Happy New Year
During the two days between Christmas and the New Year, we were supposed to offer a full service to the public. That's a laugh! We were very short-staffed, (due to so many people taking two weeks off) and those of us who were in spent most of our time standing around and chatting, except for my computer game playing colleague, who was single-handedly saving the earth from invasion by enemy aliens. To be fair, we were not very busy, as we didn't get many claimants in. People have better things to do than look for work at this time of the year!
One enraged claimant, on the phone to our processing centre, (which is in Wales, a nice long distance away) actually tore the phone off the wall and hurled it across the room. He had no money and nowhere to go, he said, and was still screaming and shouting when the police arrived to take him away. The processing centre had a reduced service as well, and he had even more trouble than usual getting through. No doubt the repeated message: 'You are held in a queue, and will be transferred to the next available adviser' annoyed him. At least the centre doesn't have the nerve to state: 'Your call is important to us' in the automated message.
Our job centre employs more than one hundred people. Is it necessary to employ so many? Well, claimants who genuinely wish to find work, (and they are many) will come in, look through our job points, select a job they fancy and ring the employer on one of our free phones to arrange an interview. They need no intervention from us at all. Those who want to enquire about their claim, or make a new claim, need to ring the processing centre. We do at present have an enquiry desk so officers can look up claims, but this facility is to be wound up.
What about advisers? New Deal is a period of intensive job search for those who have trouble finding work. It sounds good, until you consider that some people, particularly the young, (18-24) have been on New Deal several times. Our New Deal 18-24 advisers often lament this fact, but some of the young people are simply unemployable. Good results do sometimes come, however, from New Deal 50+ (for those over 50, obvious really) and New Deal for the Disabled, as the members of these two groups seem to be more committed to finding employment. It's fair to say, I think, that anyone who really wants to work will find something, especially in London. But I should think that the number of advisers could be easily halved (although I'm shooting myself in the foot here).
What about signing claimants on? This is a necessary procedure, although it can be, and has been done over the phone, (not a good thing to do, to my mind. I've signed claimants on by phone with a great deal of noise in the background. To me, it sounded exactly like a building site, although no-one could possibly be working and claiming, could they? The very idea!) Only six or seven officers comprise the signing on team, however.
Then there are those who check the claimant's documents, (passports, birth certificates etc) and
that is vital, but again it is a very small team.
The management wants to reduce 'footfall' which is the amount of people coming in to the job centre. They want to see only those with appointments, and those wishing to look for a job, so we'll have even less to do. One thing the management does want to encourage though is - targets! We get points if we put someone forward for a job or a training course. Naturally, they often don't attend the training, and then the training provider is supposed to let us know so we can stop the benefit. (Training providers are also paid by the goverment, meaning taxpayer). But do they? On Friday I had a visit from an indignant claimant who had wanted to go on a course to learn computer skills who told me that he had gone there, as arranged, every day for a fortnight, and hadn't as yet met his teacher. Could some of these providers be taking money under false pretences? Perish the thought!
One enraged claimant, on the phone to our processing centre, (which is in Wales, a nice long distance away) actually tore the phone off the wall and hurled it across the room. He had no money and nowhere to go, he said, and was still screaming and shouting when the police arrived to take him away. The processing centre had a reduced service as well, and he had even more trouble than usual getting through. No doubt the repeated message: 'You are held in a queue, and will be transferred to the next available adviser' annoyed him. At least the centre doesn't have the nerve to state: 'Your call is important to us' in the automated message.
Our job centre employs more than one hundred people. Is it necessary to employ so many? Well, claimants who genuinely wish to find work, (and they are many) will come in, look through our job points, select a job they fancy and ring the employer on one of our free phones to arrange an interview. They need no intervention from us at all. Those who want to enquire about their claim, or make a new claim, need to ring the processing centre. We do at present have an enquiry desk so officers can look up claims, but this facility is to be wound up.
What about advisers? New Deal is a period of intensive job search for those who have trouble finding work. It sounds good, until you consider that some people, particularly the young, (18-24) have been on New Deal several times. Our New Deal 18-24 advisers often lament this fact, but some of the young people are simply unemployable. Good results do sometimes come, however, from New Deal 50+ (for those over 50, obvious really) and New Deal for the Disabled, as the members of these two groups seem to be more committed to finding employment. It's fair to say, I think, that anyone who really wants to work will find something, especially in London. But I should think that the number of advisers could be easily halved (although I'm shooting myself in the foot here).
What about signing claimants on? This is a necessary procedure, although it can be, and has been done over the phone, (not a good thing to do, to my mind. I've signed claimants on by phone with a great deal of noise in the background. To me, it sounded exactly like a building site, although no-one could possibly be working and claiming, could they? The very idea!) Only six or seven officers comprise the signing on team, however.
Then there are those who check the claimant's documents, (passports, birth certificates etc) and
that is vital, but again it is a very small team.
The management wants to reduce 'footfall' which is the amount of people coming in to the job centre. They want to see only those with appointments, and those wishing to look for a job, so we'll have even less to do. One thing the management does want to encourage though is - targets! We get points if we put someone forward for a job or a training course. Naturally, they often don't attend the training, and then the training provider is supposed to let us know so we can stop the benefit. (Training providers are also paid by the goverment, meaning taxpayer). But do they? On Friday I had a visit from an indignant claimant who had wanted to go on a course to learn computer skills who told me that he had gone there, as arranged, every day for a fortnight, and hadn't as yet met his teacher. Could some of these providers be taking money under false pretences? Perish the thought!
posted by annette wilson @ 5:11 AM
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