The 75 and ZT Owners Club Forums - View Single Post

Grumpy1 · 28th August 2013, 11:03

Please don't tar all long term unemployed with the same brush! My lady friend was, until last week, unemployed for 11 months after being made redundant last September. Now, a few years ago, she actually worked in a Jobcentre, so she 'knows the system'. To be able to claim JSA (£51 a week in her case) and housing benefits, she had to spend hours every day looking for work, and she had to prove that she had done so by printing off, and keep a written record of, every search and every application she had made, and present it to the little Hitlers, sorry, advisors, at the local Gestapo HQ, sorry, Jobcentre, every fortnight. If they didn't think she was trying hard enough, they threatened to stop her JSA. She had to attend a computer centre 5 days a week (£2.50 a day car parking out of her £51 JSA, not re-claimable) to do nothing more than she could have done at home on her own computer, and was recently sent on a course to try to learn book keeping and Sage accounting. She openly admits to being rubbish with figures!

After 6 months her JSA was stopped and her circumstances had to be re-assesed. That took 10 weeks, during which time she had no income at all, and had to arrange an overdraft and a 'log book' loan so that she could pay her rent and council tax, or risk being evicted. When she advised the Jobcentre that she had found a part-time job, her JSA, rent and council tax allowance, were stopped within 3 days! 10 weeks to organise payment but only 3 days to stop it. Amazing.

She has just found a part time job, 22 hours per week, which will make her about £20 a week more than the JSA, so in effect she is going to work for £20 a week. This, she feels, is far more preferable to having to face all the foregoing.

So, how do these scroungers get away with it? Or have the authorities given up on them, knowing that most of them are un-employable? Most of them would not be capable of doing what Carol has had to go through. They just don't have the ability to do so. Of course, they may not actually be claiming JSA, because they are making a living some other way, in which case they wouldn't have to do what Carol did. It's a mystery to me. I was getting extremely worried about Carol's mental state I don't mind telling you. Hopefully the new job proves to be ok and possibly lead to full time work in the future.

Sorry for the long post, but I get a bit annoyed with all jobseekers being called scroungers!

Chad.

28th August 2013, 11:03	#10
Grumpy1 I really should get out more....... Rover 75 2.5 2001 Royal Blue Connoissuer Auto Saloon Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Sutton-in-Ashfield Posts: 2,466 Thanks: 447 Thanked 254 Times in 202 Posts	Please don't tar all long term unemployed with the same brush! My lady friend was, until last week, unemployed for 11 months after being made redundant last September. Now, a few years ago, she actually worked in a Jobcentre, so she 'knows the system'. To be able to claim JSA (£51 a week in her case) and housing benefits, she had to spend hours every day looking for work, and she had to prove that she had done so by printing off, and keep a written record of, every search and every application she had made, and present it to the little Hitlers, sorry, advisors, at the local Gestapo HQ, sorry, Jobcentre, every fortnight. If they didn't think she was trying hard enough, they threatened to stop her JSA. She had to attend a computer centre 5 days a week (£2.50 a day car parking out of her £51 JSA, not re-claimable) to do nothing more than she could have done at home on her own computer, and was recently sent on a course to try to learn book keeping and Sage accounting. She openly admits to being rubbish with figures! After 6 months her JSA was stopped and her circumstances had to be re-assesed. That took 10 weeks, during which time she had no income at all, and had to arrange an overdraft and a 'log book' loan so that she could pay her rent and council tax, or risk being evicted. When she advised the Jobcentre that she had found a part-time job, her JSA, rent and council tax allowance, were stopped within 3 days! 10 weeks to organise payment but only 3 days to stop it. Amazing. She has just found a part time job, 22 hours per week, which will make her about £20 a week more than the JSA, so in effect she is going to work for £20 a week. This, she feels, is far more preferable to having to face all the foregoing. So, how do these scroungers get away with it? Or have the authorities given up on them, knowing that most of them are un-employable? Most of them would not be capable of doing what Carol has had to go through. They just don't have the ability to do so. Of course, they may not actually be claiming JSA, because they are making a living some other way, in which case they wouldn't have to do what Carol did. It's a mystery to me. I was getting extremely worried about Carol's mental state I don't mind telling you. Hopefully the new job proves to be ok and possibly lead to full time work in the future. Sorry for the long post, but I get a bit annoyed with all jobseekers being called scroungers! Chad. __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] *Oh no! Not DRLs! Yes, I can* open the bonnet.** Last edited by Grumpy1; 28th August 2013 at 17:02..