Problems with Job Centre Office

[lilblue]

I would like to request a change of my advisor at my local Job Centre in My town and make a formal complaint about him, R. He does not greet me as any other advisor does or even ask,

"how is your job search going?".

My last meeting with him he was immediately on the telephone trying to arrange a work placement for me, I felt this was infuriating as he did not ask how I was doing, or how my job search was was going or if I had any problems.

He often seems very unhelpful and I feel that he is trying to just get rid of me. I find him to be very rude and disrespectful towards me ever since he was my advisor he has never listened to anything I say and hasn't interacted with me on a personal level or advised me on any the options that I have available to help me get back into work. When confronted with this he simply said,

"I have hundreds of people to see every week yeah?", and with a slight grin stated,

"They are all the same to me yeah?".

Raising the question: What is he doing as a personal advisor if he doesn't bother to get to know people on a personal level?

 

I had already made the request to change advisor to him today at the start of the meeting. He stated,

"There is no other advisor who can deal with you yeah?",

he put an amplified tone onto the word 'you' in sort of a derogatory manner which I found unsettling and disrespectful.

I asked if I can postpone this meeting until I can be seen by someone else he replied confidently,

"I have done nothing wrong, there is no reason for you to see anyone else yeah?",

"I am the advisor that has been assigned to you yeah?",

and then said something which I believe to be a lie: "it cant be changed".

He then went on to say,

"I have already decided what to do with you and you have no choice about it yeah?".

I asked if there was a manager I could talk to about this, he simply replied "No". I did not accept what he said as the truth and persisted to ask if there was anyone I can talk to? In an act of desperation, I very loudly asked to speak to the manager, so that other people could hear me.

I could see that some people had turned to look in our direction and I felt uneasy about the situation, that people from the other side of the room could hear what was happening but the advisor's behind and to the right of us seem oblivious to what was going on. Even the security guard who was standing literally right behind me didn't react to the fact that previously R had denied me speaking to the manager.

R did however pick up his phone at this point and called N who was acting manager on that day.

 

R informed on the phone that I was 'being difficult' and if she could 'deal with me', R was then instructed to hand the phone over to me.

I requested that I see her face to face and away from the crowd of people in the job centre he simply just waved the phone at me and stated several times, "talk to her yeah?"

After I had asked to see her several times I just give up on asking him again and spoke to her on the phone.

 

I spoke to N about my intentions, that I did not feel comfortable with R as my advisor, that he wasn't helping me in the slightest and is very rude to me. As I was saying this I could see R chuckling to himself, sighing and shaking his head.

N basically said that she couldn't help me but confirmed that I could volunteer to work in a Charity shop in My town but I will still need to attend the Job centre often to show my activity. I was happy with what she said and told her that is what I wanted to do. She then clearly stated that the advisor can do whatever he wants with me, informing me that he could 'make me come in twice a day if he liked'. I told her that I had no problem with doing that but I am not happy with seeing R.

I was told "there is not anyone else could can 'deal with you'",

"your 'only option' is to go to another office and you may need to travel there twice a day".

I simply asked if I can change my advisor and if that could be done, not answering my questions she finished saying that I should come in tomorrow and talk to the Manager.

 

R then went on to contact In Training, referring me to a work placement against my wishes and still under protest about having him as my advisor. While I was trying to talk to him he literally ignored me and just 'did his job'.

 

As he was on the phone I called over to an advisor named S who has been helpful to me and asked her to observe him (as I had previously spoke to her about R, she assured me that she would talk to him) she stepped in and asked him why he was putting me on this, he then snapped back in quite an aggressive tone "I WANT him to do this-", interrupting himself "because it is mandatory yeah?".

She politely replied despite his rudeness "is there-?",

before being cut-off by R putting his hand in front of her face and muttered what sounded like, "Be quiet".

I found this to be highly disrespectful and said to S "you shouldn't take that from him".

S seemed slightly intimidated and backed off unable to help me any more saying to me that she has a customer waiting, then simply stated to me, "I should wait until the manager comes in tomorrow",

followed by what I would call a warning, "it is up to N at the end of the day".

R seemed to of ignored this and continued with the call.

 

 

I feel very uncomfortable being with R and have stated this many times to several others before.

 

If I may Quote A from In Training:

"Did R not try to do anything else with you before sending you here?",

I simply replied "No", but asked "why?".

Adam then stated: "there is plenty of other things R could of put you on",

"he seems lazy or just trying to get rid of you",

"normally they would of put you on this as a last resort",

"you never get anything out of this but a bit of work history for your CV".

 

There is a few other points I wish to raise:

 

1. The added cost of around £30 per week for the tax payer to pay for my bus tickets to and from Leicester. It's unnecessary when I could easily walk to a charity shop in my town which is essentially doing the same thing as what R wants me to do. People that I have spoken to have generally agreed on this.

This is only a problem because R wants it this way, I feel that there is a personal vendetta against me, as if he wants me to go into Leicester everyday doing something 'I have to do' instead of in My town because 'I want to' or better still giving me an opportunity to do something else. I honestly don't see why he has a problem in allowing me to work in a charity shop in My town or putting me onto a training programme that suit's my needs.

 

2. I had spoken to S on Friday 12th July and was asked, "Has no one ever spoken to you?".

I found this to be an odd thing to say but replied "no", and questioned why she had asked me that?

S then went on to say that I have 'other options', those of which R has never told me anything about. I was informed that I may volunteer to a charity shop in My town, go on an apprenticeship or various other training courses that could really benefit me.

Since she had told me of these thing's I have been looking into higher education applied to Kettering College and looked into courses/night schools for a Computer training course which could benefit me greatly in the area of work that I am interested in. After the meeting I immediately went and applied to the British Heart Foundation and was told that I could start this Thursday 18th July.

 

3. R's logic for putting me into Mandatory work Programme.

He says that I need to have something on my CV that shows that I am doing something while I'm out of work, and to get me into a working lifestyle.

I agree with what he says and is the reason why I have applied to volunteer in a local charity shop.

However after I had stated that his logic changed to what I believe to be his personal reasoning.

Quoting R:

"Well I want you to go on this because it is mandatory, yeah?"

I stated that putting someone on Mandatory work is considered as a last option according to the people that I have spoken to and then asked, "why have you not tried doing anything else for me?".

He replied "I think you are lazy",

"If it's not mandatory you won't do it", and

"I have already put you onto it now, you have no choice now yeah?", all while having a smirk on his face.

 

4. Although it wouldn't be uncommon for someone like me who has been out of work for so long to be known by staff at the Job Centre I feel I am known for my inability to control my anger.

I often sweat heavily become red faced and lose control of what I am saying when provoked like this and feel like I am having a panic attack and the thought of getting a sanction imposed on me for the wrong reasons.

I feel I have been set-up in the past to induce rage. Today showed signs of this happening,

 

Below is a list of things that I consider to be notable:

 

a. Usually when I go in to sign on the staff there don't need to ask for my name as they already know it.

However today I was greeted by someone relatively new that asked for my name, once I confirmed she said,

"oh Mr B.. now it's all flooding back to me", then laughed.

 

b. As I entered the Job centre I did notice that R and the security guard was having a chat at his desk, there was a brief moment when they both looked at me at the same time, normally one would think that they was being talked about but maybe not.

This could fit in with the fact that the security guard was standing right behind me during the entire interview listening in but not in my interest, he never stood up for any of my right's when they was being violated and apparently didn't hear anything R said to me until he was told to get rid of me.

I turned around and spoke directly to the security guards face several times asking for help to which he blankly stared past me.

 

c. When the woman at front desk walked over to R she said in a sort of strange way "Mr. Burns is here!" I found that to be odd at first and makes me feel like I'm some sort of a joke to them.

 

d. I often feel like I am being poked and prodded into getting angry. This happens a lot and has been reported before, often have I been accused of not doing enough to look for work and they have imposed sanctions on me for weeks until a decision has been made.

They know this means that I will not be able to have access to JSA until a decision is made and that can take weeks leaving me with nothing until then.

I have always argued against the accusations made from the Job Centre and have proved evidence to the decision makers to which they had decided that the sanctions was wrongfully imposed on me.

This doesn't mean that I had won my case, although refunded the money it doesn't help the fact that I was out of money for weeks with no food and that they can just do that to anyone they feel like. They have great power being able to impose immediate sanctions without any proof of that I haven't been looking for work and is open for abuse by anyone of them if not regulated. As I have witnessed first hand they all 'have each others back' so to say and I wouldn't put it past them to lie about what has happened today.

 

e. I have written complaints about some of the Staff before which I handed into their office and never heard a response back from even after chasing it up with them, I was told that sometimes they won't reply.

I know this to be false but I had no evidence that I had given them that form so I didn't pursue it further feeling that really there is no point if they are just going to do this.

 

 

I feel that as a Personal Advisor R is not personable at all, he makes me feel bad about myself for not having a job and blames me for not being able to get a job, implying that I don't do enough to look for work.

He say's plenty of people are able to get jobs everyday, Personally I think people get jobs but out of them jobs that hundreds of people are applying for only one person gets the job so it's not fair for him to say that anyone can get a job when it is just one person out of hundreds of other people who don't get a job. It's absurd for him to state that people get jobs everyday so that I should have a job.

 

It doesn't stop me trying everyday I am desperate for a job, I just find it disappointing after putting effort into applying, being rejected by so many jobs or not getting replies to have to come to R with his negative attitude towards me. I do everything I can to apply for jobs so much so that I don't think there is anything else I can do other than get higher education and some qualifications to put into my CV which of course R has no interest to help me with.

 

 

R never has listened to me and doesn't know anything about me other than I have been out of work for more than 2 years. As a personal advisor I find him to be lazy with handling his customers, for example:

 

He had to ask me my age after I told him that S advised me to look for charity work. I replied that I am 25 but he simply just said that S doesn't deal with people under 25. I am unsure of what he was trying to say by that but he was sure that he made a valid point.

 

At the end of the meeting when I was frustratedly trying to get advice about who I could talk to R simply called the security guard to usher me out, at first I refused to move unless I was given some sort of contact to anyone above his position that deals with abusive staff. Just as I was about to get up R said "Get out before you make me angry". I would be interested to see what happens when he gets angry but was forced out by the security guard. I was not given any advice other than to "just come in tomorrow" by the security guard. I was told just to leave the office as I am "not going to get anything done here today".

 

As a result of my time with R I strongly feel like he is abusing his power to a certain degree by not helping where it is needed and going to 'last resort' before trying anything else.

I request that his job should be put under review and that I am never to be put with him again unless supervised by someone who can monitor and observe him in my interests. Personally I feel like I could do his job much better than he can.

 

I would like to request CCTV for this time to back up alot of what I have said if you record sound as well that would be perfect but at least the video footage could show that there was people within hearing distance that if questioned about my accusations towards R claimed not to of heard anything. I understand that what I have said will be treated as my word against his but also feel like if questioned the staff will be biased in favour of R. I request that this is not dealt by anyone from the office, that I may be given a call from someone who can help and that I am given a personal response in writing regarding the issues raised.

Edited July 15, 2013 by lilblue

[san_d]

Shocking! This fella should lose his job. And be sanctioned for 48 months.

[adridude]

What makes me sick about JCP's and quick often LHA's is that they often talk down to you as you've been a 'naughty child'. On several occasions in the past, I've had to put them in their place and remind them that I've been treating them with respect, and being an adult, I wish to be treated in that manner. THey often don't like that and sulk, but what can they do

[Mr.P]

The last time I claimed JSA, I stressed ath the first interview that my expressed consent was required before any personal information was passed on to a third party, and that included my phone number.

On the second visit, the first signing on day, the adviser addressed me as "mate".... "Don't be so damned impertinent. it is sir to you." - Sometimes, a public servant needs to be reminded of who it is they serve.

 

To the OP: Staff attitude is something that you will just have to learn to live with unless it oversteps the mark and becomes harassment or abuse - You could try arguing that having "security" standing over you constitutes a breach of client confidentiality (most security is subcontracted), but expect a brush-off or some lame excuse. Another thing you can try - If you feel the attitude shown is denigrating, start recording the conversations. It is difficult to deny an allegation when there is evidence to back it up.

[adridude]

'impertinent' my word of the day tomorrow.... Hope I don't find use for it though

 

@the OP: You won't be able to get any CCTV from any public service building. This is done as a measure under the Data Protection Act 1998 to protect peoples identities, whereabouts at a given time etc...

 

When you literally 'hand a letter over' to a staff member, this INCLUDES forms and any form of documentation (or copies thereof) you have a RIGHT to ask them to sign for them

 

Just a simple piece of paper with:

 

Envelope with reference:

123-456-7889 (the format I use for ALL of my references are: yyyyMMdd-sequence i.e. the date backwards, and which sequence that letter is i.e. the 5th. Today would be 20130716-1

 

Addressed to:

ABC

Whatever House

1 Road

TOwn, AA1 1AA

 

Received By:

 

Received On:

 

Signed:

 

 

You can compress that quite nicely into about 5 per A4 page, maybe more if you tried It seems long winded, but don't they make you sign for stuff? But look how it blows up in out faces when things go wrong.. Turn the tables ;-) I even log calls.

 

ANOTHER thing which you are ENTITLED to do is to 'transcribe' the meeting with a representative with you as a third party witness. This means write down WORD FOR WORD as to who said what. Get the witness to sign, ask R to READ it, SIGN it, COPY it and YOU keep the copy

 

Long winded too? Yes VERY, but don't they too take statements from you and make you sign them? Show them what it's like to be on the receiving end ;-) He'll soon pipe down as he KNOWS there's more than one big brother out there

Edited July 16, 2013 by adridude