CWP: The Second Week

So thank you for joining me on my journey to nowhere let’s get to it on Mondays I go to Seetec for a three and a half hour session of pointlessness. But looking for work is not pointless they scream of course not BUT trying to use the outdated and ridiculously restrictive computers. They are stuck on Internet Explorer 10 which doesn’t like a lot of recruitment websites as a rule. Add to that the fact that you can’t right click which you think is a small thing but is huge when you start thinking about things like wanting to right click and open a few sites you found on a job board. Plus as it will be clear later you have to be very careful about having your personal documents of any kind on a Seetec system (more on this later). To sum it up though if I compared my time spent on applying for a job at Seetec to applying to one at one I would say that it easily takes 2.5 times longer to do most applications at Seetec and that is when the rest of the people there are behaving and not kicking off.

I made it a point after the joke of my first week of CWP to talk to Seetec about my concerns, unfortunately when I went to reception I was informed the manager was the only one who knew anything about the CWP, it seems that redundancy is a foreign concept to Seetec. Anyway I was fobbed off on an advisor who admitted the above and also told me a little about the history of CWP in the area. There was a man with the job of going around the area I’m thinking county wide or further and sought out work placements for CWP but he left months ago and there hasn’t been a proper staff replacement. The Seetec Manager is managing the placements available for my town it seems and there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of them.

I told the advisor of my issues that the place where I work is a Learning Centre with Maths, IT and English courses and a large part of my role there was helping students which I felt very uncomfortable with. I am not a teacher nor do I have any relevant experience in that side of things, I’m a trainer but that is a very different thing and I do not have experience teaching people with learning difficulties or other issues, during that first week I felt less thrown in the deep end then shoved off a cliff to be perfectly honest.

The advisor’s answer was to call them up and talk to them about it for a bit then without warning putting me on the spot handing the phone over to me where I was asked by one of the staff there if it my concerns meant that I did not want any involvement with the students. I haven’t seen a better stitch up since I used to watch ER. In theory I could say yes I want no involvement in dealing with the learners but that sounds a lot like a reason for a sanction for not partaking in a MAN and a lot of you out there know how hard it is to fight something like that and more importantly how expensive. So I felt I had no choice but to equivocate and just request less time dealing with students and more admin duties.

To you an idea of the centre it is open plan with three workstations for the members of staff; twenty workstations for learners arranged in clusters of four; a small closet they choose to call a meeting room and a downstairs classroom for group sessions. There is no way that their promises of less dealing with students were going to be kept to but I wasn’t really left with a viable alternative.

I have to say that the teaching of the learners isn’t the only problem. The place is a hot mess, the core staff of three have some of the worst communication skills I have ever seen but at the top of it the manager is just unbelievable. The first thing that springs to mind is her habit of speaking to you while not looking at you which to me is just disrespectful, then she has a habit of asking you to do something through someone else like “Can John go and grab the wallets from the shelf” instead of just turning to John and asking. The other thing is her complete inability to listen, the amount of times I have been given a task, done it, moved on to another task only for her to raise her voice and ask why her task hasn’t been done is infuriating I have no idea how she managed to get that position. More to the point I have no idea why people like this are working and I’m kicking and screaming just to get an interview.

The other point during my talk with the advisor was that Seetec shared my CV without my consent and furthermore when they should not have had access to it in the first place. The advisor tried to badger me saying “Yes we have the right” even after I explained the data waiver. It was only after he said “there was a thing you signed at the beginning” and my answer of “No I did not sign that” that it seemed to finally sink in for him.

That issue with the whole ignoring of my data protection had to be passed on for the manager to deal with so with my issues with the placement outstanding it was agreed that I would come into Seetec first thing in Tuesday morning to discuss it with the manager. I did not hold out much hope for anything real to come out of it.

Next morning I came in and went into the manager’s office at Seetec, “You have some issues with your placement?”

“Yes and other things, the advisor recorded them on the system” she then had to leave to talk to the advisor so that she could find out where the notes were as I refused to go over everything from the day before when there was a record, apparently they don’t believe in emailing each other or doing a morning meeting.

So she came back and we discussed the issues and basically her line was “I don’t want you to end up in a charity store” well neither do I, I also want the Jobcentre to honour their letter saying that they would give me an appointment to properly hear my appeal against being sent on the CWP in the first place which I sent 4 weeks ago. Anyway the long and the short of it is I went back to the placement after Seetec in case you were wondering and nothing had changed they didn’t even know I was coming in that day despite me having said so on the phone while at Seetec not an hour before because they don’t talk to each other.

And before I sign off from this rather large post I should talk about the response to my complaint about Seetec sharing my CV, the manager says that she only passed it on to Seetec Colchester as if that was some amazing loophole in the system, I then made it clear that I had a copy of my incorrect CV directly from the placement itself and it didn’t get there without first being sent by Seetec. I then went on to tell them how they SHOULD have dealt with it which is contact me when they found a prospective placement and get me to send out my CV. I got an apology out of the manager but don’t blame me for being wholly unimpressed considering the fact that they are breaking a law and the fact that they have done it before to me. Those are facts added to my awful experiences with them in the past which you can get some idea of from searching on the blog for Seetec.

So as it stands I am stuck at this place with no real training being offered, no skills to improve my CV and very little chance of not being made to serve my 6 month sentence for being guilty of being unemployed. The last chance is with the Jobcentre who sent me on the course but by the sound of the letter that they sent me apologising for the lack of a response it sounds more like they will eventually invite me in once they have invented a “proper” reason to have sent me on CWP instead of the BS non-response given by my jobcentre advisor.

Sorry for making you wade through all of that.

First Day At Community Work Placement

So this is the second day of my start at my placement, I will be not be naming it here to lessen the chance of blowback. On my first day I got in early not necessarily by choice that is just the train timetable crumbles. I was the third person to get in before me were two other members of staff both of whom had no idea I was coming and were definitely not prepared for me.

Then the manager came in and things… pretty much stayed the same. I spent hours just waiting for a tour of the office. At no point did they sit me down and talk to me about what they expected me to do, they were incredibly vague.

The manager barely acknowledged me the whole time when she wanted me to do something did she come to me and explain? No she went to another member of staff in my hearing telling them what I should do it was incredibly rude and made me feel like I was worthless.

I was told that everyone would muck in on the less desirable tasks and then got a taste of those tasks when I was taking some documents downstairs to a classroom got handed the manager’s glass of water to take down with me. Maybe I made too much of it but it just felt wrong.

Oh and here is where we get into the rules and regulation stuff. To fully understand the import of this we need to go back to before the placement last week Monday when I was at Seetec and the Manager sprang the fact that I had a placement on me without warning. Now some of you out there have a tingle of where this is going but let me lay it out for the rest.

If you ever get sent to a Work Programme or Community Work Placement Provider or like me if you do the double because you did something unspeakable in a past life THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to remember is DO NOT SIGN the data waiver. The data waiver is this form in the case of Seetec that is at the back of the booklet you get to keep that tells you all about the wonderful things Seetec will do for you, if you read the small print you will realise that if signed will authorise Seetec to do whatever they want with your CV and personal information leaving little real comeback for you.

As far as I know you can revoke the data waiver later I think it is in the regulations but you’ll learn that the DWP and Work Programme Providers (WPPs) only ever use the rules and regulations that benefit them and do the best to hide the ones that protect you.

So I did not sign the data waiver both times I went to Seetec so that means that they cannot share my information with third parties, that is a bit legalese so you probably want an example of what a third party is, a placement for the Community Work Programme is a third party so when the Seetec Manager handed me my letter/Job Seekers’ Direction and said “the manager was very excited to have you at the placement after seeing your CV” I knew that yet again Seetec had done something very, very wrong AGAIN.

Seetec should never have shared my CV with the placement I got sent to, they broke laws in doing so, Seetec never should have kept a copy of my CV I made it clear to them on a number of occasions in WRITING that I did not consent to them holding a copy of my CV. What they should have done is got in contact with me and asked me to send my CV to the placement, of course I could have refused but wouldn’t as I find that 5 attempts at wrongful sanctions in two years is probably as much as I can take without just giving up. However it seems Seetec much like the DWP who referred me to the CWP without informing me of my write to appeal just don’t do rules.

There is more to be said next time perhaps I will write more about the actual experience of CWP and whether this placement is helping me to learn new skills or is based around my preferred job type. Got questions about something you didn’t understand then just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you if I can answer or at least try to point you in a direction that can help.

FIRST DAY OF SENTENCE AT SEETEC

I had hoped I would never have to come back to this place after a host of bad experiences but here I was again. The first thing I was treated to was an appointment time that Seetec didn’t know about, it was actually set up for a time during their lunch period. A taste of things to come? I hope not.

As a result of the jobcentre and Seetec not being able to work out an appointment between them I was treated to an induction by the manager who I have an outstanding complaint against, so that was fun. Still she treated me with respect and didn’t do anything wrong and explained how Community Work Placement works which I’m not going into as you probably already know having come to this.

There isn’t much in the way of placements for administration and I’ve been told that if they can’t find me a placement then I will get placed in another industry.

I had an interesting talk with one of the advisors at Seetec who always treated me well who was surprised that I got sent on CWP as he knows I am ready to work and also knows how much work I’ve put on things like getting interviews. He admitted to me that it was likely because I had educated myself on what I SHOULD expect from the Jobcentre. Also because I challenged him on the punitive Claimant Commitments they are largely a tool to sanction people right off the unemployment figures.

I still have a challenge to the referral to Community Work Placement in with the Jobcentre Plus Manager so we will see what happens. For now I will follow the rules and not keep up a further fuss and trust in the system. Trust BUT Verify.

For all others out there struggling in the same way, if you are someone who was recently made unemployed or if you have a good employment record you should consider challenging the CWP referral especially if like me you have already had a volunteer position set up.

Sentenced To Six Months - For Being Unemployed

So it happened for the terrible crime of not being able to find a job in one of the most deprived areas in the UK I have been sentenced to 6 months of unpaid labour which is longer than you can be sentenced for committing an actual crime. It came out of the blue in my second meeting and hit me for a loop.

Apparently three years admin experience

is not good enough

Now I’m stressing out wondering how I am going to find time for actually looking for work and also how I am going to avoid getting more spurious sanctions from Seetec who manage the CWP programme. They have already put me up for 3 or 4 sanctions that I managed to get overturned in the end. My relationship with them can be best described as poor as I am currently waiting for the result of a complaint I escalated up to OIA.

So now I spend yet another series of nights writing letters to complain about my treatment by the DWP instead of researching new places to look for work or finishing off an online application. This is a short post because honestly I am too mad to trust myself to write more. Time after time I have to overcome the obstacles put in place by the DWP and the WPP and CWP organisations trying to profit from my misfortune.

I have read that in a lot of cases people get referred to Community Work Placement after challenging their advisors which it could be argued I did when I refused to sign the Claimant Commitment without having the chance to look at it in detail or maybe when I didn’t hand over my CV. That is where things have got to people who exercise their rights or simply the rules and guidelines of being a Job Seeker are punished and transferred away to be someone else’s problem. So if you’re reading this don’t believe the government and media hype about the unemployed being lazy you wouldn’t believe how much strength it truly takes to be treated like this and not snap.

Work Programme Returners

At my last monthly Seetec appointment I was given an appointment for the jobcentre about a month or so in the future. I was told it was a small group session in a small sort of mini-office where us Work Programme types used to go to sign.

I arrived a little early and was let in at 9:00am which was the time of the appointment. There were five of us in the group meeting with an advisor who identified himself of one of a group of three advisors who deal with us Ex-WP people.

The first thing he did was talk about what we could expect the different options for what we might be expected to do but you guys know that daily signings, various courses and/or 30 hours a week Community Placements which is controlled by Seetec FYI.

After this the next thing was that the advisor handed us all Claimant Commitments and asked us to look over them and after assuring us that we could negotiate it asked us all to sign them. I said I was not happy to sign at that time and you could tell the advisor was less than pleased but after a while I think he realised that I wasn’t going to budge so told me to take it away for the first proper appointment. He also said something about legally I have to have a signed CC before my first appointment so maybe he might be setting me up for a wrongful sanction.

The Claimant Commitment also has the Jobseeker Profile on the back of it but makes it clear that it is not part of the CC. Then we were told that it was mandatory to go to this site www.s2sacademy.com and do one of the modules. I can’t put into words how condescending this site is, it reminded me of some of those videos from the 90s that Seetec using on their Elvis site.

Then we went on to talk about My Work Plan. There was a heavy move almost badgering to try and get us to use Universal Job Match. Then he went on to talk about the fact that steps were no longer acceptable which didn’t make a lot of sense but served to try and scare the crap out of us about how much time we spend job searching.

Oh we got taken on a tour of the Jobcentre’s computers and how to use them which requires use of our emails to sign on mention of whether not they record everything we do there also of interest is the fact there are no phones at the Jobcentre now so if you want to call someone and don’t have credit you’re shit out of luck, the advisor saying “well everything is online now”.

The last thing of interest was being told to bring in my CV which I have no problem with but I will not be leaving them with a copy after all the rubbish I went through at Seetec. Hope this helps for people coming up to the end of his sentence on Work Programme.

Personal Blog: Changes Incoming

I only have four weeks left on the Work Programme before being bounced back to the Job Centre indeed probably in two weeks time I'll get a date for my return interview. A few months ago this would probably be a cause for celebration given the problems I've had with Seetec the various sanctions, the bullying and the general uselessness of the whole experience. Now though I wonder if it is going to be a case out of out of the frying pan and into the fire.

As I finish writing up the details of this month's job search for my likely final Seetec Monthly 1-2-1 I wonder what will be happening in a few months time especially regarding Universal Job Match. I read so many stories of people either being forced to give access to the Jobcentre Staff or just assuming they had to only to result in almost immediate sanction.

As things stand for now I have not given access to my UJM account indeed I do not use it that site is full of scams and is very badly put together there are much better options out there just do a little searching. For me Indeed works once you get to grips with its filters it actually becomes far less rubbish than it first appears. 

I'm lucky in that most of the jobs I go for can be found on general purpose job search sites like Totaljobs, CV Library and the rest. So I will be covering my experiences at the Jobcentre just to keep people in the know and to show them how things can go down so hopefully when it is their turn they will be better prepared.

I will be going in there with the means to record conversations as well as taking notes by hand. You have to stand up for yourself against advisors or they will walk all over you or more likely sanction you into destitution.

This Week

So had Seetec Monthly today it was a pretty quiet affair other than the fact that from next month I will have a new advisor as in the word of my current one "her role is set to change". Not sure what to make of her changing role but I am anticipating a bit of push back from the new guy. He probably won't know that I didn't sign the data release. It might be fine though so I do not want to go in next time picking a fight.

In a few hours I am expecting a call from ICE as they want more information about my complaint. Mostly dates, a little difficult but not too hard to track down as issues tend to come up during monthly reviews and not in the hourly job search sessions. I will let you know what develops.

Other than job related stuff I have two new stories that I am trying to work on. One I have been working on for a couple of weeks set in another galaxy. I have always wanted to write about different worlds and different peoples I hope I don't screw it up.

That is all from me this blog is a quick one just to test the blog app on my newish phone. It could definitely help with blogging on the go.

Janel Parrish is there because she is gorgeous, that is why.

What Has Been Happening?

So I've been writing, I started a new story this time it is probably best described as a space adventure. Nothing like Mission Critical and horror of horrors I have decided to try writing in the first person. First impressions of that is it is very difficult and confusing but I write to get better.

Nothing has stirred on the job front in the last couple weeks which means no interviews on the horizon. That is as scary as it sounds but I have my application count up at 9 for this month and I am continuing to look ti is all I can do.

On the Seetec front things are slowly moving forward, just today I had a letter from ICE, Independent Case Examiner telling me about some letter they sent which I did not receive and apparently have done a turnaround and will consider my complaint to Seetec as I did get a final response from them which was worse than a joke.

Health stuff is a bit of a concern but hopefully I will get a doctor's appointment and move forward with that as it is going to take a lot of time and luck to sort out.

As you can see things are pretty quiet around here except for some new blog posts I have done so you feel free to check those out. My new blog is here comments are appreciated.

Personal Blog - Seetec and Other Stuff

So things have not been going great lately. This whole ongoing back and forth with Seetec is going to give me grey hair, it is most certainly denying me my fair share of regular sleep. Add to that the pushback I am getting at my Seetec interviews is not helping, apparently I am being stubborn and not cooperating. Not that my advisor can tell me in what way I am not cooperating so I find that hard to take seriously.

She also has this way of constantly questioning me which is unhelpful, mostly regarding interview feedback where I am sometimes described as serious, apparently she knows me so well that I must be failing to put my true personality across. There are a few things more condescending then someone who sees you once a month telling you about your own personality.

The back and forth argument with her pretty much starts with her saying "Smile more" and "You're not putting your personality forward during the interview" apparently there is this huge blindspot where serious people are incapable of working in an office but that is a subject for a different time and I have to move on or I will wind myself up.

In terms of the complaint I have sent it off to Indepenent Case Examiner they now have the full details but I have not heard from them in about a week or so I will chase it up because they didn't do a very good job explaining the timeframe. I will keep you informed. Something worth mentioning with Seetec and their complaint procedure is that their so called final complaint is sent back to the local Seetec branch to be dealt with.

So let us look at that let us say there was an issue with staff bullying you, which happened to me at Seetec when I was a part of the New Deal, if I made a complaint at the local level which would be unlikely in the first place as it was the local manager who was bullying me but if I did and she rejected it I would send it to the head office... only for her to be the one to reject it again ending the formal complaint process.

SEETEC TIMELINE

2^nd January                         

After exhausting the internal complaints procedure ending with a written complaint that the Seetec manager refused to respond to in writing instead making veiled threats and intimidation at a meeting. [Written acknowledgement of your complaint should be sent 3 days after they receive it]

10^th January                       

Failed to receive acknowledgement of my complaint called Seetec head office, no record of receiving my letter so told to email the complaint through to the contact email.

17^th January                       

Still failed to receive acknowledgement of my complaint so called Seetec again, this time informed that the person who deals with complaints (amazingly there is only one in a business with more than a dozen offices around the UK) was away from the office. So I left my number and was told the staff member would be back in on Monday.

So there you have it after 2 weeks of submitting a formal complaint to Seetec, they have managed an amazing dance where they have yet to admit to actually receiving it in any form despite it being mailed and then emailed to them.

TIPS

So this doesn’t happen to you Recorded Delivery is an option but like me you may well be counting the pennies. You should also do what I did and keep chasing up regularly if you submit a written complaint to head office you should receive acknowledgement after 3 working days.

I should probably also mention that this is not my first trip to the rodeo as I put in a complaint a year ago or so and amazingly that one ended up being lost the first time around too but that is of course coincidence.

Back then I didn’t know about the acknowledgement step so wasted a month before chasing them up. So this post is there so hopefully you won’t suffer the same fate.

My Meeting With Jobcentre Re: Seetec Tactics

So on I went to see the CSOM at my local Jobcentre. That is the Customer Services Operations Manager for those who don’t know, I know I certainly didn’t until a friend who worked in DWP explained things to me. The reason for setting up the meeting was because CSOMs meet up weekly with the Work Programme Providers in the area for whatever reason. I thought that CSOM should know what Seetec is up to.

He listened to my issues though the pad on which he could make notes remained clean. He advised me to follow through with the complaints procedure at Seetec and I explained to him how the manager there tried to circumvent their own complaint procedures by refusing to respond to a written complaint.

One thing that did seem to get a slight reaction out of him was when I mentioned Seetec using a mysterious Jobcentre employee to agree with their decision to refuse to help with the costs of attending interviews. That got an eye twitch but not much more than that.

That is all that is happening on the soap opera that is my ongoing Seetec struggles the next update will happen sometime after Monday but it might take some time as I am preparing for interviews on Tuesday and Friday.

Keep warm people and stay strong.

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.

Weekend Roundup

So what have I been up to this week read on for the likely not particularly interesting details.

I delivered my letter to Seetec over a week ago which means that the two week deadline for the manager to get back to me will be up next week. If she fails to write back after telling me to put my complaint in writing then I plan to submit a formal complaint to Seetec head office but I'm hoping that won't be necessary. Monday is also the date of my monthly review so stay tuned for all the fun that is likely to take place during that meeting.

In terms of jobs the week that was proved decent in terms of job searches so I applied for 6 jobs from a variety of places, on that note I am becoming more than a little worried about the likelihood of Universal Jobmatch becoming mandatory, the site is garbage and full of fake jobs and agencies trawling for your data and it is set up to allow for easy push button sanctions once the government signs away our data protection rights giving the DWP access to our job searches.

Not everything that I did this week was quite so dour for instance there was Blogging.

Young Fitness Model Reni Ichelva

Leven Rambin, Sometimes Blonde, Always Hot Demi-Goddess

Vanessa Lengies, Canadian Cutie

If you feel so inclined click on a link, leave a comment, your time and consideration is appreciated.

That is all from me for now unless something unexpected happens you will probably hear from me again on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for reading.

What I've Been Up To + This Week

So what have I been up to. If you were around last week you will have heard the latest from Seetec that because I have failed to get a job from my previous interviews they will no longer pay for any travel expenses that I accrue. Not that they have paid for all that many of them in the past but that is yet another story. So we left things with the Seetec Manager telling me that if I disagreed with that decision then I should write a letter to her.

That letter went to Seetec the next day and I hand delivered it as last time I made a complaint about them they managed to lose the first one I sent. In the letter I specified a written response within 14 days of the letter if it doesn’t come within that time or they fob me off with just an oral response then I’m going to escalate things and send an actual complaint letter to their head office and maybe copy if to DWP.

I do have some good news well at least partly good in my view. After about 5 months of back and forth I finally had my unfair sanction over ruled or at least the money from the sanction given over with a letter following up in a few days saying that “the doubt no longer applies”.

Really after an appeal, a letter to my MP, a reconsideration, formal procedure appeal and another letter to my MP to get them to admit the obvious that Seetec were disregarding the rules and regulations they signed up to and that DWP were doing nothing to keep them in line shame it took them nearly half a year and cost me a lot of money in fines and missed bills.

I will be filing a complaint about that too but I don’t hold a lot of hope out for it, I probably wouldn’t have bothered if they had actually written a proper letter to me with an explanation or you know an apology but they this is the government we are talking about and as an unemployed person they barely register me as human.

The plan for this week is signing on Monday, job search on Tuesday but other than that there is not a lot going on but at the end of this week there should be some job deadlines coming up so hopefully something develops from that.

If I get a response from Seetec I might transcribe it for you guys minus personal details of course just sharing evidence like others have with me. We are all in this together after all. That is all I can think of to share for now so I will leave it there and hope your Holiday season is going a bit more smoothly than mine.

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.

SEETEC: But Wait There's More

So more fun with Seetec. Something that I noticed after I wrote down my previous thoughts about being challenged about my disability. My advisor was talking about me being defensive when I came into the Seetec offices, I explained to her that this was as a result of them putting barrier after barrier to me getting back into work. Chief of these barriers was the whole ongoing fight over support with travel expenses for interviews.

Anyway we were talking about it and then my advisor said that the reason for not paying future expenses was because of the feedback they received after getting in contact with a job I interviewed for. Which job I asked and they told me, it wasn’t a job that they even paid the interview expenses for yet here they were trying to say that because of one “supposedly” bad interview they wouldn’t be paying for any further ones.

The feedback that the adviser gave me (which she said came from the head of the interview panel from my interview) made a number of accusations including me being rude to the interview panel, and a non-existent incident regarding an interruption to the interview and a lot else. I was so flabbergasted that I e-mailed the head of the interview team and she replied back with an entirely different set of feedback which said I was quiet and perhaps not outgoing enough for the role, quiet and one of the rudest people she had ever met seem a little far apart I think you’ll agree.

That is not the point though the fact is all my adviser could say when I confirmed for her that interview was one I paid for was “Oh, right” clearly either my advisor or the manager came up with that lie to try and get me to stop going on about the whole expenses thing I have no way to tell who though.

So we have here an example of Seetec actively lying to their customers about pretty much the most important thing for unemployed people looking for work – interview feedback. I feel like I should be surprised but I’m just not. I almost wonder if my advisor being nice and the manager trying to constantly screw me over, is just some kind of messed up good cop bad cop routine that is how paranoid I am when I cross the threshold into Seetec every month.

So that is that wish me luck for my interview on Friday hopefully it might be a way out of all of this and into a good job.

Seetec - Maybe Train Your Staff?

So I have not written about my experiences with Seetec recently, my Work Programme Provider mostly because they tend not to be noteworthy. I just come in and mostly get told to put my personality forward more in interviews and smile so you guys don’t need to hear about that. Something happened this visit though that troubled me and I think I need to share it in case it is happening to others out there.

As part of my Work Programme thing I have to do fortnightly job searches at Seetec on their slow heavily restricted computers that only run IE 8. Not the main issue but worth mentioning as I have told them time and again that IE 8 doesn’t work with a fair few of the job sites I visit but I digress. At the last job search session I was given a paper application form for a job I’d already applied for because Seetec apparently have a link with the employer, fair enough not a problem but things get weird from there.

The application was straightforward and also had an equal opportunities section in it which asked the usual questions, racial background and whether or not you have a disability stuff like that. I filled it in and gave it to my advisor and didn’t think much more of it. Today during the meeting I was asked about that application and I replied that I had heard nothing after some talk it emerged that she had never sent the application.

Obviously I was confused as to why she did not send it out, but then she let me know.

“I didn’t know you had a disability.” She said. To which I responded ok but what did that have to do with not sending out the application? My advisor said that she needed to know that all the details on the application were correct.

So was she accusing me of lying on an application? Who knows I wasn’t going to put that to her after already being called defensive.

So what is this disability she asked, which made me uncomfortable as a question to be posed in a busy office where I from my seat next to her I could literally touch to other advisors and their clients without leaving my seat. Anyway she asked so I told her, which then brought the response I don’t think that is a disability. I then explained to her the intricacies of what a disability is and why I felt uncomfortable talking about it, she then went on to tell me about some relative with a similar condition which really wasn’t helpful or necessary and really at this point I just wanted to get out of there.

I don’t write this because I think that the advisor was being intentionally rude, I think she could have thought a little more before speaking at certain points but I think what this really highlights is the lack of training that the staff at Seetec receive is this is how they deal with disability issues with users. The advisor has struck me as very professional in most of our dealings so if she has a problem I think though obviously I can’t prove that this issue is one that runs throughout my local Seetec branch.

My issue now is whether or not to do anything about this, make a formal complaint or talk to the manager perhaps though I have had no end of issues with that manager as highlighted in my earlier posts which you can see here and here regarding getting help with expenses so I don’t feel comfortable with that as she always comes across as very confrontational. I will have to sleep on it maybe discuss it with my mom tomorrow as I go fix her computer.

I am more than happy to hear from you guys even if you think I’m over reacting.

300th POST!!! Where I speak of my day and job stuff

[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.

Seetec - Update On The Struggle

So an update to endless problems with Seetec/Work Programme. Last time I was trying to get help with attending an interview in London for a promising administration job, £43 is a lot to magic out of the air when you only get £71 a week. Seetec however were being incredibly obstinate and were using a variety of reasons like the Enterprise oscillating their shield frequency in an attempt to deny me help and indeed a chance at a job.

Their main go to is Seetec don’t pay for jobs outside the local area (my local area is one of the most deprived in the UK). Now I remember my induction and initial interviews with Seetec when I forced onto this useless WPP with a history of bullying me and at no point did they say, “hey we know times are tough and competition for jobs is crazy but we only want you to look for jobs locally” because if that would have happened I would have called bullshit and raised holy hell. Like with a lot of things that Seetec say they tend to fall apart when they get examined.

Anyway the upside of the story is that they finally paid back my travel expenses today which you might say yay but after arguing back and forth about it for over a week during the preparation for a very competitive job. This is what Seetec do to people working their hardest to find a job they put obstacle after obstacle in front of them. I can only hope that continually to fight them and to raise issues at the level of my MP and soon with my local job centre might result in someone actually taking notice of this. That is my hope it is more likely though that I will just be denounced as just one of these ‘scroungers’ which the government has successfully fooled the majority of the public into believing outnumber the honest hard working job seekers slowly drowning in a sea of debt.

Some Thoughts About Interviews

So things have settled down in the house of Shaft. Over the last few months even though it hasn't really ever felt like it I have been pretty lucky with getting job interviews but for those of us in the know getting the interview isn't even anywhere near half the job. If you ask my SEETEC advisor you can smile your way straight into a job and for some people with an easy smile and charisma (Han Solo people like that) but it is not that easy for the rest of us. I'm a serious person and I don't think that is something that should be a negative in the job market (unless you're a professional clown I suppose) but the only feedback that my SEETEC advisor is willing to offer is smile more and that I am too serious.

She says that I don't smile enough when I am at SEETEC and I can confirm that is true. Is it because the Work Programme is demeaning and that in the past while at SEETEC I was bullied by the manager and had no redress. That could be it, but then could it be because of that time when SEETEC tried to get me sanctioned (where the DWP withhold your Job Seekers Allowance because you failed to properly look for work) because I informed them I could not attend an appointment because I had got myself a job interview? Could it have been the many times where they refused to help with the cost of attending interviews which is in clear violation to the rules and regulations?

Really in the end who knows why I look so grumpy while attending appointments at SEETEC but that is beside the point as I like most sensible people try to put my best self forward at job interviews, due to that whole chance of them paying you money to work for them after the fact. For some reason which if you were to ask me I would say is down to the fact that the advisors have a very limited view of the job market and jobseekers and as I don't fit into that narrow band. I've gotten off topic this is about interviews which to me have always seemed a strange way of getting work.

In an interview you answer questions and it is all about how you come across to the perspective employer or their representatives. Fine in theory but taking a closer look is that really the best way to choose workers? In some feedback I have got back from prospective employers from administrative/receptionist roles is that they didn't think I came across as friendly, one even said that I did not seem enthused about working in an SU HE environment, they couldn't be more wrong in their assessment of me and that is the rub. On one side we are always told not to judge people by our preconceived notions but I can't help but feel judged by these interview panels as a non-traditional prospective employee. I have the experience I have the skills so when I read some of the feedback I can't help but laugh in that sort of way that contains no warmth or hope at all.

Anyway enough of this I need to go study for my next interview.