Brand New Year - Same Old Battle

[So things are still much the same I enclose this post from Unemployment Movement that talks about getting threatened with sanctions after continuing my complaint about not getting help with the costs of interviews]

You can see the thread here.

So there has been an ongoing argument regarding help with the costs of going to interviews which has gone back and forth and resulted in letters to my MP, complaints to Seetec head office and a whole lot of intimidation when attending Seetec. Things came to a head on the 30/12 when I was in for a job search. I had been asked to write a letter if I disagreed with the decision that the Seetec local manager made to deny all future requests for the reimbursement of interview expenses so I did back on the 03/12 only to hear nothing.

I asked about it and finally got called to the manager's office. Despite making it clear in the letter that as I had to write to her I expected a written response, she said that she preferred to speak in person. She then stated that she had been on the phone to the Jobcentre who told her that they agree with her decision to stop helping because I had been unsuccessful in previous interviews (This was a lie) she also went on to state that Seetec could change the details of my jobseeker's agreement on a whim because I had been unemployed for more than a year and the Jobcentre representative apparently agreed to that to, I told her politely that was a load of nonsense.

She then threatened to start submitting me for a load of jobs I was unsuitable for so she could sanction me and then said it was up to me whether or not I wanted to continue with my written complaint.

So there it is threatening me to try and get me to quiet down which is not going to happen and using the Jobcentre to lend her credibility, I have a friend who works as the assistant to CSOM and explained about the dozens of complaints she gets about Seetec where she works and no one in the jobcentre would say the things the Seetec manager claimed.

I am now going to book a meeting with my local CSOM after the New Year to tell the Jobcentre about the fraudulent activity of Seetec and I will be continuing with my complaint including these latest details.

Look forward to future posts with a little more positive content plus there is a job interview coming up.

Seetec: No Support For You Or You or You

So today I came in to Seetec for another pointless Job Search session after a good job interview yesterday so you can probably guess what I am here to talk about. I handed in my bus ticket to get the travel expenses paid and headed off to a money talk. After I came out of that and went to do my job search I printed out the interview confirmation e-mail and got back to applying. Later on just before my hour was up (was that on purpose) my advisor came over to see me, this was a continuation of the last monthly review where I laid out in detail all the barriers to employer that Seetec was placing in front of me after she accused me of being defensive while being there.

The first thing she asked was why I didn’t take the train to the interview, the barracks where the interview was being held was nowhere near the either of the train stations in the town and I just went with a bus because it was cheaper and more straightforward after all if I have learned nothing from Seetec it is that travel expenses reimbursement is not a forgone conclusion so best to look after your own limited budget first.

Anyway after that she then went on to say that the manager at this Seetec branch had laid down the law and decided that I would no longer be eligible for travel expenses to any further job interviews that I may get for myself (Seetec has failed to offer me any job interviews in my time there). My advisor then went on to explain that this was because in my past job interviews had not resulted in a job.

Let me give you a second to consider that.

A little more.

Ok yes you read that correctly because I was unsuccessful in my previous interviews I can now no longer get any help with going to interviews from the people paid by the government to get me into work. Yeah. So many emotions, so many words so few of them have any place on a blog like this though so we move on, my advisor also said that if I had an issue with it I needed to put it in writing to the manager in question. I should also say that my advisor seemed generally upset with these developments which is a credit to her as I do believe that she has always tried to help but has been let down by a lack of proper training from Seetec.

So as you can imagine this had shaking my head and wanting to roll my eyes at yet another reason for not giving me back my travel expenses, I think this is the fourth reason given since I made a formal complaint to head office nearly a year ago. The letter asking for written details as to why Seetec are refusing to pay further travel expenses is already written and sitting on my table to be hand delivered tomorrow, Seetec have form for losing complaints in the mail so I figure it is better that way and thankfully I live within walking distance of the office.

So I guess if you are interested in this back and forth check in with me in fourteen days which is the deadline I specified in the letter.

Thanks for reading, comments will be read and replied to if requested. Stay warm people.