Trip 1, 2014.

I had my JSA new claim appointment today, it was really fun!

As usual, it's like trying to prove you're not a complete moron and are capable of being able to look for a job without having it bloody spoon fed to you!

Obviously I'm not thrilled to back in the JSA but it's the way it is. I was looking before I left my role at SEARCH but I didn't have loads of spare time so it's a bit pants, really. I was in the job centre today and I get the feeling that they deal with a lot of people who don't put actions into place before they attend the job centre.

I showed up with my ID, the response I got made me think that a lot of the people they see don't even make it that far. The woman I was due to see was late seeing me, annoying because I was on the meter but what can you do? I told her about it and she finished two minutes before it was up which is annoying, lucky I parked near isn't it? Urgh!

Because I want to work, and am determined to find work I have already made contact with a few companies to be able to do work experience with then. I'm due to do some work experience at the place where I have applied for a job I really want. I still want the experience even if I'm not shortlisted for an interview, I told her because I don't want it to look like I'm keeping anything from them because they find all manner of stupid fucking (sorry) reasons to stop your benefit.

She started going a bit crazy, and ringing loads of people saying that I've organised my own work experience so they'll have to get me to sign all these forms. Further to that, they'll have to contact the place I'm working to make it official, for gods sake.

You know what annoys me, I've taken the initiative to find some work experience so that I'm not claiming for very long and I get it thrown back in my bloody face! Next time, I might just wait until they force me to go on a work experience placement and become a really lazy claimer, because if you do try and get more experience you are met with questions and suspicion.

HEAVEN FORBID you actually do something for yourself. The system is wrong, all wrong. Dicks!

There is absolutely no trust. Surely, being out there getting more experience whilst still looking for a job isn't a bad thing?

Well they can get stuffed from now on, not going to give them the satisfaction of getting higher figures for their targets now. I'm doing it my way.

Always on the lookout for work experience... contact me if you have any you could offer me.

@DebStevo90

Stevo xo

"Back to work schemes"

Fundamentally, the 'back to work' scheme had positive connotations, giving those work experience and in some cases the opportunity to be taken on at the end of eight weeks of work. Now, I know it isn't completely unpaid work because you still claim your benefits and are given your expenses, but why should you do exactly the same amount of work as someone on the payroll for less than half what they're earning? 

Example; 

Cait Reilly was forced to work for Poundland stacking shelves, she will have only been given her benefits of £56.25 a week plus expenses. So say she gets the bus everyday at £3.00 return? Altogether she will have been earning £68.25 a week for a 30 hour week. Someone on the payroll, lets say they were the same age will have been earning £6.19 an hour for the pleasure of restocking the shelves in Poundland, a thirty hour week will have seen her taken home more than DOUBLE what Cait will have, £185.70 to be exact. That amount won't have been taxed either because it falls under the bracket, so lucky lucky! 

Before I started my intern ship I was doing some sort of 'back to work' scheme, but mine was called 'work experience' instead to avoid placing in the same category as Cait Reilly as her fight against DWP was making some big headlines. I'm not going to badmouth where I was on experience because the people I worked for were great, and gave me time and their energy to gain some more experience. 

My issue with this scheme is that the government is paying for a business to have a worker doing work that they're basically not prepared to do themselves. Cait Reilly was forced to stack shelves for a discount store when she was volunteering at a local gallery, something which interested her and gave her experience of all kinds. But because she was claiming JSA she was forced to stack shelves to fit in with her 'contract' under the DWP. 

A lot of the businesses that involve themselves in the 'back to work' scheme are there to get free labour for the work they can't be bothered to do themselves, with the 'potential' for a job at the end, most of them don't have a job for you at the end. Where I was did have the opportunity for it in the end because I knew they were looking for someone to do tele-marketing from their website before I went there, but I was there with another guy who was also hoping for a job at the end. There will have only been one job - and both of us fighting for it despite us both doing the same amount of work, it's too ruthless for me. I knew I had my intern ship starting in January so leaving after six weeks felt like the right decision. I was going to some other work experience but it fell through with it being so close to Christmas. 

The government is being taken for a ride with these schemes because they're having to continue to pay someone their benefits and expenses whilst businesses get free labour. Whereas, if they allowed people to volunteer their time with a cause they felt they could help, they would be paying an expenses themselves. 

What a surprise, the coalition are wasting money, yet again. I haven't heard of anyone having any luck with the scheme and I've known quite a few people take that route out of sheer boredom of job hunting. Most have come back and said "an utter waste of money, my time and theirs". 

Cannot argue with that, can you? 

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