Ingeus

[Helen2264]

Sounds like they are making up nonsense

 

Ingeus book a telephone appointment first time they made an excuse about having wrong numbers and then when I gave them the proper phone numbers they still didn't call and of course there is now way we would chase them, look like he chicken out now we wait and see what would happen but Cathy benefit stopped 9 weeks ago without a single letter from the dwp.

[boomboomboom]

When i call in sick my adviser says we will change ur appointment and if I have used any of my 3days off and not to worry but just come in for next appointment nothing about filling out any sick forums as u get sick days off for a certain period , must say if Cathy benefit been stopped without a DWP letter I would be contacting them straight away

[boomboomboom]

hi see if u have a sanction on jsa and u ask to go on a month work trial/work experience or u get offered to go on one will the job centre have to pay u as its a job?

[Tj rodgers]

No they only have to pay your expenses

[boomboomboom]

sure yeh? i rememeber been on a training course and am sure a was getting sanction or had been and went to a 13 week job and got payed but if its just expenses now then i see.

[Tj rodgers]

If its an actual job then yea u will get paid your wages by the employer but if it is a training program frm the jobcentre then i dont think they do

[Tj rodgers]

And the 3 day thing is when you ring in sick your only allowed to ring in 3 times on the trott to cancel appointments so when u ring in its always best to tell them how long you think you need off before they rearrange your original appointment coz if u miss 4 appointments on the bounce they are required to alert Dwp incase you are on the wrong benefit and should be on Esa not jsa

[boomboomboom]

well i did 13 weeks at haven when i got put on microcom so would get payed since its a job and wouldnt be fair to have a sanction and not get money when going to a 13 week job,

 

yeh a have one on there system they sayed a rarely miss an appointment with ingeus and never missed a job centre appointment,a only need that appointment of if am not well and they get me in next week as thats fine by me,do u know what the certain perioid of time u can have 3 days off with ingeus as they told me over a certain period of time a get 3 times off so is this 2 year or a year?

[boomboomboom]

sorry just read your 2nd chat so since i have only 1 on my days off,so its basically if i had 4 appointment 1 every week and i foned in on the first 3 weeks that would be used up and the 4th appointment would be a must as the dwp would have to be told and take action yeh?

[Tj rodgers]

Yes thats right

[boomboomboom]

thanks pal.

 

u been to ingeus before or u do something like it

[joeski]

are ingeus advisors more careful with what they say if you take a family member or friend along to appointments?

[keiron rackham123]

Update, they have went through with the sanctioning HOW, this is completely illegal. The foi request clearly states we can not mandate how you supply your job search evidence, please help some i'm in a bad situation, there stilll demanding print outs, now i've got to wait for a hardship fund to go through.

[JustInterested]

Got a reply off ingeus head office which shocked me, i don't need to supply screen shots or print outs, a written record is fine.

result lol.

 

You don't have to show them anything keiron

 

A Work Programme provider may ask you to

provide evidence of your job search as part of their support they give you but they cannot

mandate you to provide it and you will not be sanctioned if you do not provide it.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/174813/response/427937/attach/html/3/4166%20Response.pdf.html

[JustInterested]

Update, they have went through with the sanctioning HOW, this is completely illegal. The foi request clearly states we can not mandate how you supply your job search evidence

 

If I understand you keiron the information in that FOI isn't really relevant here. You say you left a date off your job search so you must have shown them your job search already. If you just left one date off then you just made a mistake and that's what you should be telling the Jobcentre. I get the feeling it's a bit more involved than that though. Need more information.

[boomboomboom]

hi

my adviser wants me to bring in a record of my jobs//spec letters that have been applied for or contacted but how can i bring in spec letters to them if i send them out?

and she wants me to put job link for everytime i apply for jobs on to a usb stick but she mean just the bit at the top starting with www. whatever the website is hope someone can answer this

thanks

[jordanleeshaw]

Hey. I'm 18 and been with Ingeus a couple of weeks now. There's a couple of things that troubles me with Ingeus...

 

1) My adviser has requested as a mandatory request that I apply for at least 4 jobs with an extra 10 contacts with employers on the top. 14 in total.

One of my main bed bugs is my confidence. I lack so much in this and I would love to be more confident in myself. It's bad enough that I go to work places for the Job Centre. I much prefer to send an e-mail but around my area, there's not many places that I could grab an e-mail address from.

 

I'm a nervous person in general and meeting new people ties in with my confidence thing. Anyway, I was also passed to someone else who may be able to help with this. I'm confused as to why they'd be testing my confidence issues, which I did notify my adviser of at first interview, when I could surely only benefit from if I were to be given some constructive confidence tips and such before hand? It feels, in my personal opinion, that they're not interested how your well being, in regards to how you feel in finding work, is holding up but assuring their wallets are topped up once I'm in work. I've not worked as of yet, done the occasional odd job but nothing that qualifies as work or accompanies the working atmosphere (apart from Work Experience at school).

 

My confidence is with first meet. After a couple times meeting someone, if I've not taken a liking to them, I shall have decided if I like their company or not, but once I'm on a roll with someone then I'm as relaxed as anything. It's that initial shock of actually attempting to make conversation with someone because of my nerves. The first time I visited the Job Centre, they picked up on it and asked if I was alright. I quite liked their company, despite feeling like it was something 'wrong' because of the people who abuse the system.

 

Anyway, I don't feel they took into consideration how I actually felt and just added this as a mandatory thing on my letter that I received from them. I can't see how it's a mandatory requirement or qualifies as one seeing as they're not the one's who should be checking on where you're applying. That's the Job Centres field. It was my understanding that this isn't for my benefit, it's for some kind of marketing or research which I do not want. I just want help to find work. That is the point.

 

2) I was fast tracked to the work program. Whether that's because I let the Job Centre know that around Feb/March time I should have a job to go to as this was a winter thing to see if I could secure work for the winter time. Anyway, at the Ingeus office in my town, my adviser told me about how Ingeus will benefit me.They said that they're not there to check up on me (which by requesting I grab proof of job searching that's irrelevant to how they're supposed to be helping me says to me that they're indeed trying to check up on me) and that the program is set up to help people find work.

 

I've had a couple of appointments with Ingeus and none of them (apart from the one with a second instructor) have been any help whatsoever. I've found the work I would normally find that I've applied for but there's been nothing to guide me and assist me in finding work outside of my comfort zone.

 

I was told that the work program is to benefit me yet I've had nothing from them in regards to helping my confidence and other issues that are barriers finding work. Not even a little. I feel extremely cheated of my time that I've given to them for nothing in return. My area, it is a seasonal town. The main work is within the season usually from March till October/November. The main work over winder is from supermarkets which I have constantly applied for jobs at. We have a Tesco, Morrisons and Iceland as our shopping centres. There's co-op and such but as main supply chains, there's hardly anything to even care about.

 

According to my adviser, there's plenty of jobs out there and that I need to look but I was under the impression that you was supposed to be helping me find the less obvious one's on top of the most obvious. My situation isn't the best but it's by no means the worst and due to the work program, I'm seriously considering struggling until the job comes around and I'm working. Not much more than what I get from the Job Centre but it's still something to slip onto my CV and something that qualifies as 'work'.

 

Out of my JSA, I give my mother £40 per fortnight which is noted on my JSA profile (Not the amount but the fact that I pay 'rent' to my mum for my living space). I don't mind the £40 because that includes my food, room, washing, cleaning, toiletry, a bath, sinks and stability for living.This leaves just over £70 dedicated to my allowance for finding work (I can live with that because expenses aren't the best but they don't slap a ruddy great hole in the allowance which is a bonus.) Having only a couple of weeks (3 weeks or so) until I'm working, considering signing off is a big tick. This is all due to the pressure of the work program and without having any assistance with my confidence issues, the actual mandatory requirements are a struggle to attain.

 

Their main concern is not getting money, I'm sure. My current experience is horrible and even puts me off looking for assistance in the future. It's not helped. It's just added to my current list of hurdles to clamber over.

 

My adviser did my head in real bad last visit. They had got me to sign into my personal e-mail(s) on their computers. I was fine with this because most of the e-mails I get are junk, but to then be trawling through my e-mail box and viewing private items including my photo which is a personal one of myself and my girlfriend (nothing rude, but a personal photo I don't wish to share with someone I don't know) and then not even sign out of the accounts just shut down the browser. I don't trust their system at all and find that not logging out of MY e-mail accounts are some kind of breach of privacy, especially if I didn't want them signing in to begin with. He had no reason to sign into my account, and then he opened an e-mail, fair enough he sent it for the Ingeus portal login for me to use, but that is still an e-mail that was on my personal account.

 

I rushed home and changed the passwords, hoping that it required him to sign in again. If my passwords were logged, at least they cannot login.

Edited February 19, 2014 by jordanleeshaw

[stilljobless]

Have you asked about a confidence course? I'm sure they had something like that when I was with them.

 

As for contact with employers you could go around town where you live and ask if they have any vacancies, yes or no you can still leave a copy of your CV with them which counts as a contact, if you don't feel confident enough to do that then you could just not and say you did.

 

Ingeus are useless and as admitted last week by my WP returner advisor "A complete waste of time and money". They've taken on way too many clients than they can handle and as a result they have no time to help each individual so the most of your appointments with your advisor will pretty much be "Hi how are you...Check job search..ok thanks for coming see you next time." no advice, no help looking for work and very rarely put on a course because they are all full.

 

Your advisor (I use the term loosely) can NOT make you sign in to your private email account on their computers and then go through your personal emails, they can't mandate or force you to give them access to it so just say no next time if they ask. You can provide evidence of your job search in any form you want, personally I just wrote the jobs I applied for down on a piece of paper, you don't need to use universal jobmatch or log books, you could write it all down on a cracker and they'd have to accept it, as long as you can provide a record of your job search its fine.

 

You should definitely ask them about confidence building/team building courses though

 

You're young and will probably find a job soon enough..hopefully you won't end up like me and a lot of other people who have been let down by the system, I've been out of work for so long I just don't care any more, I no longer get shy or nervous when talking to people and I DO want a job and still regularly apply for jobs on a daily basis but don't care if I get it or not, I have no emotions about it what-so-ever lol.

[Mr.P]

jordanleeshaw: Unfortunately, an Ingeus "adviser" can mandate you to apply for X number of jobs and contact Y number of prospective employers if you are claiming JSA. The only way to get this reduced is to argue your case before the mandation letter is produced.

 

I would suggest logging on to the UJM, fire off five applications for any vacancy within your area and then pick up the Yellow Pages. Select ten companies at random and write a speculative letter and take them to your next meeting - Tell the "adviser" that you require him/her to supply the stamps or post the letters on your behalf.

 

Ingeus are not interested in your welfare, only the outcome payments they can claim when you start work.

 

You did the right thing by changing the password on your email account - Next time they ask you to log in, act flustered and "forget" your new password

 

No one has the right to access your private communications without your consent or a court order. If they had tried that with me, I would have given the "adviser" a right earful.... But then I'm a grumpy b**** and can get away with it

[jordanleeshaw]

Starting end of Feb, beginning March is when I should be starting 3? courses of specific areas which should help me but due to the confidence in myself and how much I lack in it, it's not benefiting me what so ever until after I feel it would be helpful.

 

I would love to be more confident in myself and get on with working. I just don't see how talking to them about irrelevant matters is helping me believe in myself. Hopefully I'll find work that I'm happy with soon enough.

 

Mr.P, I've just updated my post. I tend to use American spelling in a lot of things which is frustrating. Advisor in the UK is commonly used to describe the role and Adviser plays but for some reason I used it as the person theirself rather than their job.

 

I didn't have a leg to stand on regarding the mandatory job search. This is where I need to be more confident. I didn't have the confidence to say it was too much because he'd said "By next time, you are to have applied for at least 4 jobs and contacted 10 employers with a brief description for each on why you applied/felt you wanted the job." Because he didn't ask me to confirm and just assumed I'd agreed with the terms, the letter was printed and given to me before I left. I didn't feel I could do anything about it.

 

Surely if they say they're a support for us to help find work then setting the barrier smaller is a great help? Even if it was just 4 to apply for and 4 or 5 to contact, that's 8 or 9 which settles me a bit more than 14.

 

I might do the Yellow Pages. At least it's still something that may help me find work. Anything is better than nothing, I guess.

 

That is what I've gotten from my current experience with them and it's absolutely terrifying.

 

Being an ex computing student at level 3, changing my passwords became a priority. I genuinely forgot my password and he got me to change it whilst I was there. I didn't feel comfortable with it but felt sick when thinking of asking why he wanted to logon to it and how it helps them support me being logged into my personal emails.

 

I can't wait until it's all over. It's what has put some friends of mine off. It's too much bull for them to even consider doing it.

 

(If there are any spelling mistakes, I'll correct them when I go on my computer.)

[Mr.P]

Advisor/adviser - Matters not (to me) which one you use. I wouldn't worry about spelling or grammar here, no one will think any less of you for it (just don't use txt sp33k).

 

Many people, myself included, recommend having a separate email account specifically for job applications and another for "official" communications - I have a dozen or so for various purposes, and one reserved exclusively for the likes of A4e (all emails to be sent to /dev/null ).

[G4C389]

Advisor/adviser - Matters not (to me) which one you use. I wouldn't worry about spelling or grammar here, no one will think any less of you for it (just don't use txt sp33k).

 

Many people, myself included, recommend having a separate email account specifically for job applications and another for "official" communications - I have a dozen or so for various purposes, and one reserved exclusively for the likes of A4e (all emails to be sent to /dev/null ).

 

I remember giving my email address to the advisor on my 1st appointment, then a few weeks down the line the advisor would send me emails regarding job interviews she had forwarded me for, and I'd hardly ever used my email address, I wanted to say 'would it have not been easier for you to just call me?'

[Mr.P]

I wanted to say 'would it have not been easier for you to just call me?'

 

Phone calls cost money and take up time. emails are essentially free and can be spammed to multiple recipients at no extra cost.I had specified my preferred form of contact was by way of written letter. Phone calls got the response of "which part of in writing do you not understand.... Assuming you can write..."

This was done in full knowledge that it would cost them both time and money to post a letter.

[G4C389]

Phone calls cost money and take up time. emails are essentially free and can be spammed to multiple recipients at no extra cost.I had specified my preferred form of contact was by way of written letter. Phone calls got the response of "which part of in writing do you not understand.... Assuming you can write..."

This was done in full knowledge that it would cost them both time and money to post a letter.

 

Aaahhh I see, I remember calling in sick on 2 seperate occasions and the receptionist would say my advisor would call me back with a new appointment....no call, then 2 days later a letter of a new appointment, I didn't get it, it baffled me to think why didn't she just call me or email an appointment, but a 2 day arrival letter?

[boomboomboom]

can ingeus force u to take a job been offered a job in retail and a want retail but its not somewhere aknow where a am going. my adviser did say only way they would stop a benefit is if i kept not taking it but this was only my first so will anything happen no?