Ha others have a similar experience to mine! I got told I could receive constribution based JSA for 182 days, OK I hadnt really expected it even though I have paid considerable an=mounts of tax and NI over the years, but i did want my NI contributions paid.

So after 182 days and still no job, i have to justify where i have spent my savings that now put me below the capital threshold to receive Income based JSA. Just think of the cost involved in reassing my claim, sending me letters, requesting quite personal information including bank accounts to award me exactly the same money i was receiving before?

In Canada and the USA if you are unemployed you get a set number of weeks benefit that is far more healthy than the amount you get in the UK. In Canada ( I was made redundant while on a temporary work permit in Canada and later had to return to the UK – and before u=you say anything I continued to pay my NI while I was in Canada) I received $446 PER WEEK, and would have continued to receive that for a set number of weeks determined by the level of unemployment in teh province i was in, the amount of money i had earned before and if the government considered the province to be in a regeneration area. All i had to do once assessed was log in online once a fortnight and decalre that i was still unemployed, not hard to do. This level of money meant i could pay my rent, pay my food, and as I had been wise with payment protection insurance, offload my expensive car. I would have received that for 52 weeks, meanwhile i could have had retraining courses to help get work ( I couldnt work because my temp visa was spoecific to one comapny only). so after 5 months i came home to teh UK and receive approx £65 per week which nowhere near covers my rent, food, electric council tax, phone etc. No wonder my savings have gone!
I hear you Alan but you have to play by the same rules, you cant be seen to refuse a job based on salary, you have to be seen to be making an effort to get a job, and the jobcentre is so rules and process driven if the the ‘customer service agent’ in front of you appears to imply that you may receive some money before a ‘decision maker’ (in Belfast) has actually made a decision – they will be severely reprimanded and even demoted. I know, as a management consultant I worked on the projects to get the contact centres running, and the jobcentre PLus offices rolled out. I was horrified to learn that contrary to our advise they are still double and triple keying into antiquated systems, still keeping paper files where you physically ‘sign on’ and still have not made good the desire to really help people find work beyond giving out printouts of jobs. I even set up the contact centres that are used to publish jobs from employers on the jobpoints kiosks and job bank online. And i know the research that went on, and the outcome of theat saying that it was extremely unlikely that jobs for managers or executives would ever be placed on these sites, or jobs for graduates with degrees that mean something. So if you are in that categiry you will be discriminated against as your ‘personal advisor’ will not be able to find you jobs on their system, and if you get a jobswort, they will discount the efforts you are making on your own. They will insist that you apply for the jobs they have found that correspond to the broadest search criteria of your skills and previuos job title so that someone who was earning over £100k as an exec/manager will find themselves being offered office manager roles at £20k and so we are at sull circle because you must never refuse to apply for a job based on salary as your benefit AND your NIC will be stoped!! However it isnt the fault of the workers at teh JC+. They are doing what the rulebook and processes say, based on business policy handed down to them to put ministerial policy into action. it is civeil serivce at regional level and above and teh ministers that you must address your remarks to. People who have likely never been unemployed, never worked in the real world and had to balance a family budget where the weekly food bill would be costed to teh last penny, the menu for teh week planned to ensure the cost was minimised and that every day, every week decisions would be made in the household to go without essentials to ensure the kids had food, and clothes. AND I AM NOT TALKING POVERTY, i am talking decisions that are made every day by every day people, like ‘i will let my hair grow so as not to have to pay a hairdresser because that money can then give my kids pocket money or lunch money’. WE NEED REFORM, WE NEED TO HOLD MINISTERS ACCOUNTABLE AND WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT PUBLIC SERVANTS KNOW THAT THEY SERVE THE PUBLIC FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF ALL IN THIS LUCKY DEVELOPED FIRST WORLD COUNTRAY THAT COUNTS ITSELF A LEADER OF THE WESTERN WORLD!!!

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I totally agree with Henry,
I was made redundant a few months ago and have put off signing on as I knew what it would be like, questioning like the Gestapo,
the majority of people signing on are honest, the swindlers always seem to get away with it they are never interrogated,
we need to do away with all this call centre rubbish and have jobcentre interviews face to face, the same goes for applying for vacancies you phone up and all they give you is the information you have already read on the web site,every vacancy should have contact details of the employer
As for New Deal where I live they never got anybody a job!

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I feel what all of you are saying. I will be in your shoes in two weeks. @ Jack Lo just wanted to add that I am non-British with no rights to claim any funds, no red carpert for me. I am not crying about my faithful contributions to the system either.The Job Centre at the moment is NOT very helpful to all of us Brit or not. All I want is a chance to feed ourselves since my husband who is Brit cannot find a job. We are both willing to get down to the dirt forsake our titles so we can be off the system… we do not want to be dehumanised about being unemployed!

Focusing on which career I will choose next an MP.

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It is completely understandable that there have to be rules and regulations for claiming benefits and that the officials dealing with claims have to follow these. However whatever happened to decent courtesy and manners? A smile even? Why does every enquiry have to be met with a stoic disapproval and at times downright rudeness and a blatent unwillingness to assist. A smile is usually returned and helpful and positive attitudes go a long way to dispel concerns and promote the same attitude in those we are facing. After all we usually have our own attitudes reflected back to us in those we are dealing with.

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The whole system is messed up, if you do want to work it demoralises you.

It comes to something when you have a system supposed to help people out of work through no fault of their own and those people don’t wnat to use that system becuase it makes them feel less worthy than dog m*** on the pavement.

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I have been on both sides of the jobcentre ‘counter’ and yes it is pants on both sides.

As for retraining … I was out of work for years and they or their representatives never had any funding, whatever the the adverts say.

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In reply to Peter who demanded facts. In an English tabloid dated about the 16th of July I read about a Somali unemployed bus conductor, his wife and their 7 children. They were housed in a massive house in Kensington where the rent of 8,000 pounds per month was paid by the local authority. He was moved here because his previous “free” house was too far from the school, about 5 bus stops away apparently. Personally I find this obscene, how many British claimants get this sort of welfare after maybe paying into the system for years and ending up unemployed through no fault of their own? Not many I wager. This is a FACT Peter and who can blame genuine claimants for being annoyed at such blatant scrounging, for that’s what it is and, don’t forget, that 8,000 was just their rent, no doubt after all their other “entitlements” are added on the figure will be much higher.

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My apologies Colin, its just i thought most people knew that the race hatred inducing tripe that appears in the tabloid press was made up.
It appears that some are still gullable enough to be taken in by this tripe.

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So it’s good management to throw people on the streets as soon as they’re unfortunate to lose their jobs?

I bet employers just love subservient people like you, who ‘know their place’. Why not just have done with it and go back to the feudal system?

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Trust Andrew Finch to come up with the comment below

“Andrew finch
July 21, 2010 at 08:41
Job centre help people? may help the long term unemployed go on a few courses but I would suggest everyone else do not bother going in for what pittence the guv give you in benefits.THINK POSITIVE knock on doors , bang the letters off , think of a business even if it is short term do anything legal to pull the money no matter how small in .
”

Finchy not everyone has the intelligence to run a business – its not such a easy thing to organise or setip, if it was no doubt this country would be full of Richard Branson’s however we are NOT and we will ALWAYS need a safety net to catch the less fortunate who fall.

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