Easy Targets

The idiocy continues.  Just registered another client, Mr FW, who has worked continuously since 1963.  He has diabetes and can't walk very far.  He is 9 months off retirement.  After having a period of 12 months on the sick due to his disabilities, he has been declared fit for work and is expected to apply for 6 jobs a week, and look for jobs within a 90 mile radius. 

Our town is surrounded on 3 sides by the sea.  Is he supposed to go for a job in the Irish Sea??  He is another victim of the glorious box-ticking exercise the DWP/JobCentre Plus has become.  There is absolutely no way this man would ever be offered a job, because of his age and his ill health.  It is an example of the abject futility of Iain Duncan Smith's Benefit Reforms. I'd love for someone like IDS or Cameron to spend a day in here, seeing what people have to go through, and to see how organisations such as us, who are pinched to the limit with funding cuts, are expected to take up the slack from Government funded organisations.

Its going to be a long day.  

Claimant Commitment or Signing Your Own Death Warrant

The Government's new Claimant Commitment is being rolled out up here, and we are just seeing the first ramifications of this further change to Welfare policy. The Claimant Commitment is the Coalition Government's answer to the Job Seekers Agreement, something you have to sign up to when you make a new claim. Esther McVey (is she the worlds only Tory Scouser??) says:

"The Claimant Commitment marks the start of a redefinition of the relationship between the welfare state and claimants. In return for state support, we expect claimants to do all they can to meet their responsibilities to return to work. It also strengthens the ability of Job Centre Plus staff to support claimants back in to work at the earliest opportunity. Work coaches and job seekers will agree to regular specific tasks and training opportunities and the penalties claimants could face for failing to meet their responsibilities  to get in to work will be clearly spelt out"

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jobseekers-to-start-signing-new-claimant-commitment-today

I have no idea how, in practice, the new Claimant Commitment helps Job Centre staff to support claimants back in to work at the earliest opportunity.  Its just a soundbite to try and make her appear credible.

Just imagine that you have been on some form of disability benefit for the last 15/20 years, you fail your ATOS assessment and your appeal and are put on to Job Seekers Allowance, and you are asked  to complete a Claimant Commitment. This "Commitment" spells out what you are going to do to look for work.  How do you know where to start? How do you know what you are capable of?  Once you sign on the dotted line, that's it, if you don't fulfill your obligations as per the Client Commitment, you can be sanctioned.  Once again, its just a massive buck-passing exercise by the Government.

And again, its agencies like ours that will pick up the fallout from these Governmental policies. We already have people coming to see us who say "I need to do a 30 hour job search, can I block book your computer?"  We have one PC.

Not Laughing

Tuesday 4th March

I rang the Outreach Centre today to speak to one of my colleagues, just to let her know about a conversation I’d had with a client earlier.

We discuss various things, then she tells me, (rather indignantly) that she registered a client this morning who had been referred to us from another provider (one who has a contract to deliver the Work Programme), and the reason that the client was referred to us is that the Work Programme provider (allegedly) told the client that they are unable to write a CV for him. They do not have the capacity/ability to do this, and the Outreach Centre is the best place to get CV’s done.

I am astounded.  An organisation who is given Government funding to help people back to work, is signposting its clients to us, to receive assistance with writing a CV??  I’ve been trying to get my head ‘round that one all morning…I would laugh at the absurdity of the situation, if there wasn't someone at the end of all this buck-passing trying to fulfil their Client Commitment, or Job Seekers Agreement, or whatever Government have decided to label it now.

9th January: Lets Play Pass The Parcel

9^th January

A client came to see me today, to register for help with writing a CV, and was referred by Job Centre Plus. We will call him Client S.  This is getting to be a recurring story: Client S has been on Incapacity Benefit for nearly 20 years and after failing his ATOS medical and also failing his appeal, he has now been moved on to Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and is expected to do 30 hours a week job searching.  Here’s the crunch: he has severe photosensitive epilepsy, a condition so bad that I had to interview him in a darkened room.

From an employers’ viewpoint, who is going to employ this man? He can’t work inside because of his medical condition, so unless some kindly employer decides to re-fit all the lighting in their workplace, he isn’t going to get a nice job sitting at a nice desk. Outside would be even more problematical. Imagine if he had a seizure and hit his head? Can you imagine the Employers Liability insurance to cover this? Have the Government never heard of Corporate Manslaughter?? It beggars belief…

We have neither the capacity nor the facilities to deal with clients with complex medical issues, and yet the DWP are signposting people like Client S to organisations such as us, to deliver one-to-one support. How are we supposed to write CV’s for people who have not worked for 20-odd years, and have a patchy recollection of their employment history prior to their illness? Do the DWP expect us to be able to assist the client with their 30 hour Job Search? The ultimate end of these governmental welfare reforms is passing the buck, passing people from one agency to another so they can tick the box and discount the client from their figures.

 I have started keeping a log of the number of people that are being referred to us that have previously been on long term Disability/Incapacity benefits.  There will be a prize for the advisor who has the client that has been out of work for the longest length of time. Not.