Why do West Street job centre staff have to treat people like dirt?

[999tigger]

I think it demonstrates 'no concern for the person' to make people like the OP jump through ridiculous bureaucratic hoops in order to satisfy some lofty but entirely arbitrary targets.

 

Companies like Randstad and the like aren't perfect, but at least they aren't screwing the public purse as a business model. A4E was and the folks at the Jobcentre are.

 

As to your last point: Care to elaborate what you mean?

 

So what do you think the people at the job centre are asking her to do and why is it ridiculous? Do you know?

[tzijlstra]

So what do you think the people at the job centre are asking her to do and why is it ridiculous? Do you know?

 

How often do we get people on here saying they feel maltreated by the Jobcentre, just like the OP? I remember a thread from some time ago from someone who decided to just give them a wide berth after months of fruitless applying for anything coming up, and within a week they had found a job.

 

I haven't had the need to go into the Jobcentre and never will have to, so no I don't know the exact situation, but I am sure it is all rather pointless.

[999tigger]

How often do we get people on here saying they feel maltreated by the Jobcentre, just like the OP? I remember a thread from some time ago from someone who decided to just give them a wide berth after months of fruitless applying for anything coming up, and within a week they had found a job.

 

I haven't had the need to go into the Jobcentre and never will have to, so no I don't know the exact situation, but I am sure it is all rather pointless.

 

So really you dont know what you are talking about.

 

Of course some people are going to feel maltreated if they are asked to do things. The situation the OP describes is about making a claim for benefit. The DWP check the person is making efforts to find a job as agreed with them beforehand. Some people resent having to do anything.

[ricgem2002]

A4E made money from the government by offering courses to get people back to work. What I am talking about are companies that don't interact with the government unless they are clients.

 

Randstad (and others like them) helps companies fill vacancies, for each vacancy they fill they get money from the company that had the vacancy and not a dime from the government. In exchange Randstad does the whole recruitment/selection process, deals with payment and so on. A very different thing to A4e.

 

The point being: The government should stop meddling with this process and just let the market do what it does best: manage.

maybe it could work here but when you got big companies and the gov working in cahoots with each other its a non starter places like Tesco/poundland etc have a ready supply of workers (the unemployed) filling these positions which looks good for the gov (unemployment down etc) and the taxpayer again footing the bill:roll:. yet this kind of activity also pleases some on here

[Daven]

Why do West Street job centre staff have to treat people like dirt ?

I guess like all human beings they get desensitised to everyones plight as they see all sorts and have to deal with many rude and angry people every day of their working lives.... and no - I don't work in the Jobcentre.

I'm not saying this is right but the possible reason.

[Funky_Gibbon]

Just because someone is out of work doesn't give others a license to treat them like scum.

 

Since Iain Duncan Smith took over the DWP being out of work gives them to licence to treat people however the hell they want. They have targets for sanctioning people (although they won't admit it publicly), the JCP staff are disciplined if they fail to meet those target and so it's open season on the unemployed. If they can get someone to kick off or to fail to jump through one of the arbitrary and sometimes contradictory hoops they force the unemployed to go through then they can cut off their social security for months at a time.

 

There was a time when the Jobcentre was about helping people find work but these days it's more about help the Government cut the benefits bill any way they can.

[999tigger]

Since Iain Duncan Smith took over the DWP being out of work gives them to licence to treat people however the hell they want. They have targets for sanctioning people (although they won't admit it publicly), the JCP staff are disciplined if they fail to meet those target and so it's open season on the unemployed. If they can get someone to kick off or to fail to jump through one of the arbitrary and sometimes contradictory hoops they force the unemployed to go through then they can cut off their social security for months at a time.

 

There was a time when the Jobcentre was about helping people find work but these days it's more about help the Government cut the benefits bill any way they can.

 

Yep they have targets for sanctioning people.

 

Why are the hoops arbitrary?

Why are they contradictory?

Examples?

 

I cant recall a time when the job centre was really ever about finding people work other than posting up vacancies.

[kidneystone]

Why do the staff at this job centre, (not all) those in the room at the back of the building, treat people like dirt.

 

I have been signing on for a year now, been on the courses got the licenses and certificates etc. But as soon as places hear my age they back off. (I'm nearly 60 ).

 

I'm now on this job-search program and I go to see someone in a private company (very nice lady), because of this I now have to sign on at West st. I previously did so at Bank st, I never had a problem there and all the staff there , that I dealt with are lovely.

Not so at West st, they are awful, they take great delight in belittling people and one woman in particular is hated by every one who has to go in there to sign.

These are the staff at the back of the building who deal with the job-search program people who sign on.

They have petty rules that they love to enforce to show a person up and whilst you're waiting you can hear them belittling whomever is in front of them. They are like a gang of school bullies seeing who can insult someone the worst.

They have posters all over the walls asking people to be courteous and respectful to the staff who work there, but they don't feel the need to be the same to those whom they deal with.

Most of , but not all, the people who have to go there are like me getting on in years and to be spoken to like we are naughty children is humiliating.

 

I can't see why the gov is wasting money to send us to these private company's to help us look for work when every thing they say is then countermanded by these power hungry individuals ?

 

Just because someone is out of work doesn't give others a license to treat them like scum.

 

Every time you go to sign on or for an interview ask for it to be conducted in a private room and record it.

[999tigger]

Every time you go to sign on or for an interview ask for it to be conducted in a private room and record it.

 

So assuming the person is just signing on, then what are you going to do when they refuse to do it in a private room? There is no excuse for either claimants or dwp staff to be rude.

If the claimant wants their benefit they have to meet the conditions as alid down by the DWP. If they wont then they will have to do without.

[annbaker]

I work for DWP tho I don't work on the front line these days. Bottom line here is if someone is rude to a customer, the customer should complain. There is a complaints process and it's there to be used.

 

Jobcentre staff are there to deliver whatever the Government of the day tells them to do. They have absolutely no say about that whether they agree with what they are being told to do or not (and a lot don't). However that doesn't mean being rude. Like all jobs there will always be some who aren't the most polite but if no complaint is made about their behaviour, nothing is going to happen to change it.

 

Most people who cross the doors are no problem but there are some who are anything but. That's always been the case and probably always will be sadly.

 

How much do they cost to run ? The DWP Annual report and accounts is available online and it's all in there. Not exciting reading but the info is available.