Upsetting job centre staff?

[BarleySugar]

At the end of September I taught a workshop and got paid £45. Last time I signed I hadn't been paid, so the advisor said to leave it until I did. Today I explained to another advisor, and that I'd now been paid. She got a bit huffy and explained that now I'd declared I'd done some work I would need to fill out a form each time I went in. I definitely got the feeling she wished I'd not said anything. I had the same feeling back in the summer when I went to Spain on holiday and told them so. There's so much about benefit fraud, it's bad enough having to claim but then to end up feeling guilty for being honest seems a step too far.
I know I only get to keep £5, but I enjoyed doing it, and it's pushed me to try out new techniques in case I get the chance to do some more.

[northepaul]

They make it so difficult to claim any money, in the hope you wont bother!

[snohare]

Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, you are wrong and they are right - even when they are blatantly wrong. To be fair, they work in a place where they are set up to fail just as much as their clients, and where bullying has long been a problem. So no matter what you do, they are probably going to feel that either you have got it wrong and should be punished, or have given them extra work they don't have time for.

[alldigging]

When any of them tell you anything ask for thir name and get them to write it down for you.

Sometimes playing them at their own paperwork game is quite fun.

It's a long time since I've signed on but one of the times I remember I'd gone in to ask about jobs on the board (Aytown Street in Manchester which was always interesting) and they said we could only take one number at a time as they were short staffed.
They didn't seem amused when I pointed out that strangely enough I was looking for a job.

[Feral007]

Yeah it all sucks big time. I hated being on benefits when the kids were younger but couldnt do without the few extra dollars I got. Luckily our local people are nice, so even when they are being yuck they apologise for having to be.

[snohare]

Over here the Job Centre Plus staff were forced into a "productivity agreement" a few years back - getting their full wage depends on how many points they score. Well, in a recession, if you don't get claimants into a job then your other alternative is to sanction them - and they are constantly being preached at about "saving the public purse". Add all sorts of dodgy policies - they're not there to tell claimants what they are entitled to, for example, so don't, when depriving them of their other benefits - and you get a situation where if a JCP employee doesn't sanction enough claimants, they personally will be out of pocket; and are being encouraged to see all claimants as scroungers who deprive hard-working taxpayers of their money.
It's not too bad in my area because we only have a 2:1 ratio of jobs to seekers, but I think the phrase "learned helplessness" describes the emotional effects on both sides of the counter. I received a phone call from JCP yesterday about my benefits status, and the woman who phoned me sounded so stressed that I felt sorry for her - I felt like telling her that I wasn't going to shout at her or cry down the phone, I didn't consider her responsible for the system.
She was pathetically keen to answer my questions helpfully when we got onto less stressful topics. Her being in the WCA section, she must be used to seriously ill people going off the deep end in a panic because they have been assessed fit for work.

it's bad enough having to claim but then to end up feeling guilty for being honest seems a step too far.

Barley Sugar, can you tell me - what have you been told are the restrictions on what work you can do, while signing on ? My understanding is that it must be regular work with a payslip, but that may be out of date, or just with health-related benefits. It has certainly been a massive deterrence to my looking for casual work.

[BarleySugar]

I've been told I can still claim JSA if I work under 16 hours a week. However, you only get to 'keep' £5 per week, so I get paid £15 - £20 per hour (depending on the number of people in the class), for a 3 hour workshop. They then stop all but £5 from my JSA. Sadly, it's only a start up business so I'm not getting enough hours to live on (yet). I want to keep it up, because if the business does take off I might get enough workshops to make it worthwhile.
However, over 16 hours but under 30, you're screwed, because you now can't get tax credits until you work 30 hours a week!. My sister had to give up her part time job because it was 18 hours a week, and she couldn't manage without the tax credits, stupid situation if you ask me. She's now claiming JSA and housing benefit (neither of which she claimed before), so the idea you are better off working doesn't hold water.

[snohare]

My sister had to give up her part time job because it was 18 hours a week, and she couldn't manage without the tax credits

Spot the dead hand of professional politicians... they may have sympathy, but they're not people who have a lot of insight into being poor.
That point about Working Tax Credits is interesting, when did that start ? I think some of these things are going to roll out later up here in Scotland, and I have a friend who is worried about her part-time job being affected by changes to Credits. Ironically, because she wants to set an example to her kids by being in work of some sort !
I think the bottom line is, Government is subsidising low wages by industry...in order to prevent outsourcing to the Third World, presumably.

[Seahorse]

I feel quite sorry for Job Centre staff tbh. I have to go and see them every six months (why yes, my son is still disabled - just waiting for that miracle cure) and I've not yet met a nasty one. I don't suppose they get paid vast amounts and it must be very emotionally draining to have to deal with people who are frustrated/desperate/angry/despondent all the time. That said, it doesn't help if you're on the other side of the desk. I hope things can be sorted out for you BarleySugar.

[julesapple]

We've been fighting the system this week. DD has started a part time job, earning £49 per week (so less than her JSA was, and that's the minimum the gov't says you need to live on) and they are deducting it from our housing benefit.

We were also told that, in the three weeks in which we did not receive Child Benefit for #2 Son, he should have signed on to JSA. The JCP told him to go away, he couldn't sign on, as he would not be actively looking for work whilst waiting to go to Uni in three weeks time. So the HB peeps have deducted £45 from us for him for those three weeks.

They do not believe that #3 Son is still at school, despite being given our tax credit award notice showing #3 clearly on it. And, apparently, a letter from the Child Benefit folks in Newcastle is not enough to prove that we get Child Benefit for #3 but not for #2 - it does clearly state both boys, and it says when #2's CB stopped on 3 Sept.

On one HB statement of their wonky workings out it shows us getting CB for both boys but they are still deducting 'non-dependant adult' amounts for #2 Son. Their rules and regs clearly state that they cannot deduct anything for any child in receipt of Child Benefit.

It has taken countless telephoning and two visits to the CAB just to get someone from HB to see us. Today they agreed to grant us an interview (very magnanimous, I'm sure) but they haven't stated a date. If we don't get this sorted out within two weeks we won't get reimbursed for any of the faulty deductions.

I'm stressed to all get out with this....it's just so silly and pointless. Pity they didn't spend some of the £9.7million they spent renovating the town hall on training their staff......

[BarleySugar]

The tax credit changes that affected my sister were rolled out in April here.

I just typed out a long answer to some of the points raised, but on second thoughts deleted it as I felt it might come across as rather unfair to those who work for the housing benefit/jobseekers offices. My OH used to work for the then DSS with claiments on the equivalent of income support so I do sympathise with people who work in benefits offices. It is just hard being on the other side of the desk too!

[snohare]

Thanks for that info Barley Sugar, very worth knowing.
I am hoping to get funding through the local community council that will enable me to go to a conference on the forthcoming changes, which would help me advise (me ?! ) the many people I seem to meet nowadays that need help. Willy nilly, it seems I am destined to be some kind of (unpaid) social worker !
As for deleting long harangues, I have gotten very good at biting my tongue...but I honestly think, there are going to be people rioting over the new legislation when it comes in next year. Although you never know, it may sneak in like a fart under the door - how many people here know that since the 1st October they can be fined £50 for inaccuracies in their benefit claim information ? Those left with nothing are spitting mad, those with almost nothing are afraid to open their mouths.
It's enough to make a cynic suspect that the ancient phrase, "The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord" is more about the psychology of fear than it is about love.