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Has anyone got this or applied for it? I’ve just applied for it for first time and have no idea what to expect. Are they any good at finding you work – guess not in this climate and do you have to go there every week, have CV etc… I’d be grateful if anyone knows and can tell me process from beginning to end.. am so nervous haha.
The Jobcentre in Didcot were useless in 2006 when it came to job searching. My wife decided it was worth trying back in her home county of Fife and managed to secure a job up here. It took me three subsequent visits to the Jobcentre before I could get it into their heads that I needed to look for jobs in Scotland, after which they just lost interest and told me to contact the local office when I moved up.
Jobcentre in Glenrothes was marginally better and I did at least secure a few interviews. I found the leg work round cities and towns in Fife and Edinburgh areas paid dividends. Search out those agency reps prepared to do plenty of digging, and who look at your skills not just your previous job title. A well presented CV, geared towards the job or jobs you are applying for, makes a heck of a difference.
When you first contact the Jobcentre they will arrange an appointment, first to sort out all the paper work and arrange for payment of the jobseekers’ allowance. This took the best part of two months to be paid, but I was lucky to have a redundancy pay to see me through. A second interview will be arranged with a job advisor whose aim is apparently to give advice on how to search for jobs and on applying for them. THey will pay travel expenses for any interviews you get so make sure you apply for that. While in Oxfordshire I did secure one interview in Scotland but had the devil’s own job persuading the Jobcentre employee that it was cheaper and quicker travelling by air, rather than the tortuous rail journey they would have me take.
One point that helped me. Keep a notebook or computer record of your job search with key addresses and phone numbers, note of applications, interviews and anything else that crops up.
RobThank you very much!! Feel much more prepared now! There’s absolutely no jobs are they?! I know you see it in the paper and on the news about it but doesn’t really hit you until you’re out there looking. Even Mcdonalds have no vacancies!! Going to be a long old process then
I’ve been out of work quite a few times and in my experience it depends on your circumstances as to how you get treated.
A friend of mine, who was a subbie joiner got paid off in February and hasn’t had a stiff of a full-time job since. The problem you have is that it takes a while to get your benefits sorted out and when you do you will need to get offered a proper job to make it worth your while going back into work, or you will have to go through all that pain of claiming again.
Best to try and find a job if you can. Jobcentres and that are really just full of people like us, who have fallen on hard times and are looking for something better.
Good luck anyway ..
My work ran out in November, and I thought I would just wait for the phone to ring. It didn’t. Mrs lolly told me to "sign on" and I thought what have I got to lose.
Made the phone call, recieved the forms, filled out all the pages, which took days and then made the appointment to "get some financial help Benefit)".
After the degrading interviews that were cancelled once, I was told to look at the job seekers monitor as it would have a job for me. I typed in fully quallified carpenter and joiner looking for work within 25 miles…..
found a job which suited me in Clydesdale!!! Which I beleive is near scotland??
IMO these places are only good for people who are very unskilled, and can find a job with such low pay, they can still claim their benefits. Think about it logically. If you were a director of a company who needed a qualified person for a particular position, would you really advertise you job at the job center?
You really do have a better chance of finding a job in your local newspaper.Good luck to you if you are looking!
In my experience, the job centre is mainly there for you to sign-on every two weeks – which I am doing at the mo (though I start part-time work soon – you can do both dependent on the no of hours you work).
The whole jobseekers agreement is a bit of a joke – I would advise just going along with it and sounding as compliant as possible. In reality, you can then go and look for a job that suits your needs.
You’ll have a work review after 13 weeks…once again, just go along with what they say and then do your own thing!
They are a nice bunch who work here in Ashford.
You can find low/lowish paid jobs there – but the terminals are pretty moribund at the mo.
However, you do see some interesting characters….only a few months back I overheard someone talking about how they were working at Babestation (Sky channel 906) and often watched the
babes
oil themselves up.
I digress…
Zip
Going to the job centre and in my case seeing the Disability Employment Advisor (who in my experience is easily the most helpful person there) is the biggest kick in the ar$e you’ll ever get. The place is so depressing it’s unreal and you feel like the only person who actually wants a job – everyone else has just left high school and going "I want to be a company director – I’ve applied for 3 directorships and they don’t want me, £50 please"
I used to work at Eccles Labour Exchange in Manchester; I went there to sign on, was given a job and then got the sack. The thing is, though that, when you’re claiming benefit I believe you get your NI stamp paid, which is good in the long term when you get to claim your pension [something to look forward to!] My son refused to claim benefits for a while when he left uni, which means he’s now got a gap in his NI payment.
I’ve just worked out that I have spent 15 years not claimimg the dole since I left university (for the first time), so I must have spent 9 years claiming the dole (plus another one courtesy of the Thatcher & Joseph de-industrialisation of Britain in my gap year).
I’ve never experienced Rob’s problem with JSA. You sign on fortnightly, and it is paid fortnightly in arrears. If you have any problems receiving money it is just a case of going down the JobCentre and having a fraught phone call with the DSS
to arrange an emergency payment.Each time you sign on, you are expected to provide a list of things that you have done in the previous fortnight to seek employment. (They provide you with a form to keep your records.)
In terms of looking for work, I didn’t usually find the JobCentres useful. Depending upon your skills and experiences you may be better off using employment agencies, newspapers and the Internet. The best job I got was via a friend of a friend.
You usually can’t go on a training course until you have been unemployed for 6+months.
In terms of money, I found Housing Benefit and dealing with the Council a lot more problematic than the DWP. However, the situation is far, far better than the 80s when it would be typical to wait 3+months for HB (Lewisham Council
).Zippy, if you want to get a job for the company I’m with (and don’t mind that 80%+ of your work colleagues are Polish, French or Ghurkas), phone Jobs4Europe who advertise in the local paper. There is no job interview!!! You just go to their office in Church Road (just opposite and down from the library, and you do an Excel spreadsheet test and a maths/logic test. Minimal wages though.
Gerald, I sent you a PM, but I’m not sure if they are working at the mo as I cannot see any messages in my box (es).
Zip
Zippy, if you want to get a job for the company I’m with (and don’t mind that 80%+ of your work colleagues are Polish, French or Ghurkas), phone Jobs4Europe who advertise in the local paper. There is no job interview!!! You just go to their office in Church Road (just opposite and down from the library, and you do an Excel spreadsheet test and a maths/logic test. Minimal wages though.
Apparently, the best job to get in Ashford, if you can get in, is with Premier Foods? (Batchelors) £8 per hour. Via HR GO in Bank Street.
Jobs4Europe apparently have a small room in the back of Bank Street, so I don’t know whether the place in Church Road still exists. (I was taken on by the company after 2 months, so I’m no longer agency. )
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