[First Off 300 Posts WOOOOO]
So today was a busy day for me well sort of at least 3 hours
of fun walking up and down the mean streets of Clacton (just a clichéd phrase
Clacton isn’t that mean it just has some problems) anyway it started with a
trip to my local MP who I have found myself almost constantly having to go to
in my dealings with Seetec. This time it was about a four week sanction for
being sick and phoning in to Seetec which should have been fine but wasn’t. In
case you didn’t know what SHOULD happen when a job seeker is on the Work
Programme and is ill they should inform their Work Programme Provider who then
has a statutory requirement to inform the job centre which then will sent out
an absence form.
Well that did not happen it all fell over when Seetec were
required to do something that didn’t lead directly to a payment so the process
fell over resulting in a four week sanction. That is despite a written reason
for my absence and an official appeal both sent to the DWP. It is things like
this which drive me mad to be honest especially in the face of the current
media storm calling the unemployed scroungers and these new Conservative plans.
The government want us to play by all these rules heaped on rules but I get
Seetec telling me they won’t help with the costs of attending interviews
outside the local area despite my job seekers agreement requiring me to travel up
to 90 minutes to find work. Next thing you know they will try sanctioning me
for attending interviews in London, it is not as crazy as it sounds.
So last time I signed at the job centre for my JSA I got
this notice that from next time (also known as today) I would be required to
sign at Seetec instead of at my local jobcentre. Now the first thought might be
that makes sense and streamlines things but I find myself worried by this. An
interesting thing that happened at the signing ,which as far as I can tell is
still done my a member of JSA staff, is that when I went to hand over my job
evidence I was told that it would be unnecessary and that Seetec were now
responsible totally for looking at my job seeking evidence.
What is the problem you ask? Well what Seetec consider a
suitable job and what I consider a suitable job are very much polls apart. I
have lost count of the times my advisor had said things like look at this 20 hour
a week minimum wage job why don’t you apply for that? And I have to answer
again and again that I would be losing even more money than I am now on JSA if
I took that. Make no mistake people Seetec and other WPP (Work Programme
Providers) are about getting you ANY job, so they don’t care that you are the
potential main bread winner with a young family they will try their hardest to
palm you off on a 10 hour a week cleaning job because “well it is a job and
something else might come along”.
If Seetec can now decide what job evidence is valid or not
and send out even more false doubts it is just another tool in the arsenal of
intimidation, they could actually look at my evidence at a monthly review where
I’m required to apply for at least 10 jobs with a general proviso to look for a
local opportunity and say hey that admin job in Chelmsford, or that student
support assistant job at Queen Mary Students’ Union in London doesn’t count
because we told you, you’re not allowed to apply for jobs out of the local
area. They try to do it now and I think after a recent incident where I barely
managed to get my interview expenses back they are going to be trying to do it
even more. Be warned, be concerned just remember in the end to be strong.
Found this thanks to a retweet on my Twitter timeline I did not make it.
I just find it makes a lot of sense.
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