesture and this has never helped or they say he is doing the right thing and to keep doing it, but still no luck. Sorry I’m having a rant but the thing is as my son says he has worked to get his qualification which he now says is not worth the paper it is written on, he has the cost of this around £18,000 to carry over for the rest of his life, and he feels ripped off about that too. Saying that he is now doing unpaid work for a registered charity, he has done this off his own back and not through the provider, as he does not want them to be credited for having place him. He pays his bus fair three times a week and travels 30 miles each time so most of his money after his digs which is half his benefit is spent on getting to work he never complains though, he would do full days if he could but you can only do so much or they will stop your benefit then he wouldn’t have the buss fair to go to work. He has not asked for travel for interviews, his dad took him around trip of more than 200 miles for an interview and paid for a suite, didn’t get the job
Well he is off to see his PM and about his situation and not for the first time, may I add and he is going to direct him to this site.
The positive about this site is:
• There are many others who have had similar experiences and they are talking about this unacceptable situation.
• I feel better having read this, as when you are affected this bad it has a knock on effect on all the family and their health suffers too.
• voicing you opinion is good and maybe someone will take this forward and get it sorted or find a solution that will work. Or maybe those who are in this situation can give their opinion on how to make it better; it is always smarter to give a solution to the problem when complaining that it is not right. What do you see as a positive solution?
My thoughts just off the cuff:
• don’t give providers millions of pounds for NOT delivering
• make a pot available to job seekers who want to work
- make them shareholders in their future
- these people can arrange tutors for training
- maybe there will be qualified up for it people in their group
- they can book their venue etc it’s not rocket science
- they can set up their own training groups aimed at the different skill sets
- they can make decisions and police their project.
• there are members of our society who just don’t want to work
- save money and let them sit at home on min benefit instead of spending millions on them (most will want to join in)
• keep supporting those that can’t work for whatever reason
- empower people to achieve what they want
I am sure that employers would rather hire candidates from a proactive establishment than have to go through the process of the current institution.
Well I have had my say thanks for reading.
empower people to achieve what they want
granday5
21 May 10 at 2:22 pm
Well in 2 weeks time I get sent on the NDYP (18 – 25) 2 week course, I’ll keep you all updated.
Reaper941
26 May 10 at 11:38 pm
I am from the North West. The situation I am in at the moment is I have been unemployed for over 6 months and before that I was on a full time Business Admin course (full time 34+ hours, UNPAID) working in an office (1 and a half hours travel from my home). I have a NVQ level 3 in Business Admin and also a Diploma in IT Hardware (2 years), amongst many other qualifications.
The Jobcentre originally sent me to a local A4E (after 3 months) which was the most dehumanizing and depressing situation I have ever been in. It lasted around 11 weeks. At first I was promised “We can find you a work placement in Admin or IT”. I started and after the first 2 weeks of empty promises I was then told that they do not deal with Admin or IT placements, only retail… (I will get to this in a minute).
So, on the 5-6th week I was told of some “options” for work placements I could do, to which they give the choices of – Poundland or The Range (a store which sells home items), This was unacceptable as I had heard from other “customers” in the room who had been through this before that A4E always send people to those companies and no jobs ever come out of it. I was told this was to gain some “work experience”, which I did not need. So I said I would not work for these companies as it was slave labour, and I would find a charity to volunteer for instead. (I ended up finding a local charity shop to work in).
The A4E staff where extremely rude to both me, and the other people attending. There was a lady aged 30-35 who was from a European country. She could speak 3 languages and was previously an interior designer. This one day she was sitting next to me looking at an interior design company website and the A4E staff member in the room said to the lady “Get off that website, its not allowed”, she asked why? And he replied “It contains video material and we don’t allow that on our computers”. This “video” was a flash player showing designs of the work which the company does on its main webpage. She said “So I am not allowed to look at interior design companies? Even this one I used to work for?” and the A4E staff member replied “Lets not talk about this now, I have told you to get off the website”. This continued on and on. He spoke to her as if she was an idiot. In the end the lady was crying, and she had to leave.
I also had many encounters with this A4E staff member. He would go on about how important timekeeping was. I was always in at 8.45am (15 minutes early) and this one day there was a car crash in front of the bus I was on, which delayed me getting to the A4E centre and I was 6 minutes late (9.06am) and you should have seen the look on his face when I walked in through the door. Before I could speak he started yelling “Your late!” . His attitude was terrible. Every day he would find something to try and pick on you.
I could go on and write a story about my time at A4E but I am sure most of you have experienced the same.
Unemployed and looking
24 Jun 10 at 3:08 pm
Job centre arranged a course for me, To re-sit my mandatory 5 year renewal for Gas workers, They were supposed to pay £300 towards this course (cost was £680 total) working links were supposed to pay the other half, I have a letter confirming employment upon passing that course, I completed the training successfully, Called the company, they said come in Monday, so I did, Accidently missed and appointment with working links, because i went to see the employer, got a phone call from working links saying they wont pay their half to the training (£380) because i missed the interview, And after 2 months of leaving notes on the managers desk at the JC, emails.. the lot.. Today they told me JC wont pay their half because working links wont pay theirs, So now i have a £680 debt with the college, £430 i’ve paid into my gas safe registration wasted, My public liability insurance ive set up is set up and paid for, but is a waste of money now because im not working (£440) And this is refused because I havnt put the effort in to make that one interview..? They are not for real? So now i cant search for jobs in gas (which ive done from leaving school) im now 24, They offered to help me find a porter job, Pot washing? Me? A registered Gas engineer? I pulled jobs off the machines, I see the advisor, He underlines where the phone numbers and email addresses are and sends me on my way, WWWTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFF???????????? When I am in work, I used to earn triple what those incompetent wasters earn, If anything im now surrounded by debt i dont have a job to pay back, I cant get a job in my field, Of which is pretty much all I know, Im sure I could get a job elsewhere, But why should I? this will determine my whole future? it’s what im good at so I stick with it, all for the sake of getting over excited about going back to work!! and because of missing one appointment, Left in this situation.. The job centre IS A WASTE OF TIME. If this was paid for, I can go back to work, So what now? I sit on jobseekers getting paid £50 a week for how long? because if its more than a couple of months, They have given me an equivalent amount of money and still no job, Definitely a fundamental flaw somewhere along the line, and that is the fact that they arnt really bothered whether we go back to work or not, as long as their packet reaches the bank for clicking buttons and underlining email adresses. Whats the point.
NickGasSafe
1 Jul 10 at 10:15 am
New Deal and the Job Centre is a sack of shit. I trained in construction and qualified in 2005 as a somewhat enthusiastic 20 year old, and now the industry has been decimated by cheap foreign labour, greedy contractors, and globalisation I have had no choice but to sign on for the past 2 years on and off whilst trying to change career. I have been sent on poxy courses where an interview is promised but am then let down. I have another one tomorrow where I have to explain my situation yet again to start another course which will probably lead nowhere, infact just making the small course companies money as thats all they care about. I got so fed up with it I applied for the Army in August 2009 and I am still waiting to join that because all pissed off people like me are joining up to escape this disgraceful society we live in, so there is waiting lists for it. And if that isn’t enough, you also get stereotyped by the people in work as a ‘Bum’ or a ‘Scrounger’ just because you are signing on.
Welcome to catch 22 Britain, if you’re working class, you’re fucked.
CJ
1 Jul 10 at 8:28 pm
Hi folks. Just discovered this site today and I really do sympathise with the people on here as I have been unfortunate to be out of work for around 2 years myself. The job centre in my area of inverness although not as bad as some that i’ve read about on here still miss the point that not all people on JSA, incapacity or new deal are lazy, drunken drug addicts and that a good number of these people genuinly want to work. They also don’t understand that for someone to get off and to stay off benifits the vacancies they apply for must be sustainable and reasonably secure. Work experience in my opinion should only be used for those who have never been in work i.e. school leavers to prepare them for the working environment or those who want to do it off thier own back just to get them out of the house whilst they look for work and should not be forced. One thing I have discovered is that if you do things of your own back you get good results so i can now say if you are looking for work and only if you can afford to do so and you have savings behind you, do not use the jobcentre for anything else other than looking for work whether via job points or the web. As for CV’s and coverletters if you go to recruitment sites such as jobsite and S1jobs.com they will be able to build a CV for you and you can add to it at any time. Also and I know this sounds like just another course centre, If you’re close to a Pitman training building they will offer help with this as well and the best bit is that they are not tied to the jobcentre. Sorry if this is too long but hope it helps the genuine folk out there
kcam001
9 Jul 10 at 1:29 am
I’m about to start one of these courses today after being on the dole for 18 months. It’s going to be quite funny actually cause I know it’s all bullshit designed to make you accept anything. Being a diabetic though, I quite intend to do injections and blood-tests in full-view of the whole class, at criticical moments in the bullshit presentations. I haven’t got a fucking clue how long I’ll be on this wank for, as the whole thing is shrouded in mystery, but I’m sure if the pressure becomes to great, I can have the odd hypoglycemic attack which can send me to hospital for the day, where the company’s better and you get your own tv.
Alan
25 Jul 10 at 11:23 pm
Dear
I am currently on the New Deal COurse .
I am finding it,bullying and a waste.
It is brain washing and brain draiing and no good .
People should be learning new things .
The excessive job pages which we fil in are too steep and over the top .
A simple job search once a week should suffuce .
I find the course over the top and too agressive towards people .
What are you views .?
Does this apply to every one and should we ALL compain .
Thank you ,
j
28 Jul 10 at 6:52 pm
This week when I was in at my FND office, I’m sorry to say (one) of the fat girls who ‘work’ there came in from the cake shop with a massive tray of cakes (I presume) for the workers. She chatted with the receptionist/expenses girl for about 10mins (I was surfing for jobs right next to them). Then another (fat) male worker exclaimed to anyone within earshot ‘well I suppose we better start doing this then’ and appeared to just start work at his desk. It was 11 am. It just doesn’t look good, it’s not professional, and is depressing when the clients are desperately looking for work and are prepared to work hard. The government should be sending in ‘secret workers’ to see how they are being ripped off by these consultancies.
missangry
3 Aug 10 at 4:43 pm
Want to know the funny thing…
If you don’t find a job by the end of Flex New Deal, then you have to work for your benefits… which in itself I think is fair. HOWEVER you must work for 30 hours, so that means for me I’d be working for LESS than MINIMUM WAGE because in total my benefits come to less than £115 a week!
I suggest any one who reads this to crunch their own numbers and if that means you’ll be working for less than minimum wage, then you speak to someone, perhaps your local MP, this is something cannot be ignored or have a valid excuse as to why that is ok.
Flex New Deal IS a joke! Alot of the staff is incompetent and I could do a better job with my eyes closed. I cannot wait until I can break free from these mass of idiots and be self-employed.
Tyler
3 Aug 10 at 10:53 pm
thot u guys mite like this
http://a4ephotogallery.blogspot.com/
jim brown
8 Aug 10 at 10:29 am
I’ve recently finished a 12 week new deal course which has resulted in nothing that was promised by the job centre.
Overall, the course would of been worthwhile, if it had not been for only 6% of the total new deal base getting a job placement, with only 4% acually getting a full time job.
With abismal figures such as these, I cannot see the incentive? Yet another waste of tax payers money.
I assume it costs around £1000 per enrollment, and another £360 in training expenditures per enrollment (food etc) over the duration of the set 12 week period, taking travel expenditure into account the figure grows even more so. Can this money not be used as an incentive for companys to take young people on? I for one, would be in a full time job right now if this was the case.
WHAT A WASTE OF MY TIME, and to cap it all off, I have been signed off job seekers allowance and have had to spend a further £6 on public transport to rectify the situation.
Back to square one but with the steam taken out of my engine. I have recieved 70 pound in benefits too last the next fortnight as their systems have made an error that they claim they may not be able to rectify (scam). That leaves me with no possible way of funding a job search activity and cutting my food intake down too 9p noodles and beans on toast…
THANKS ALOT NEW DEAL.
unknown entity
10 Aug 10 at 12:52 pm
At the momet i am on JSA and going to working links every time i go to working links my apointments are cancled or the PA is late and when i do see here she trying to send to to a job thats on the other side of the country! – i dont drive
i am in debt to the point where ive lost 2 stone, how the hell do they think thats an option
i just want a local job any thing!
lu
10 Aug 10 at 11:47 pm
I was put on the “community Task force” which was a 13 week 9-4.00pm program in which you are just put on your own in a room with computers. Nothing to do all day, and when some people decided to go on facebook, youtube or games etc and got caught it was like being in school. There was a disproportionate amount of males to female ration on the CTF course and there was another course in the same building called ESP which as far as I could tell was virtually the same.
The people that worked for this “training provider” were very unprofessional. And they treated some people terribly. They always had a whipping boy that they knew wouldnt answer back that they would pick on. If this boy was late or off a day he would get it in the ear all day, yet others wouldnt get the same treatment.
I also heared staff talking about politics and them using the word chavs and laughing about how cameron will force more of the said “chavs” onto such programs. You just know that they are always thinking you are the scum of the earth everytime you talk to them.
Before going on this community task force I imagined that, as the title suggests we would be forced to work in the community doing such duties as litter picking or helping old peoples homes. Which would of been preferable to doing nothing. Some of the lucky ones did get placements in charity shops.
I applied for 50+ jobs over the 13 week period and had no support from the staff other than the first day when I made a new CV. I recieved no reply from any of the jobs. I honestly do not |understand why anyone would work in one of these places. Obviously just sad, low qualified bullies. And they dont even realise just how sad and pathetic they are. Its funny just how perfectly replicated these bullies are in the league of gentleman sketch paulines pens.
Oh well its over now and I know next time I will refuse to be forced onto any such program, I reckon you can take it pretty far with the job center. I dont see how they can throw you off your entitled benefit so easily.
And the biggest joke about the “new deal” schemes is that it actually costs the tax payer many times over the amount it would to just leave people on JSA. All for the sake of further fiddling already fiddled figures in a nation with no real jobs other than the few service jobs that everyone applies for.
Think about it, they have to pay a private firm a large fee, the employees, and pay a £10-£15 incentive to those that they force onto it. Its ridiculous, but your average joe that reads tabloids and the daily mail thinks such schemes are a good idea. Its sad.
samsonite
11 Aug 10 at 12:48 pm
The job centre big new deal up, up too the point you actually feel it will result in a job, sadly this isn’t the case.
The trainers were nice and friendly, but overworked as they had to “train” us and do their normal 9 to 5. If more job placements were available new deal would be more successful, but when there is 8, in which 60 have applied for, I can’t help but feel certain people are getting special treatment.
The money pumped into these private companys should be paid straight to employers like Argos and Asda, an incentive to employ.
unknown entity
12 Aug 10 at 8:24 am
Reading through this site just makes my blood boil. Every post is spot on, yet it all still continues. Its got to he point lads I know that have been unemployed since school have applied for the army, and they haven’t even had a response since they did their assessment 4 months ago. So now even the forces are running out of work. All the money that is wasted on the new deal and the job centre industrial complex is sickening.
With that money we could create industry. There is no reason that it has to be this way. We should be like Germany and have a strong industrial work base. We should be like France and have a real republic and a form of government that does listen to its people.
Yet its a nation of brainwashed masses, and the old land owning aristocrats are stronger than ever. The people are divided, the rich get richer. The poor are scapegoats and the working class only serve to be caricatures in comedy shows, benefit fraud adverts. Oh, and those shows that pretend they are for the benefit of the poor such as “Duchess of York on a housing estate” or “scary spice on a housing estate” that provide middle and upper classes with some evening entertainment.
Very little is right with this country. The first chance I get im out. I wish there was a revolution, but I know it could never happen. Yes Lets all watch the x factor, lets read the sun, lets watch liam nelsons well good show, lets give the banks hundreds of billions of pounds, lets scrap affordable used cars, lets have congestion charge in every city, lets give terrorists and murderers joke punishments, lets stay in afghan and spend less on the military, lets sell arms to unstable nations, lets put fuel prices up, lets increase VAT, lets have more heroin brought in, lets close all the pubs, lets put prices up on alcohol, lets destroy any British industry that remains, lets blame the chavs. Yay! we shall never be slaves.
samsonite
15 Aug 10 at 3:26 pm
Ok heres a quick update and warning to others. Since I came off “community task force” I was told by someone that works for the “training provider” that I could simply do a rapid reclaim and I would have money in a matter of days.
Anyway I go to the job centre, nd they refuse to let me have a rapid reclaim and make me fill out the full claim form again. That was 3 weeks ago, and I am yet to be paid. And you could be forgiven for thinking that as its a new claim that you will start from stage 1 again, but not so, I have now progressed onto “stage 4″ and when I went to my “review” today I am told I now have to go to a mandatory “A4E flexible new deal”,
I said well what happens if I refuse and she gave me some scare story that I could loose my “benefits”. I said I haven’t agreed or formally signed anything to accept this program and she said well you have been enrolled on the screen. The screen! seems to be a case of computer says yes. Anyway I didnt accept and now I’m waiting for a phone call in which she will try and convince me of the wonders of A4E and how if I refuse I will be sentenced to a life of poverty. Scummy Scammy neo workhouse industry.
And then I look at the jobs on the yougov site, and they have car valet jobs where only experienced valeters can apply! Its beyond a joke. Seriously, people argue your case.
How do junkies, non English speaking immigrants and alcoholics get perpetual dole when they are not capable of attending interviews, training programs or even filling in a form?
I feel so sorry for all the lads fighting in Afghanistan to support this regime, the heroin trade and big oil and gas. What do these poor sods get? death, injuries, picketed funerals, crappy “subsidised” Army housing for there family, and heroin dealers driving round in Subarus and wearing gold.
samsonite
23 Aug 10 at 2:15 pm