Former jobcentre adviser Angela Neville has written a play to expose the harsh reality of the benefits sanctions regime

Angela Neville, 48, is describing events she witnessed as a special adviser in a jobcentre that prompted her to write a play about her experiences.

 

“We were given lists of customers to call immediately and get them on to the Work Programme,” she recalls. “I said, ‘I’m sorry this can’t happen, this man is in hospital.’ I was told [by my boss]: ‘No, you’ve got to phone him and you’ve got to put this to him and he may be sanctioned.’ I said I’m not doing it.”

 

Neville worked as an adviser in Braintree jobcentre, Essex, for four years and has written a play with two collaborators, her friends Angela Howard and Jackie Howard, both of whom have helped advocate for unemployed people who were threatened with benefit sanctions by jobcentre staff.

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/04/jobcentre-adviser-play-benefit-sanctions-angela-Neville

“You’re not doing the job, you’re fire fighting,” she says. “From my own experience, staff are subjected to constant and aggressive pressure to meet and exceed targets. Colleagues would leave team meetings crying. Things were changing all the time. The pressure was incredible. Advisers were actively encouraged to impose sanctions (along the lines of “sanction of the month”) to contribute to the points system that ranks jobcentre offices. It was often for stupid reasons,” she adds.

“And it was happening all the time. A customer maybe would be a little bit late or would phone in and the message wasn’t passed on. It was very distressing to have customers literally without food, without heat, without resources and these are unwell [and] disabled customers. If it hadn’t been for the fact that most of my colleagues were dedicated and compassionate people I wouldn’t have lasted more than a few months.”

 

I'd love to see Sir John Hurt and Ian McKellen playing JC advisers if the play goes national. Sir Anthony Hopkins would be the JC Manager with the line 'I ate his Jobsearch Diary with some fava beans and a nice chianti.' Sanctions Of The Lambs

I'd love to see Sir John Hurt and Ian McKellen playing JC advisers if the play goes national. Sir Anthony Hopkins would be the JC Manager with the line 'I ate his Jobsearch Diary with some fava beans and a nice chianti.' Sanctions Of The Lambs