Job Centre Plus Will Be The Death Of Me

It has been months since I've written on this particular blog,  Mainly because this is my personal blog and because of that it has tied itself to some of my negative experiences with the Jobcentre Plus. Well it seems more than time enough to get back to complaining about JCP.

The beginning of the year came had a lot of back and forth with my then new Work Coach with her being openly hostile and rude to me during my fortnightly signings resulting in me having to make an official complaint regarding that and other behaviour that amounted to bullying. To make a long story short it involved my Work Coach, another one and their manager all lying to my face about procedure regarding the Claimant Commitment.

The complaint went all the way to pre-hearing stage, basically the hearing had been called for and I was just waiting for a date to attend and then suddenly out of nowhere they cancelled the hearing and agreed to the my version of the Claimant Commitment in my view because they knew they were about to lose.

Because of the fallout of the complaint (which was denied) and the changes to my CC (decided in my favour) I was switched to a new advisor then lo and behold the shenanigans started all over again with this advisor deciding that my CC needed to be changed 2 months after it was newly signed.

The change he wanted was to force me to use Universal Jobmatch and I disagreed so we'll just have to wait and see how that works out as it has been at the DM for more than a month already. Then a month after that here comes the kicker I got sanctioned in my last meeting. As usual no real reason was given just the normal not doing enough to look for work.

That happened despite:

• 18 jobs applied for over the fortnight
• voluntary job gaining new skills

So now I am waiting to see what happens with the appeal and so on I will obviously keep things updated on here.

PERSONAL BLOG: Claimant Commitmentt Time/First JCP Since WP

On Monday of this week I had my first proper advisor appointment at Jobcentre Plus. To give you some idea of the sort of anxiety this caused I was up there in the JCP some 20 minutes early to calm myself down and steel myself for the various inescapable arguments. The Claimant Commitment stuff had not been done beforehand because amazingly they wanted us to blind sign it without any negotiation.

Once we got started I realised that this wasn’t going to be all that easier than dealing with advisers at the Work Programme. There is still a lot of being treated like a child and not a person no looking at things for instance I had to correct something about my CV even though he had it a copy of it right there that he could look at.

Things got interesting when the Claimant Commitment came up for ‘negotiation’ I put those quotes because he wasn’t interested in any negotiation more intimidation but to be fair I have come up against those who have been worse both in the JCP on while on the Work Programme.

Basically to cut a long back and forth short I have just spent the last few days working on my challenge to the Claimant Commitment which I will be handing in next week. Not sure if it is going to result in them stopping my benefits so I am cutting back on everything and hoping to weather any storm.

I’ve written a letter challenging aspects of the Claimant Commitment this is the summary that I want agreed. If you want some help with the letter you can drop me a comment and we’ll sort something out but I recommend unemployment movement and/or JSSA (Job Seekers Sanction Advice) they have helped me countless times.

	HOW OFTEN
I will use jobsites and employer websites to find and apply for jobs I can do.	WEEKLY Suggestion 3-4 times per week
I will ensure I have an up to date CV that I can tailor for jobs I apply for.	ONGOING
I will respond promptly to contacts and notifications from employers and jobsites	DAILY

I’m not sure if I am going to get a sanction but hopefully I will find out on my first JCP Signing Monday and/or my next proper appointment on Wednesday I of course will keep you posted.

If you're having Work Programme or JCP feel free to talk in generalities in the comments ideally not using your real name because you're only a Google away from getting into trouble but the community is here to help.