Life on the bench: in my dressing gown

[Badger]

Good luck with that!

When I last signed on a few years ago, the bloke had a go at me for not signing on sooner, the attutide being that if you lose/leave work on a Friday you should be signing on on the Monday.

Explained to him that I wasn't here for him to find me work, I was there to validate my benefit claim.

He did give me a £5 cash for my train fare home though, which was nice.

[zeitghost]

In hand writing on one of their pre-printed forms, especially if their on line offering is a pile of poo.

Writing it in crayon is even betterer.

[Zippy]

Right, time to go to my "Back to Work" session where I get to tell Job Centre staff about the state of the market, strategies for finding work and what web sites are worth visiting ... whilst they think they are somehow helping me.

Did you get them to cough up for that course?

[Sysman]

When I last signed on a few years ago, the bloke had a go at me for not signing on sooner, the attutide being that if you lose/leave work on a Friday you should be signing on on the Monday.

I can remember having a large enough war chest (in permie days) that I wouldn't have got a penny for signing on, so didn't. What I didn't realise then was that you get NI credits by signing on.

Come depletion of war chest: "Why didn't you sign on before?", closely followed by "Your NI contributions aren't up to date".

Lesson learned. If you lose/leave work on a Friday you should be telephoning for an appointment to sign on on the Friday.

[Sysman]

Writing it in crayon is even betterer.

See? There I go again...

[zeitghost]

And don't forget the spelung mistooks.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Right, time to go to my "Back to Work" session where I get to tell Job Centre staff about the state of the market, strategies for finding work and what web sites are worth visiting ... whilst they think they are somehow helping me.

They will 'help' you by reducing your benefits so you are better 'motivated' to consider a broader range of work.

[zeitghost]

The Horror! Oh The Horror!

I've just remembered the programming course I was sent on back in 1989 by the JobCentre.

RPG3.

But before that we had to endure n weeks in the local tech.

I knew more than the lecturer(s).

Odd that.

I walked after 3 weeks or so.

[RichardCranium]

Well, that was pleasant.

They have the heating so high that I immediately had to strip down to my shirt and sat in the waiting area, dripping a mixture of sweat and snot into the carpet until Mr Man was ready to see me (about 15 minutes after the appointed time).

We had a lovely chat about: unemployment in the the earlier part of the year; the opportunity to learn new skills; coping with day-to-day stress; the procedures and processes of the DWP and their failings; how bad DWP IT systems are.

After about 15 minutes of that, we swapped roles and I talked about me for a bit while he listened.

He was much happier at the end that he does know what is on offer and that there is nothing else that can do for me to help.

He finished with informing me the government has decided the best way to reduce unemployment is by changing the signing on rules. As from January, I have to sign on weekly, not fortnightly, to maximise how they can be of help to me.

So you will be pleased to know the scroungers will be now be inconvenienced twice a fortnight.

And apparently, the DWP has taken on 15,000 additional staff this year to cope with the unemployment we're not experiencing.

[RichardCranium]

Did you get them to cough up for that course?

I'll start a new thread for that question.