Flickyhecky
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Everything posted by Flickyhecky
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Electronic Signing - you don't need to use it.
Flickyhecky replied to jasta11's topic in Benefits and HMRC
Signed on yesterday, had my first experience with electronic signing. Now i usually hate signing for things electronically, my signature always comes out horrible on those hand held devices used by delivery firms, but was plesently surprised that the DWP machine captured my signature (ok, so it took 6 attempts for it to understand)... ...but then i had to do it for real, and that's when the fun started! Due to being self concious about signing, it took 12 attempts for me (sorry, the machine) to get it right and got 76% accuracy, i guess it's partly my fault because my signature is basically a complicated squiggle! -
Well that's what usually happens, they give you a letter that you sign, and it informs you that it's mandatory, and you usually get given a slip of paper that the people at the fair get you to sign to show you've seen them.
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When i signed on the 1st June, i noticed a small (half A4 size) notice about a Jobs Fair the day after (2nd June), anyway, i signed on as normal and was just about to leave when i asked about the Jobs Fair, he said it was mandatory, and i left... ...the thing is, he made no attempt during the signing to mention about it or give me a "direction" letter, and because of this i completely forgot about the Jobs Fair the day after. Can i still be santioned for not going, i thought they had to give you written notice of it detailing the penalties for not attending, all i had was just an unofficial verbal notice (well basically him saying "Yeah it's tomorrow at 10.30", he had to ask someone else if it was mandatory)...does this make it a verbal contract, don't think he put anything about it on the system. I would've attended if i was given proper notice, but because i'm scatterbrained, i genuinely forgot about it.
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I received a letter last week about a "Notice of Transfer of your Account", in fact their was two letters, one from MMF, with whom i've had various letters already saying that they are taking over the debt, then their's a dodgy looking letter from "Pounds Till Payday" s aying that they have transferred the rights of the debt to MMF. ..the thing is both letters look exactly the same, the address is spelt wrong, and it has a curious square scan mark, which is the same as both, now call me suspicous, but the Pounds Till Payday letter has no address, no contact number, just their logo in the corner. MMF do not have my e-mail address or my contact phone number. ..i think i will just leave them to keep sending me letters all the time. The debt is £253.97.
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This is my local Job Centre (sadly), they treat people like dirt, and i can guess which nasty advisor did this! I want a t-shirt made up of the front cover of The Mirror with this story on it, just so i can remind them each time i sign on. As for hardship, they don't tell you about it when your sanctioned, they just leave you to it. My advisor didn't even bother to check my UJ account last week, they just let me sign my form and go, wonder if they actually feel a twinge of guilt...i doubt it!
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Went to my local Job Centre today only to find out that they have removed the Job Points, and out of the 7 phones they had, only 1 was left, their excuse...all the jobs on the Job Points can be found on Universal Jobmatch, and we should be helping ourselves by using OUR own phones! I've hated being unemployed for ages now, but this just smacks of being heartless! Job Centres are supposed to help us get back into work, but in my eyes, this whole UJ system is only in place to catch us out and sanction us! The sooner i'm off this nightmare roundabout...the better!
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Sanctions serve no purpose at all, the DWP say it's supposed to be a wake-up call to get us to buck our ideas up, but once you've had your money stopped, then you have no motivation to look for work. You have no money for food, gas or electric, they tell the council, if your clued up about that then you can sort it out straight away. If i get sanctioned next week i shall tell my advisor that i'll be halving my job searches till i get full money again! These welfare reforms are supposed to be simplifying things, but to me, they have made things 100 times worse!
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help i've been sanctioned HB + JSA stopped
Flickyhecky replied to Poorman69's topic in Benefits and HMRC
Yes, best own up to doing work...but...i've had times where i've gone up to London for the day and not looked for work, didn't tell them, not worth the hassle! The whole system is messed up, i'm dreading signing on again nest monday, i haven't looked for work on 24th, 25th and 26th December or 31st and 1st January...i've enjoyed myself over the festive period with my family...and that's how it should be, we shouldn't be looking for work during that time! -
I'm setting up my UJ account at the Job Centre this afternoon...any tips on do's and dont's? I've set up another Hotmail account, because it's the only way i can get my CV onto the system! Will it realise that i had a go myself at setting up an account this morning already on my PC? Another quick thing, my advisor (or Work Coach), has said that i need to bring my Work Diary with me for every appointment, as this isn't a proper scheduled appointment (she usually prints off a letter), do i have to bring it with me, she already checked it last Thursday! Is it a sanctionable offence, not get anything in writing about it!
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Next monday i am expected to plan out my 35 hour a week Jobsearch for the JC. How are they going to monitor this, and is it actually possible to search for work for 7 hours solidly every day of the week? Also setting up a UJ account. It usually takes me 2 hours a day to do a Jobseach, so it's gonna be a struggle to make it last 7 hours a day!
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Signing on is starting to stress me out big time! My advisor wrote out a new agreement the other month, have to apply for 20 jobs a fortnight, but didn't notice that she also put i had to do 20 actions a week, that's 40 a fortnight! (i've just about coped with just 10-15 a fortnight), so the person signing me on warned me about it. Any tips on how to pad out my work diary? Still not on UJ yet, but was just reading about something that screws it up when they check (did i read that right?), i'm setting up a cheap and cheerful account just to keep them happy, so want to try this thing out on them next time i sign on! Went on a course last week that basically told me my CV was all wrong, so it's being re-written. It's getting to the point where i actually want to do the MWP just to get them off my back!
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I'm off to the Job Centre in 30 mins to attend the Skills Conditionality National Careers Service thingy. I get to create my first UJ account, they are going to give me a new e-mail addy, cos they can whistle if they think i'm going to give them my proper one! Now i need a unique password for it...any suggestions? Attended a "Back to Work" workshop last week with a group of 9 other people, basically the woman laid down the law about what's expected from us now, 40 hour job search, all the different ways of looking for work, sanctions. I was the only one brave enough to pipe up about a question about answering your mobile... I have a long standing fear about answering my phone to people i don't know, i usually ignore it, but the woman said it COULD be a santcionable offence, as it would mean i'm technically not available for work if i don't answer it. (I only answer my phone if i know someone's going to call)
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This morning i went to my first mandatory Jobs and Careers Fair in town, it's a FREE event, yet the staff at the JC treated us like common criminals with their threats of sanctions if we didn't go to it, but that's not all, once we filled in a form (local council housing?), we had to have our name checked off from the JC register (or sanction list as i called it!), we were then given a piece of paper where we had to write down 5 employers that we've met today and what we did, this was also written with the threat of sanctions if we didn't comply! Don't forget, this is a FREE event and everyone is welcome...unless your unemployed ****! 75 stands of which 10 were any use to me, most were agencies that i've already signed up with, loads of colleges trying to entice 18-25 year olds to join, and only 4 proper companies looking to recruit people! Didn't like the attitude of the DWP staff walking around asking random people if they've found anything useful yet! Oh well, at least i got lots of free pens from it!
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JC said that they will give us our own special e-mail addy, don't mind that because i'll never use it outside of doing a job search. So the 1998 Data Protection Act is still ok to fallback on with regards to ticking that pesky box? I shall tell the other 2 people about it as well! So, gonna set up an account, but refuse to tick box! JC just called...it's been cancelled, so gotta wait for them to make another appointment!
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2 things:- I have an appointment with the Job Centre tomorrow (along with 2 other people) to create a UJ account, as i refused to give my advisor my e-mail address, so they are going to do it on-site, don't mind them doing this as they will set up an e-mail address that i'll never use outside of doing this UJ! I have it all planned out, log in at 7-8am every morning and apply for as many jobs as possible, if i do that every day it should keep them quiet and off my back for a while! Also i have been mandated to attend a Jobs Fair in October, i guess this is a recent thing as i avoid these like the plauge, so i guess i'll have to give my CV to a few people and get the JC stand to confirm i attended! Yes, i suppose i'm starting to jump through their hoops now, after 2 years of Igneus, my brain has turned to mush! (not that i went to Igneus all that often!)
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I'm now off Ingeus and onto the "Post Work Programme Support" part. Ingeus sent me a letter saying that they were going to send an "exit report" to the JC, letter doesn't mention at all about me not turning up for a year and a half! So i'm wondering if they are going to drop me right in the ikky stuff (which will also drop them right in it too!), or will they fabricate it and give me a glowing report? I DID get sanctioned by the way, for 2 weeks, i missed one of my appointments last June, but because of the new sanction rules it didn't happened until last month, so hoping that's all i'll have. If they sanctioned me back in March 2012 then i probably would've toed the line after that, serves them right really!
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Well that was interesting... Had a nice advisor, who was basically nasty but in a friendly way! Briefly spoke about my 2 years on the WP, said they gave me bugger all help, felt bullied into doing things, which is why i hadn't been for the past year and a half (i'm sure that'll catch up with me eventually!) Going to open a UJ account, but not using any of my known e-mail addresses...the JC are going to give me one, so i'm gonna play ball for now with this. They also want me to follow them on Twitter, because apparently they can help you find work that way as well. So told them i'll be opening a new account just for that! (i don't want them to read my tweets!) The biggie now...you are so gonna love THIS!!!.... We have a Jobs Fair in town next October, they have one ever so often, never taken much notice, i've been to a few, but wasn't much help...but this time...it's mandatory...how does that work exactly? It's a free event, my advisor says that it's expensive to put on and by forcing EVERY claiment to go, they hope at least a few people will get something out of it! My JS agreement isn't all that bad now, gotta apply for 10 jobs a week ... for now. I find the best thing to do at these interviews is distract the advisor in any way, it throws then! My only problem now is that i have a huge amount of appointments to keep in the next 2-3 weeks (5 i think, i know i'm gonna forget about one of them!)
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I have my first Post Work Programme interview tomorrow... Only one thing i need to know, now that i've left the WP, can JCP sanction me for missing an appontment whilst on the WP, or does it have to be done by the people on the WP? If you've read my other posts then you'll know the reason why i'm asking! I got sanctioned for 2 weeks at the start of August for missing an appointment last July, but that's not the half of it!
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I've been forgotton about... Haven't been to Ingeus since March 2012! (I started September 2011), i stopped going because it wasn't doing me any good for my mental well being, i've had various letters and messages on my phone, but have ignored them, but the thing is i've still been signing on, did 12 weeks temporary work last October/December (Job Centre knew about this), yet i haven't been santioned, neither has the Job Centre asked about it. Have i broken Ingeus? By the way, i'm doing exactly the same thing i would've been doing at Ingeus (spending hours looking at the same jobs week in week out on the Job Pages on the Internet.) I didn't want to do the pointless excercises and programs!
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After spending ages finding my Birth Certificate i joined a few agencies in town, one of them gave me some work just 3 days later. I enjoy what i do, it's under 16 hours a week and gets me out of my flat for a while. I get between £50 and £55 a week doing this and have been signing on as usual and filling out the forms detailing what hours i've done, so they've no scaled my benefits down from £130ish a fortnight to just under £40 a fortnight, so basically they've taken the amount that i earn from my wages from my benefit...is that how it works? My council tax and housing benefit have been suspended for a while because of it, it's being delt with now, but is their any other financial help i can get as i feel as if i'm now working for nothing.
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Having not been to Ingeus since March, i have found a part time job through an agency (under 16 hours, more of that in a thread i'll start later), anyway, apart from getting letters and phone calls during that time, they have now given up and sent me an "In Work Support" leaflet. I haven't told them that i've joined this agency or indeed working, so have the DWP told them, i don't want them taking any credit for finding me work as i did this by myself and don't want anything to do with them anymore. I'm also still signing on as it's under 16 hours a week, so maybe they can still keep tabs on me that way?
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Got what looks like a standard letter from the DWP (in Belfast) about my non-attendance of the Work Programme, it's just basically information about the different levels of santions. Is this just to scare me into going back to Ingeus? Haven't had an appointment letter since the DWP (this time the Watford one) sent me a letter asking for my reasons for not attending. Can't remember what i wrote, something about being fed up of being builled into doing stuff i don't want too! I shall probably attend if they sent me a letter, but i'll be well prepaired to say "NO" to things, all i want is a job like everyone else!
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Need urgent advice about Jobseeker's Allowance
Flickyhecky replied to K301982P's topic in Benefits and HMRC
I'm in the process of being santioned due to not turning up at Ingeus...i have no intention of ever going their again (In fact i haven't been since March, due to being bullied into going on stupid courses to help my wellbeing issues!), and yes, the threat of a santion has only made me more determined to find a job, but being santioned is NOT the answer, their are no jobs around at the moment, and the jobs they advertise need experience or qualifications. Is it any wonder people have mental health problems when you have to jump through so many hoops just to get the basic amount of money to live on! I wish i was a non-English speaking immigrant now...they get everything! -
In March i saw my Wellbeing advisor (she deals with mental health issues), chatted to her for over an hour and felt the questioning quite intrusive, as their are some parts of my past that are best left in the past! Anyway, told her i had trouble sleeping, this was actually because of my cats waking me up at silly o'clock, so she booked me an aapointment for a "sleep awareness" type session. I told her that i wasn't very good in groups, so bottled out when the time came to go...this is where the problem starts, because of my past, when i miss an appointment i tend to get scared and don't go back again... ...it is now 4 months since i last went to Ingeus, i've had loads of letters come through (not opened them, but i assume they were appointments), and today i have just recieved a letter from Job Centre about missing an appointment on 13th July and that i need to explain why i didn't turn up otherwise they will santion my benefits. Do i tell them the truth and say that i don't like the intrusive nature the Well Being person has been? All i want to do is find a job, i don't need the hassle of having sessions about sleep and allsorts. I'm not benefiting at all by being with Ingeus, and was quite happy before looking for work in my own way. (Not that their is any decent work at the moment.)
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It's deducted straight from my benifits, got all my letters together and i have 2 duplicate reference numbers!
