Yeah I looked at that site already. It seems as though I can prevent them from contacting me via e-mail or telephone, but this can only be done if I write them a letter? It seems as though I was right in thinking they weren't allowed to threaten to sanction my benefits if I didn't fill out the questionnaire. However, I have no way of proving this as it's a case of my word against theirs. I think I'll record my next meeting, letting them know that I'm doing so beforehand, so that if they do this again I'll have evidence. As far as I can see that website doesn't say if I have to show them my CV as it is, or if a template outlining what it contains is good enough. It only says that I don't have to provide them with a physical copy, which I already knew. As far as I can see that website doesn't say what will happen if I inform them that I'd prefer not to sign the action plan. I can't see them saying 'OK' and that being the end of it. By not signing it am I still required to do everything they ask? I'm willing to comply to an extent, but I don't wish to provide them with more information than necessary. Wanting to know the ins and outs of my e-mails is a step too far in my eyes. As I've signed it I assume I now have to do this for next week, but will my rights be different when I don't sign the next one? Regarding these pages: http://www.consent.me.uk/sensitive/ http://www.consent.me.uk/destroymyinfo/ Is this something that can only be done while I'm not part of the work programme, or can I do this while I'm on it without risking a sanction on my benefits? Is it possible to have my data from that questionnaire removed as well? The website doesn't offer this information.

I had my induction with Maximus (another company on this work programme scheme) yesterday. I have to say I don't see the point of it so far. I'm going through the same stuff I go through at the job centre, only now I have to do it on a more regular basis as from what I've read they can call me in multiple times a week if they choose to do so. I'm quite disgusted by the tactics they employed when I refused to sign the data protection waiver. When asked for a reason I told them I didn't wish for my personal information to be passed on without my consent. The advisor then tried to bully me in to signing it by telling me how pathetic I was. When this didn't work I was passed on to the manager who tried using the psychology trick of constantly using my name when addressing me, of course I didn't fall for this and the data protection waiver remained unsigned. I also refused to fill out another two of their forms. There was one which if I'd signed would have given them permission to hound my future employer/s for updates on me. Am I correct in assuming that by not signing this they can't make any money out of me when I get a job? I'll make sure that when I sign off I won't say that I have a job. If this is the case I'm hoping they'll go easy on me since they'll have nothing to gain. The third form I refused to fill out was a questionnaire about looking for work. Flicking through it I could see that the only benefit to it was to give them a reason to send you on any courses. I was told that if I didn't fill this questionnaire out I'd be sanctioned. Is this correct? Are they allowed to make such a threat? I ended up filling it out, but it was pointless for them as I made sure to not fill out any "wrong" answers that would have lumbered me with some pointless course. I also filled out a form asking for my telephone number, e-mail and address. I'm wondering if I made a mistake here and by signing it I'm effectively given them permission to spam my inbox and harass me via telephone and post. They already had this information given to them by the job centre, without my consent, so I don't see why it was necessary for them to be provided with it again. I have to go in again next week and I've been asked to bring in my CV (I already know not to provide them with a copy) as well as an example of a covering letter I sent. I'll be blotting out the company name in my covering letter. How far can I go with the CV? I feel like I'd prefer to just show them the template I use and a brief description of the contents. This way I'm not providing them with any additional information about me. Would this be permissible or is this likely to get me sanctioned? Should I just show them my CV as it is but with my list of colleges and university hidden? I've already had my CV approved by university staff and the job centre, so I don't feel a CV building exercise is going to be particularly helpful. The other thing I've been asked to provide is the e-mails I've been sending to companies over the last week. They want to see the entire content of at least two. This seems a little far to me. I've been told I can blot out the company name, so I'll be doing that. Did I make a mistake in signing the action plan? What will happen if I were to refuse to sign them from now on? Is there a reason I could give them that would be considered acceptable for not wishing to sign this document? Thanks.

OK, I rang again just now. This time she told me that she doesn't know if I've been sanctioned or not and that nothing can be done anyway until I receive a letter informing be about it (If I receive a letter at all this is. Apparently I won't receive a letter if the sanction doesn't take place. Is this correct?). She told me that the letter will provide me with information about how to both get a reconsideration and appeal against it. Is this information correct? As she's lying about numerous things to me I can't be sure whether or not I should trust this information. If this is false information and I can get a reconsideration immediately what should my course of action be? Ring the job centre again tomorrow and ask to the previously mentioned team leader or something else?

OK. I'll try that tomorrow and see where it gets me. Hopefully it's not too late for that now. Of course. I'm screwed until this issue is resolved... Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. She lied to me about that as well then. She'll deny having told me that just like she's denying telling me that my placement starts in six weeks and I have nothing to prove otherwise. I've gone from having an advisor who does nothing but insult me to having an advisor that lies to me, then denies that she said it in the first place. I'll have to try and change advisor again... Absolutely brilliantly played on their part to get me sanctioned. My hats go off to them.

Are you saying that the sanction can't have taken place yet? I've done some looking into this and it seems that they won't look into an appeal after a sanction until after four weeks have passed. Is this correct? It seems to me that they can royally screw me over during this period as I have to comply with absolutely anything they throw at me, no matter how ridiculous. My original plan after being given a work placement was to sign off, then sign back on, causing them to have to find yet another work placement for me while I work on my beneficial work experience and continue to try and get a job that actually pays money. With this sanction now in place what would I do if they were to say to me that the current work placement is still available for me? I think the company should be paying someone to have the job, rather than recycling free labour, so I don't wish to be part of their immoral cost-cutting methods. If I were to sign off and back on now, I doubt I'd win the appeal. It seems as though they've played their cards perfectly to land me in a no win situation. I don't believe there was an interview for this work placement. They've already decided that I'll be doing it. Judging by the phone call it was simply a case of turning up, meeting some woman, having her tell me what to do, then doing the job. She failed to leave any contact information as well, so I'm unable to speak to her about it. Alright, I'll ring again later today and try to see if I can make them see sense this time. I find it annoying though that my advisor is denying that she told me that my work placement started in six weeks. I can remember the conversation we had pretty much word perfect, but unfortunately it's a case of my word against hers. The only thing on my side is if it's true that you don't have to sign on or attend interviews at the job centre during a work placement and that a work placement lasts at least four weeks as I have a letter proving that an interview was scheduled there on the 12th of April. Can someone confirm whether either of these things are true?

Great. Another illogical event has just taken place. Last week at the job centre they told me that my work placement would start in six weeks time, but they didn't know what it was yet. Yesterday there was a phone call at 09:30 when nobody was at home, so they left a message telling me that I had a work placement on THAT day, which started at 12:00. The message wasn't received until 19:00. They're clearly cutting it very fine here and I can't help but wonder if this is all part of their plan to stop paying people jobseeker's allowance. I rang the job centre the next day and spoke to my advisor. She told me that because I failed to attend I've been sanctioned and my money has been stopped. To me, this is absolutely ridiculous. There was no way that it would have been possible for me to attend that work placement given the time-frame. How do I appeal against this? I believe that the work placements last six weeks as well (and no, this isn't the cause of the confusion. I triple-checked that my work placement did indeed start in six weeks time)? However, when I rang my advisor she denied that she told me that my work placement started in six weeks. When I signed on last week she told me that during the course of my work placement I wouldn't have to visit the job centre to sign on. However, a meeting was arranged for four weeks time (now three). As a meeting wouldn't have been possible if I had a work placement, could I use this as evidence that I was unaware? I was provided with a letter as proof of the meeting which was scheduled.

Despite having already applied for 10 cleaning jobs in the last two weeks and having evidence of me doing so, I've been forced to apply for three specific ones. Clearly my advisor's selected the worst openings as they're early hours and only offer five hours of work a week spread over five days (toilet cleaning as well...). Once again these are jobs where the travel costs exceeds the pay (two would see me pay about £1 a day to work and the other about £5). I've applied, but if I'm unfortunate enough to get one of the jobs how would I go about rejecting it whilst still getting JSA until something that isn't going to make me unable to pay rent comes along?

Thanks. I don't recall signing such a waiver, but it can't hurt to send the letter to withdraw consent. After some more digging it seems my only choice is to take part in the work experience, or cancel my claim for JSA as I've been forced on to the mandatory one. I'll probably choose the latter. According to that site she was also allowed to pass my information on to those people without my permission. In fact as I'm going away for a few days to France I was told that I have to stop my claim anyway, then reclaim it upon my return. I'm assuming if I did so I wouldn't get to start afresh and they'd throw the mandatory work placement at me immediately?

I've just found this as well. And it raises a few questions. After being placed on the work placement scheme I wasn't made to sign anything, so I have yet to sign a modified job seeker's agreement. Correct? As I haven't signed anything to agree to this I can refuse to take it and say that I'm "happy with the existing Jobseekers Agreement and feel it is adequate" as that site suggests, yes? If so when would I have to do this? I'm not required to be at the job centre again until Thursday and the phone call providing me with details about the work placement is likely to be before then. What is the data protection waiver? Is this something I'd have signed when initially signing up for JSA? If not then I haven't signed it. If it is something that would have been there when I initially signed up it seems likely that I'd have refused to agree to such a thing. Is there a way for me to check whether I did or not? If there is a way for me to check and I didn't agree to it then my advisor is going to be in trouble given her actions, which I will state in the following paragraph. I didn't pass my details on to the person who my advisor rang to place me on the work placement scheme, my advisor gave them to them herself. I wasn't even told who was on the other end of the phone. I was eventually passed the phone to speak to them but all they asked for was the name and contact number of my next of kin (which I gave), what kind of work I wanted (I asked what there was and when they listed them I said that I didn't care) and how far I'd be prepared to travel (I said I didn't know, refused an hour and a half, then agreed to an hour). As my advisor gave the information over, providing that I didn't agree to have my information passed over, she has broken the Data Protection Act. Correct? Also would the little information I did give myself count as providing information to the provider? It seems to me that only the name and contact number of my next of kin is personal information. I certainly didn't give them anything big like my own name or my NI number. I also didn't confirm any of the details my advisor provided them with and I wasn't asked to.

Do you have any links with information on this? I'd like to see if it's financially viable for me to so. The JSA isn't a whole lot more than my monthly rent, so if I'd be losing a fair amount it might not be a be a viable option. The more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards cancelling my claim though. Does anyone know if I'll even be paid expenses for taking this free labour on their work placement scheme? Based on the travel distance I was forced to accept travel could cost me as much as £40 a day. If expenses aren't going to be covered and the travel costs are high the work placement will be impossible for me to accept and I'll be booted off of JSA anyway. Edit: Interesting. I just came across this. "Jobcentre Plus cannot lawfully impose benefit sanctions on participants refusing to work for their benefits as long as they attend without prior refusal whilst just withholding their labour due to a lack of lawful authority." I'm a little confused by that. I'm required to attend the work placement, but I can refuse to do anything once I'm there? Or does the attending refer to the job centre rather than the work placement? And taken from the act itself: "In subsection (2) “work-related activity”, in relation to any person, means activity which makes it more likely that the person will obtain or remain in work or be able to do so." As I've found other work-related activities which give me a far greater chance of getting a job, which I'm being made to cancel for a work placement that's just recycling free labour, would I be able to continue to claim my benefits under this section of the act? Cancelling opportunities and taking their work placement instead is certainly going to make it less likely for me to obtain a job, so it seems that way to me.

OK, so this happened today. I have a couple of jobs coming up soon where I'm being paid expenses. Despite not profiting from them at least I'm gaining more experience in my chosen career path, I'm making contacts within the industry and I'm also gaining material to use in my show reel. Three positive aspects from the "work experience" I've managed to get myself. The job centre are aware of this work experience, but instead of allowing me to do it they're telling me to cancel it so that I can instead take a job in another field in some work experience scheme their forcing me on to. I'm unaware what the job will be yet, but it's either going to be care, retail or warehouse work. This strikes me as being completely illogical as the work experience they're offering only gives me the chance to add something else to my C.V., something which I could do anyway if I stuck with the film-related work experience. However, of course if I don't go along with their demands my money will be stopped. I've been provided with very little information about this work experience. All I know is that it will last four weeks and I'll be receiving a call some time in the next five days. Does anyone know what this might be and can they provide me some information on it? I did ask my advisor, but she refused to tell me more than this. Does anyone know how you go about changing advisors by the way? I'm currently unsure what to do about this situation. If I cancel my claim for JSA, I stand a much greater chance of getting a job in the field I want to work in sooner. However, continuing to claim it will knock me back a month and I'll have to hope that opportunities as good as the ones I'll be cancelling will surface again some time soon, but at least I'll have some money coming in in the mean time.

I didn't catch this at the time I was shown it, but the job in question also requires me to have both a driving license and access to my own vehicle. I have neither. But oh well, I applied to it anyway so they can't complain about that. To address another issue, recently I was forced to attend a meeting with someone at the job centre who would tell me about what being a camera operator involved, something I obviously already know considering I've been studying it for the last five years and have a degree in it. I wasn't too thrilled when all she did was show me a web page I'd wrote an essay on in college and go through it with me. I've also been forced to attend a lecture on how to use computers next week, something else which I already know how to do. Obviously it's frustrating to attend these things which I'm getting no benefit from, but they've been telling me that they're mandatory and failure to attend will result in my money being stopped, so I have been attending and will continue to do so. I'm away in Paris from the 12th to the 14th and I'm worried that they might arrange something for me on one of those days. Would having already paid for a holiday be a valid reason for not being able to attend or would they expect me to cancel it? I've been told in the past that the things they've arranged for me are unable to be refused or rearranged. One of the reasons I used to refuse the previously mentioned job in question was that they wanted me to work on a Saturday and I didn't wish to do so due to having already paid for a season ticket for a football club. A reason which was deemed unacceptable. I wonder if the same would apply to a holiday.

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully a friend of a friend who started an agency a few months back will agree to place me on his books without charging me for his service, although I don't expect him to actually give me any work. I'll apply for that job they want me to apply for and hope that I don't get it. I'm sure I can throw something into my C.V. that looks good but would actually be completely unsuitable for the job. Sorry if I was unclear, but the job in question is in another field. One which I would be terrible at in fact and if I did get I wouldn't be surprised if I was sacked after a week or two.

I've been unemployed for a while now and the job centre are really upping the pressure on the jobs I apply for. While I'm OK with applying for jobs outside of the area I have a degree in, some of the things I've been told are mandatory for me to do are only going to cause me to lose money. My degree was in film and I've been told that I have to get an agent that deals with this career path by next week or my money will be stopped. I explained that in this career path such agents have to be paid for and it's not financially viable for me to do so, but they weren't interested. One of the other jobs I was also shown today would cost me £20 a day if I took it, due to the travel costs being high and it being a full-time minimum wage job with only a few working hours a day. I pointed this out but they told me that at least it gives me some experience and I should just settle for what I can get. They also told me that if I don't have something else by next week and I refuse to apply for that job (yes, I was given only a week rather than the usual two) then my money will be stopped. Are they in the right to stop my money if I refuse to do both things? I can possibly work around the agency one through a contact, but a job that's going to cost me around £400 a month is obviously not worth having at all and I'd be considerably better off having no job and no benefits.

Definitely the outbound as I have looked at the ticket I'm showing and have asked why I'm being asked to show my outbound ticket. I was given the reason that I may have found or stolen the return ticket and they wanted proof that I'd purchased the ticket. So if I'm asked for my details by a conductor I'm under no obligation to give them? Also, regarding the earlier incident where I was asked to get off the train. Do I have to leave the train if I'm not being provided with a reason as to why I must get off, or if the reason isn't lawfully valid? For example in the past I was told by a conductor that he didn't want girly-boys (I have long hair) on board his train and that I would have to leave.

My station (Bramley) is a penalty fare station, but due to the situation the staff on board the trains and at Basingstoke don't give out penalty fares for failing to get a ticket prior to boarding the train there. I hadn't seen this particular guard before, so it's possible that he's new and isn't aware of the situation. The machines used to take cash but the local chavs stole the money from them on numerous occasions, so now they're card only. I forget what time it was that I was travelling, but I can confirm that the ticket office was locked as the man who works there didn't turn up until a couple of minutes before the next train arrived. I'm curious as to how you'd know if someone was there or not. I assume there's a list of hours during which the station is supposed to be manned? If that's the case then he's often not there when he's supposed to be (I wonder if he gets paid for all those hours he's missing...). Thanks for confirming that there is no such £600 fine. I have some more questions though, which are related to another incident. Yesterday on the way home from Waterloo for the third time I was asked to produce my outbound ticket upon showing my return ticket. As I don't place this ticket back in the plastic wallet after putting it through the barriers at Waterloo I struggle to find it. As I haven't shown it immediately all three conductors have told me that I'll have to pay a penalty fare for not having my outbound ticket along with my return ticket. When I do eventually find it though, they move on without issuing a PF. The thing that really annoys me about this is the fact that no-one else within my vicinity on all three occasions was asked to show their outbound ticket (most of the others are businessmen on their way home, so they're definitely not avoiding it due to their current journey being outbound). Is it right that I can be issued a penalty fare for not having my outbound ticket during my return journey? There are a number of stations that don't give the ticket back after it's been used, which makes me reluctant to use barriers if I'm not sure that I'll get the ticket back. Also, I was under the impression that standard conductors are unable to issue penalty fares? South West Trains' website says so at least: "Only those who have been specifically trained as authorized collectors can charge you a penalty fare. Authorised collectors carry an authorised collectors identification badge, which must be shown upon request." southwesttrains.co.uk/penaltyfares.aspx#64524 What are those who aren't authorized collectors able to do in such situations?

Mistaken identity was my first thought. However, I forgot to specify before that he told me that I could catch the next train, which seems strange if I've been mistaken for someone not allowed to travel. So there's nothing that First Great Western are able to issue a £600 fine for any reason?

As my station is often unmanned and the machine only accepts cards, I always ask the conductor before I board the train (or, like today, I wait in the doorway for them to walk down if they're up the other end and then ask) if I can purchase a ticket. On every occasion apart from today I have been told that I can. However, today the conductor told me to get off the train. When I asked why he refused to give me a reason, only telling me that 'I knew why'. I ignored him and sat on the train at which point he came up to me and told me that the train wouldn't be leaving the station until I either paid a £600 fine or got off the train. I asked him what the fine was for, but still all he would say was 'You know why.' A £600 fine is obviously a lot more than the fine for travelling without a ticket, so I'm wondering if it could be for something else? The company in question is First Great Western if that makes any difference.

Well the guy that assaulted me the first two times grabbed me up out of my seat, punched me in the back and shoved me off of the train on both occasions, simply because he didn't like my physical appearance. The third time I was jumped from behind and placed in a headlock. He claimed he had me mistaken for someone else, but as this man had seen me many times before, and always liked charging me a little extra money for my ticket when I was in a rush to catch a train, knowing I wouldn't argue, I somehow doubt that. There's nothing I can do about these incidents now though as they were many years in the past. At least I know now what course of action I should take if it happens again, so thanks. Regarding the incident in my initial post, I have yet to receive a letter about the incident. Does this mean that someone who deals with this actually has some common sense and I won't be fined?

Unfortunately as someone who's been assaulted by employees of National Rail on three occasions (guys with long hair aren't allowed on trains apparently!), I know how these things work. I attempted to report the first two incidents to the transport police but they told me they weren't interested. I also reported the second incident to the actual police, but was told that they couldn't do anything as National Rail is private property and only the British Transport Police can deal with such incidents. Regarding the incident which took place yesterday I was also double-teamed by another guy in plain clothes, who made it quite clear to me that he would backup whatever the guy who insulted me said if I took any action. I'm assuming the CCTV only records images as well and not sound (at least it did when a police officer assaulted me on a train station. A case which I won). Are there any other channels to go through which could deal with National Rail and the British Transport Police?

I was neither told the details that were being reported or given a penalty notice. I was only told that when they decide to take action I would receive a letter in the post. Is this another piece of misconduct by the RPI? If I'm correct he should have allowed me to switch my ticket for the correct one as I offered to do so at the first opportunity after finding out I had the incorrect ticket? He also made a personal remark towards me (told me my breath stank), something which I didn't do to him and I would assume he had no right to do to me?

What's the difference between a penalty fair and prosecution? I don't have all the details about my fine as it only happened today and obviously I've yet to receive anything by post. I would assume it was a fine for the travel from Bramley to Basingstoke though as all he was banging on about for ten minutes (it took this long before he let me say more than three words without interrupting me) was how I hadn't paid for that part of the journey. If it does turn out to be a prosecution and not a penalty fair, what action should I take then?

I wasn't aware that the train was an hour late until I got to the platform, after having purchased the ticket. The guy is hardly ever at Bramley Station and the machines don't work correctly (they're cards only because the local chavs kept stealing the cash and the touch screen doesn't work in various places, one of which completely covers an area I need to press to purchase the ticket). Most of the staff at Basingstoke and the guards on the trains seem to be aware of this problem. I did speak to a guard about it on the way home and he feels that I have a good case for contesting the fine. I also did a little bit of research and found that I should have been able to change the ticket, paying the difference, which in my case would have actually been a refund.

I bought it from a machine, so the ticket is from Basingstoke and not Bramley. I bought a London All Day Travelcard from Basingstoke with the intention of buying one from Bramley.

I travelled from Bramley station, where I am unable to purchase a ticket due to problems with the machines, which most of the staff are aware of. However, today I ran into a problem with a revenue protection officer at Basingstoke station. I eventually managed to get through to purchase a ticket but didn't have time to queue as my train was scheduled to leave in a few minutes (typically it was an hour late) and I purchased one from the machine instead. As I was tired and in a rush I wasn't thinking properly. The ticket also cost me an extra £1.25, so I didn't think about it not covering my travel from Bramley at the time. When I went through the barrier to catch the train the man from before chased me down asking to see my ticket. When he told me it didn't cover my travel from Bramley I tried to explain that I hadn't realised at the time and said I was willing to exchange it for the correct ticket. However, he said that this was unacceptable and that I would have to pay a £20 fine as well as the cost of what my ticket should have been. I protested against this explaining that I hadn't realised I had purchased the wrong ticket and that it had cost me extra anyway, but he wasn't interested. As I ended up paying more for the ticket and also went to the front of the station with the intent of buying a ticket (I could have just got on the train to Clapham Junction, then hopped on the London Overground, possibly not meeting any guards and getting free travel), do I stand any chance of winning an appeal?