General / Off-Topic The persecutions of the British

[Patrick_68000]

I saw a report on the television news. It seems that the British unemployed are being persecuted by the job center. They have to spend 35 hours by week on an official website to look for the work. All the connections and mouse clicks are saved. The unemployed have the fear in the stomach when they are summoned in the job center. The British director Ken Loach denounced the excesses of this system in his film "Moi, Daniel Blake", rewarded with the Palme d'or at the last Cannes festival. The British government defends this severity, designed to discourage the unemployed from to remain unemployed. That is the British civil society ? I wonder why so many people want to live in the UK ? I knew the zero hour contracts, but not the persecutions. And we are in 2017 ...

 

[Asp Explorer]

I saw a report on the television news. It seems that the British unemployed are being persecuted by the job center. They have to spend 35 hours by week on an official website to look for the work. All the connections and mouse clicks are saved. The unemployed have the fear in the stomach when they are summoned in the job center. The British director Ken Loach denounced the excesses of this system in his film "Moi, Daniel Blake", rewarded with the Palme d'or at the last Cannes festival. The British government defends this severity, designed to discourage the unemployed from to remain unemployed. That is the British civil society ? I wonder why so many people want to live in the UK ? I knew the zero hour contracts, but not the persecutions. And we are in 2017 ...

If it's a typical Government run IT scheme by EDS or Capita - the web service will be down for 35 hours a week

 

[beelbeebub]

I saw a report on the television news. It seems that the British unemployed are being persecuted by the job center. They have to spend 35 hours by week on an official website to look for the work. All the connections and mouse clicks are saved. The unemployed have the fear in the stomach when they are summoned in the job center. The British director Ken Loach denounced the excesses of this system in his film "Moi, Daniel Blake", rewarded with the Palme d'or at the last Cannes festival. The British government defends this severity, designed to discourage the unemployed from to remain unemployed. That is the British civil society ? I wonder why so many people want to live in the UK ? I knew the zero hour contracts, but not the persecutions. And we are in 2017 ...

i'm not sure where you get your info.

That sounds very fishy to me.

every unemployed person spending 35hours a week on a website?

where are they supposed to be accessing this web site? as they are unemployed they might not have an internet connection and job centres don't have enough computers for every unemployed person to sit for 35hours a week at a computer.

I make no comment on the UK' persecution of the unemployed just that this sounds like "fake news".

 

[insanephoton]

I know a few people that have been through the system an while some elements may have been exaggerated it's not far from the truth.

My understanding of the current system is that for the first 3 or 6 months the jobseekers has to sign on at the Job Centre at agreed times. I've heard of it ranging between fortnightly or weekly or even daily (5 days a week) towards the end of that period. Jobseekers are made to sign an agreement detailing the measures they are going to take to look for work, part of that is agreeing to spend around 30 hours a week 'actively seeking work'. When signing on claimants are expected to provide some evidence of their efforts. They are strongly encouraged to use the government's Universal Jobmatch website to record their evidence. Failure to provide evidence can lead to sanctioning which is a temporary withdrawal of benefits.

If after 3-6 months they still haven't got a job they are moved to the 'Work Programme'. This is usually run by a local training provider. The Job Centre usually backs off a little at this stage and only asks weekly/fortnightly signing as long as the jobseeker attends agreed sessions with the training provider. The jobseeker should get support to help them find work and may be able to get training. If they don't attend agreed sessions without good reason they may get sanctioned.

If they still haven't found employment after 2 years on the Work Programme they are required to attend an assessment interview at the job centre. One of the possible outcomes is being required to do 35 hours of mandatory job search, usually at some local training provider. Same rules as before, failure to comply may lead to sanctioning of the jobseeker's benefits.

 

[Patrick_68000]

i'm not sure where you get your info.

To the French TV news and also there are many links on google ------ https://fr.news.yahoo.com/londres-sévérité-britannique-envers-chômeurs-205945866--finance.html -------

[video=youtube;EcKQeeIY3ok]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKQeeIY3ok[/video]

 

[amigacooke]

It's true. There is a scheme where the British government expect me to provide evidence that I am spending 36 hours a week in productive activity, mostly on a computer. This has been the case for a considerable time.

In my case I believe the scheme is called 'employment'.

 

[Patrick_68000]

This is confirmed by the British government ...

 

[lokvette]

i had a back injury so was umemployed for some time, the op is about right they do now expect you to do this and then when you go for a meeting they check it.

its not like the old days of the UB40 where your mate could go in and sign on for you, and rightly so.

 

[Lianachan]

You don't want to be unemployed or disabled in the UK, that's for sure. Benefits reforms have caused many deaths.

 

[Patrick_68000]

It's dramatic. Unfortunately here also in France, the economic crisis generates a lot of suicides

 

[beelbeebub]

wow, I didn't know that.

I knew the government were up to "shenanigans" with job seekers but not to that extent.

my only interaction with unemployment was to be told I had too much money in my savings account to get any benefits when I was made redundant (5 days before Christmas thanks to RBS) so I have no direct experience if the system.

 

[Lianachan]

wow, I didn't know that.

I knew the government were up to "shenanigans" with job seekers but not to that extent.

my only interaction with unemployment was to be told I had too much money in my savings account to get any benefits when I was made redundant (5 days before Christmas thanks to RBS) so I have no direct experience if the system.

My only interaction was a brief period decades ago, in a more civilised age.

 

[FrogsFriend]

And the external provider 'Work Programme' is just more of the same. Required to travel to their office 2-3 times a week (at your own expense), where they sit you in front of a computer for 3-4 hours of unsupervised job searching on the same government website that you were previously required to access from home/jobcentre/library. The travel costs can eat up half of the money (that is supposedly the minimum you can live on) you get, and the provider gets paid by the government for doing pretty much nothing for you.

It's a wonderful world they've created.

 

[Leper Messiah]

It's worse for the sick and disabled. My wife and I have mental health issues and have been hounded by the various govts. I've had to endure several tribunals after being kicked off disability and won every time, the system is appalling for the sick and disabled. Mental health support has been SLASHED in my area and the only councillors I have seen have been useless. Filling in my ESA this week, will probably fail again and have a bucket load more stress to deal with.

This country is going down the pan big time, yet the liberals say it's a brilliant place.......maybe I need to change my name and skin colour.

 

[Zieman]

And the external provider 'Work Programme' is just more of the same. Required to travel to their office 2-3 times a week (at your own expense), where they sit you in front of a computer for 3-4 hours of unsupervised job searching on the same government website that you were previously required to access from home/jobcentre/library. The travel costs can eat up half of the money (that is supposedly the minimum you can live on) you get, and the provider gets paid by the government for doing pretty much nothing for you.

It's a wonderful world they've created.

Ah, but someone has to clean the toilets & pick trash in parks once you've got rid off all the 'damn foreigners' in your country. They're just conditioning people to accept whatever job with whatever salary (if any), regardless of education or experience.

 

[Cotic]

It's worse for the sick and disabled. My wife and I have mental health issues and have been hounded by the various govts. I've had to endure several tribunals after being kicked off disability and won every time, the system is appalling for the sick and disabled. Mental health support has been SLASHED in my area and the only councillors I have seen have been useless. Filling in my ESA this week, will probably fail again and have a bucket load more stress to deal with.

This country is going down the pan big time, yet the liberals say it's a brilliant place.......maybe I need to change my name and skin colour.

I don't know that it's worse. The idea of facing sanctions each and every time one signs on must be pretty daunting. Especially as the sanctions are internal targets for the Jobcentre...
But it's definitely disgusting how disabled people have been treated in the recent years. Thankfully there is something like a 65% success rate for appeals via tribunals although the added stress is obviously never welcome.

 

[Lianachan]

Ah, but someone has to clean the toilets & pick trash in parks once you've got rid off all the 'damn foreigners' in your country. They're just conditioning people to accept whatever job with whatever salary (if any), regardless of education or experience.

Only the rich will be able to afford education by then anyway, and they'll already have high earning jobs lined up by their chums and/or parents.

 

[Leper Messiah]

I don't know that it's worse. The idea of facing sanctions each and every time one signs on must be pretty daunting. Especially as the sanctions are internal targets for the Jobcentre...
But it's definitely disgusting how disabled people have been treated in the recent years. Thankfully there is something like a 65% success rate for appeals via tribunals although the added stress is obviously never welcome.

stupid thing is on my previous ESA form I stated I wanted to be assessed by someone qualified in mental health, as my experience with assessors was they knew sod all about mental health. I was called in for another assessment and the lady read my form and immediately postponed the "interview" with no reason (clearly someone NOT qualified in mental health). It beggars belief that I've read that physiotherapist have been used to assess mental health. People in wheel chairs sent to places with no wheelchair access etc etc. It's truly appalling and a national DISGRACE IMO. Problem is hardly any "celebs" give a toss so the vast majority of people don't either. "Liberal" media doesn't give toss either. Too busy getting upset over "refugees" fleeing France.

 

[Hell Razor5543]

I am British, and I have had to deal with the bureaucrapy of the Job Centre Minus (they call themselves Job Centre Plus, but they subtract all that is meaningful), and they are no help whatsoever. 15 years ago I was unemployed, but in the position where family had lent me the money to do an IT course (MCSA). The training organisation had the option of part time or full time training (1 year for the former, 3 months for the latter). I tried to get the bureacraps to let me do the full time course, as (with the training organisation promise of guaranteed employment after the course completed) I would not be such a drain on resources. Their response was that, as I would be doing more than 32 hours a week training, I would not be available to take up employment. They were too blinkered to see that I was desperately trying to make myself a more attractive employment prospect. They were less flexible than a cast iron bar.

Nowadays you have to do 35 hours a week of something soul destroying to show you deserve support. Talk about double standards. When you want to learn (and can do a training course) you cannot do more than 32 hours training (any more means you are, in their eyes, unavailable for work, so not eligible for benefits), but when you have to show willing you have to do 35 hours or more of mind numbing tedium. If THEY send you on an approved training course (normally something completely useless) you HAVE to attend for 35 hours, to show commitment.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

Well, while the rich get ridiculously richer, the poor get punished more and more. Welcome to capitalism. It's just the beginning, it will get worse. 100% for sure! Human dignity will be lost on the super highway to global fascism. The corrupt governments of our western societies push through everything that keeps the ones in power in power, they are simply puppets, not more. Take TTIP for example, our (German) government does anything to push it through even that it's very clear that it only bring many, many, many disadvantages for the population of Germany and the rest of Europe. Lowering social and medical standards as well as consumer rights.