Job Centre Plus
18 July 2011 by CitizenHas anyone recently tried to sign on at the job centre?
My daughter graduated from university in the last month and has returned home. On her arrival it was decided that she should register at the job centre (by her mother) and being of the computer generation she instantly went online and filled in the online form and received a reference number. At the bottom it stated that she would be contacted within two days. A week went by so she visited the job centre in town and was met by three job centre employees conversing together and ignoring the waiting client. When she was finally noticed by these very busy people she asked if they could help her and explained the situation. My daughter was handed a piece of paper with a contact telephone number and the employees resumed their discussion on suntan availability in th the Algarve.
On her return home my daughter used the number provided and was met by a robotic voice giving the expected list of options followed by disconnection. On trying again she was put on hold for 15 mins and then when she finally acheived her goal of talking to a human being was informed that no record of her application existed and that she should re-apply.
My daughter went once more to the computer and filled in the online form and this time it must have registered as four days later she received two copies of a letter informing her that they had telephoned her twice but received no reply. This beggars belief, do you know a single 20 year old whose phone is not glued to their hand during their short period of conciousness and is answered the moment it chirps burps or pings. They asked would she please phone them back at her convenience.
This whole saga has now been ongoing for two and a half weeks and she has yet to be admitted to the benefit ranks or receive any help in securing gainful employment.
What happened to the ease of walking to the job centre and signing on? Why must everything be made so complex by this computer driven system that slows every single transaction down?
I think this may be a government led idea to reduce the numbers of those on benefit by reducing their ability to register.and so making the numbers look better on the lunchtime news.
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