3 Responses to Mandatory Work Activity scheme benefit sanctions

1. Job centre signing on day and Update 29th June

   To Whom It May Concern

   this note is for my solicitor and I just want to share it with you guys in case you may experience the same thing. Before I go saying anything else. Allow to introduce myself. I am Andre. I am a qualified teacher, personal development coach, mentor, interpreter, and an author of various books not yet published other than 4 of them published but not they are not yet marketed.

   Subject: psychological pressure from the Job centre

   Today was my signing on time at 11am. I had a phone call from a colleague who booked me an appointment at 12 Noon with a friend of his to discuss a vacancy.

   I wrote a letter to my job advisor Anna explaining that I have an important meeting. I handed in the letter to Anna in the hope that she won’t keep me longer during my signing on time at 11am.

   I handed in the letter, she threw it behind her on the desk, and ignored the importance of my appointment, and she told me to wait. Ten minutes later, she called me to her desk.
   I sat down, looked at, laughed while saying ‘what was all that letter about, you could have just said it’. I replied by saying ‘ I prefer to make any request in writing.’ (The signing time went on for 40 minutes and I missed my appointment.)

   A moment later while she retrieved my details on her computer, she immediately told me that I have some vacancies for you. For a moment, I felt very pleased, I looked at those vacancies, but they were all vacancies that I had replied to previously. This left me thinking, all of those ‘vacancies’ are either fake or out of date, and I wondered if job advisors have a target to meet, and because of this, I felt I am being put under intense pressure, intimidation to have to accept any vacancies, even those I had previously applied for.

   A moment later, Anna asked me to show her my job search record. So I had two A4 pages detailing every single job search activity I took in the last two weeks while still working full time in hard labour work and unpaid.

   Like at any signing on time, the job advisor carried on putting me under intensive interrogation that lasted for 40 minutes. Anna looked at my job search record (two A4 pages) and told me quite rudely, you will have to show the ‘job title’ you have applied for and you must apply for ‘any other jobs’ that require no experience or qualification’ but the job vacancies she handed to me two weeks ago, and the ones she gave me on the signing on day were the same and there was not one job vacancy that shows ‘no experience or qualification needed’

   A moment later, like she did two weeks ago, she brought a piece of paper written on it ‘’ you must also apply for jobs that require no experience and qualification’’ and asked me to sign it. I thought I had already mentioned to her, two weeks ago, that unless she can help me clarify what kind of job vacancies I am obliged to apply for, I will only sign it after consulting with my solicitor. Anna stood up and rushed to call her Manager, Mrs Aisha. She brought the manager to try to force me into signing a paragraph that needed bit of clarification on the law side of things. I asked kindly if I could take that copy they wanted me to sign to the law centre to get some advice on that, but they would not let me have that copy of a paragraph. I said I am sorry I won’t sign it unless I get a proper advice on that. The manager Aisha instructed Anna to serve me a notice of possible sanction because I did not sign that piece of paper about’ must apply for ‘any jobs’ that do not require experience’.

   The piece of paper with a paragraph stating that “ client must also look for any other work not needing experience/qualification” did not look official to me, and the fact that they refused to let me have a copy of that to show it to my solicitor raised my doubt about the validity of the piece of paperl

   A moment later, Anna’s manager told her to hand me the document of referral DWP T642700 form Availability/Restricted Availability it says
   Period of doubt: from 29th June INDEFINITELY.

   In that document form that she wanted me to return by Friday, Anna wrote in the section, the reason for the doubt is: THE CUSTOMER WAS NOT HAPPY WITH SIGNINING THE ACTION PLAN STATING, HE MUST ALSO LOOK FOR ANY OTHER WORK NOT NEEDING EXPERIENCE, and QUALIFICATION AND PRODUCE THIS INFORMATION ON HIS ES4 OR JOB SEARCH PAPER.

   The job advisor has not given me the Leaflet JSA5JP, copy of the Jobseeker’s Act 1995 and associated Regulations.

   The job advisor has not given me the form JSA10 to prepare me for the worse just in case a decision maker makes an error and suspend my benefit due to doubt.

   I have already submitted bits of info to the law centre, and made an appointment to see my solicitor this coming Monday.

   Please guys, if you are a benefit lawyer, or someone knowledgeable on the law side of JSA, please contact me on this email: English09@hotmail.co.uk

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   • Andre, you are allowed a “permitted period” of between one to 13 weeks from the first day of your claim during which you can restrict the types of work you are willing to take; this usually means your usual occupation (not necessarily your last job), and could also mean a profession that you have recently qualified in. You don’t say how long you have been claiming for but if it is for longer than 13 weeks you are now expected to take ANY job.

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   • PS Just because a Jobsseeker has a usual occupation does not mean that they will be automatically entitled to a “permitted period”; it depends on factors such as how many vacancies are available in your usual occupation, their skill level, how long their training has been for, how likely they are to obtain employment etc. Or, something to watch out for, if they have had a period of employment in a DIFFERENT occupation.

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