Alf Bentley Posted 23 February 2014 Posted 23 February 2014 Any poonage involved, at this event? Relying on you to organise it, Doctor!
Dr The Singh Posted 23 February 2014 Posted 23 February 2014 Ken's still in the pub waiting for you to buy him that drink. errr, i needed to go to the cash point!!!!!
Dr The Singh Posted 23 February 2014 Posted 23 February 2014 Relying on you to organise it, Doctor! Looks like it's gonna be a long night then, I was hoping you and Mattp with your connections with White Dee, might be able to sort out some poonage with very low standards!!!!
Webbo Posted 23 February 2014 Posted 23 February 2014 Looks like it's gonna be a long night then, I was hoping you and Mattp with your connections with White Dee, might be able to sort out some poonage with very low standards!!!! Matt's got White Dee, Alf's with black Dee, there's only one left for you;
Dr The Singh Posted 23 February 2014 Posted 23 February 2014 Matt's got White Dee, Alf's with black Dee, there's only one left for you; He's all Ken's, they both got that stubble thing going!!
Alf Bentley Posted 5 March 2014 Posted 5 March 2014 It's an absolute disgrace the way that many unemployed claimants are being targeted for sanctions. As well as causing a lot of grief to my nephew and to my parents, who've had to bail him out, the Job Centre has been actively HINDERING his attempts to find work, as he's had to spend time fighting to get his benefits back, appealing, trying to find money to live on....instead of looking for work!! In the meantime, it sounds as if the people who SHOULD be sanctioned (the ones playing the system and not seeking work) are not the ones being targeted for sanctions!! A quick follow-up on this, showing the way Jobcentre Plus seems to operate.... My nephew has just won his appeal against having his benefits stopped, so will have 7 weeks worth repaid. Over those 7 weeks, he's had to spend a lot of his time fighting the Job Centre and trying to scab together a survivable income, when he'd have much preferred to have devoted that time to searching for a job. To recap, his benefits were stopped in early January because he'd not input details of his job search for the Xmas/NewYear week on the Jobcentre's computer system. There was some computer problem, so he'd taken printed-off details of his job search (applications, email responses etc.) into the Jobcentre in person and had been told that this was acceptable evidence and would be forwarded to the benefits people....except it wasn't. He automatically had all benefits (including housing benefit to cover rent) stopped, except for an emergency payment he applied for (£50 per fortnight, I think). He was only able to eat and to avoid eviction because my ill, elderly parents, who are in the middle of trying to move house, were able to bail him out. He appealed and waited several weeks for a reply. The reply came, just asking him for more information, which he immediately provided. He then waited several weeks more and heard nothing, so started chasing it up over the phone - and the appeal was successful. That applies to at least 58% of appeals against benefits sanctions, it seems (link below), possibly much higher. What sort of an organisation gets such a high proportion of its decisions wrong?!? http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/successful-benefits-appeals-soaring-says-scots-academic.23532954 Then, the Jobcentre insisted that, instead of devoting himself to applying for jobs, as he wanted to, he should do a fortnight's unpaid work experience - at a job centre in a town 7 miles away. As he's mainly looking for hotel/reception/restaurant work, he didn't think this was particularly relevant but went along with it. On his first day, he spent an hour or two watching a member of staff. He was then told to sit in a room on his own reading the office health & safety manual for the rest of the day. He reckons he's now arranged to stop the placement and apply for jobs again instead (as he wanted to, in the first place), but I'm more than half expecting them to turn around and sanction him again for this. In the meantime, at no stage has he been offered any proper advice about getting a job in the fields he wants to work in (and has worked in before) or any other fields that might be suitable... Seriously, what sort of an organisation is Jobcentre Plus?!? Completely dysfunctional, it seems...
ADK Posted 5 March 2014 Posted 5 March 2014 I am claiming JSA now too, I'll probably list my experience later when (hopefully) I have a job.
Guest MattP Posted 6 March 2014 Posted 6 March 2014 Bloody Hell Alf, that just sounds like an absolute farce, the whole thing sounds hopeless, no wonder everyone you speak to who has ever dealt with the job centre never has anything good to say about it. Let us know ADK, and good luck with the job search.
Alf Bentley Posted 6 March 2014 Posted 6 March 2014 Bloody Hell Alf, that just sounds like an absolute farce, the whole thing sounds hopeless, no wonder everyone you speak to who has ever dealt with the job centre never has anything good to say about it. This is not intended as a party political comment of any description: About a week ago, for the second time, I heard a government minister on TV categorically state that sanctions like this "aren't and shouldn't be a first response, other than in very serious cases" (paraphrase). There have been 800,000-odd instances of job centres sanctioning people in just over a year (equivalent to 1/3 of those signed on). Of these, a ridiculous proportion are reversed on appeal (though many others presumably stand as many people don't appeal for whatever reason). Either those ministers are downright lying or something has got out of control at job centres and the ministers don't know what's going on, which is just as bad. I tend to be a "cock-up theorist", not a conspiracy theorist, so tend to believe the latter. The government introduced legislation for benefits sanctions in late 2012. At the same time, job centre staff numbers have been cut and unemployment (though falling) remains high. I'm assuming that ridiculously over-zealous management of under-staffed job centres are causing this mayhem, thinking they are doing their masters' bidding (plenty of evidence to support this, with staff given locally-imposed staff targets for getting people sanctioned, regardless of merits). Quite apart from the injustice and the impact on family bailing out victims of this, it is actively hindering people from trying to find work!! Forgot to mention: a couple of weeks back, my nephew went into the job centre having duly compiled his evidence of job searches. The staff member said she had no time to look at his evidence and just approved his efforts for benefits approval purposes, without looking at what he'd done (or not done) and without offering any job search advice.
Rincewind Posted 6 March 2014 Posted 6 March 2014 I believe that the staff are unable to say too much officially about their work. They sign the official secrets agreement. The same applies to Atos and other Government offices. The job search thing is right. often when I went in their was a queue so they had a quick look then gave me a new form. Sometimes the pulled someone aside to speak to them. My writing is not too good so they probably never bothered. There was one time when I scrawled my signiture and I had a phone call to say there was a problem with it and had to go in with proof so they may look at the forms at another time but I filled mine up rather than puting the required three. I had the genuine searches and sometimes a couple of no chance searches to make the number up. Where people slip up is not putting anything down because they could not find an exact match for their search. These are mainly the ones new to it. I would not say this is 'playing the system' as much as just going along with the requirement and rules. They tend to see the ones new to it rather than the longer unemployed because I assume they are going to be out of work the shortest time and still eager to find work. As time goes on it becomes more frustrating and depressing.
Alf Bentley Posted 25 March 2014 Posted 25 March 2014 Not sure whether to laugh or cry at this. Laugh or cry? I think you should applaud, attend and report back, Matt!
Guest MattP Posted 25 March 2014 Posted 25 March 2014 Laugh or cry? I think you should applaud, attend and report back, Matt! I couldn't stay out that late anymore! It would certainly be an interesting night though, I hope she'll inform the JSA of her earnings. We are all this together!
Alf Bentley Posted 25 March 2014 Posted 25 March 2014 I couldn't stay out that late anymore! It would certainly be an interesting night though, I hope she'll inform the JSA of her earnings. We are all this together! I've just noticed that it's in Sutton Coldfield, which is a Tory area, isn't it? Good to see the true blue faithful supporting Dee's entrepreneurial spirit in launching this new business venture.
Guest MattP Posted 25 March 2014 Posted 25 March 2014 I've just noticed that it's in Sutton Coldfield, which is a Tory area, isn't it? Good to see the true blue faithful supporting Dee's entrepreneurial spirit in launching this new business venture. Certainly is, maybe she's being brought in so the MP for area can call her a pleb
Alf Bentley Posted 25 March 2014 Posted 25 March 2014 Certainly is, maybe she's being brought in so the MP for area can call her a pleb Oh, it's him, Andrew Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield! But it turned out that he didn't call the Downing Street rozzers "plebs" after all, just told them to "fvck off" or something. So, he'll have to barge through the police lines providing security at Dee's DJ set, telling them "fvck off, I want to get this celeb pleb's autograph!"
absolutelegend Posted 25 March 2014 Posted 25 March 2014 Brilliant, too sick to work but not so sick that she can't do a live PA/DJ set.
MooseBreath Posted 11 May 2015 Author Posted 11 May 2015 Hard to believe it has been 18 months since this thread. Time flies. New series starts tonight, 9pm, channel 4. Looking forward to seeing how five years of tory cuts have changed the complexion of this show. I'm expecting to see lots of gaunt people struggling to survive.
Dr The Singh Posted 11 May 2015 Posted 11 May 2015 Hard to believe it has been 18 months since this thread. Time flies. New series starts tonight, 9pm, channel 4. Looking forward to seeing how five years of tory cuts have changed the complexion of this show. I'm expecting to see lots of gaunt people struggling to survive. Shit, its been 18 months of White Dee and Rincy gettung it on
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