Got a letter through from Ingeus today asking me to come to a "candidate workshop". I was never told about it, I've never heard of it and I have no idea what it even is. It didn't contain the MAN language required to mandate me, so I swiftly phoned up and said I couldn't go. My reason was because I'm at a Prince's Trust appointment, which is true. At least the PT actually care about finding you employment and supporting you and not their cash bonuses.

Hi everyone, I've just received a letter asking me to come back to Ingeus (the joy) after an 8 week stint at HIT training, who were much nicer than Ingeus. I even got a Customer Service skills certificate out of HIT which is far more useful than anything Ingeus could ever offer. I had only been with Ingeus for about 5 weeks prior to being sent of to HIT for 8 weeks, and now I'm back at Ingeus on Monday. What is going to happen now? Will they ask me to come in more often? I didn't sign the consent forms on my first day so I'm going to make it as hard as possible for them to put me on any useless courses as I'm pretty proficient in English and interview skills already. I need to get out of there ASAP!

Thank you for your quick response, Honeybee! It's great to know that swearing an oath doesn't cost as much as I thought, but I rang a few solicitors in my area and they quoted me £100-120! I suppose next time I will ring them up and tell them I've been quoted a much lower amount and maybe they will lower their quote... I shall see. Thanks again!

Hello all, I am a 21 year old female who has never left the UK or held a UK passport. Last year in October I sent off my application, paid for it etc. and was excited at the prospect of finally leaving the country for the first time. I included both my mother's and my own original birth certificates for proof of identity. Here's where it gets a bit confusing, so I'll try and explain as best as I can.* *I've changed the names for privacy reasons. They declined my application because on my birth certificate, it says Nicola Adams, but her real name is Nicola Smith, so it says Nicola Smith on her birth certificate. The reason it says Nicola Adams on my birth certificate is because years ago, when she was with my brother's dad (different dads) whose surname was Adams, she changed her name unofficially (without deed poll) to Adams also, because at the time there was a stigma around having children out of wedlock apparently. So she took it upon herself to just change her second name to my brother's dad's second name, without any legal records of the change. Now because she never changed it by deed poll, there are no records of her name change, and the passport authorities want proof of this name change so they know that my mother really is... My mother! When they said they declined my application, she called them up and asked how we would go about proving this. They said that we would have to get a solicitor to get my mother to sign an oath or something of that nature, but this costs a lot of money. Does anybody have any advice for me? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

I got referred to a workshop a couple of weeks ago but I didn't attend it because I was ill. I was just wondering if, when the advisor is going over the different workshops that would be suited to you, you had to accept them? Or do they only become mandatory when they book you in for these workshops and you accept?

Hey all, I'm due to go in tomorrow and I've just had a text reminder about my appointment. Last week (as some of you may have seen from my previous post) I went in to sit in front of a computer for an hour, unassisted, to do a pretty pointless job search which I could've done at home and not wasted any time going in and out of town. I vaguely remember reading something in this thread about these computer job searches not actually being mandatory despite what they say, and that I can ask for a Mandatory Activity Notification to prove this. Can anybody shed some light on this? Any help would be appreciated

Hey guys, I've been following this thread for a short while as I've just been referred to these pimps through JCP. I had my second "appointment" today. All I did was get sent to a computer and stare at a computer screen blankly for an hour looking for jobs. I said to the receptionist "I could just do this at home. Is this mandatory?" She pursed her lips and nodded at me and went "Mmhmm, sorry." My first appointment was hilarious though. A couple of nights before I was due to go in and see my advisor, I googled "Ingeus work programme" and looked through this thread so I knew what to expect (I knew it wasn't good, put it that way) and I'm so glad I did. I went in there that day with the knowledge that signing the forms of consent was completely voluntary and no amount of bullying could get me to sign them. We talked for a while, she spouted some rubbish at me, asked me a few questions and what not. When it came to form signing time, I said: "I won't be signing the forms." "Okay, that's fine... But why not?" Her face changed VERY quickly and she suddenly had this slight snarl on her face, giving me subtle yet obvious evil eyes... "Because I have the right to protect my personal data under the Data Protection Act, and I don't want you hassling any of my future employers." "We don't hassle your employers. We're here to help and support you, and if you don't give me consent then I am unable to help you." "Well I'm sorry, but I'm not signing the forms." "So you're saying that I'm now unable to do my job now?" "No, I know you can still do your job. You can still do it whether I sign the forms or not. I know that it's part of your job to keep me on the database for a period of two years and periodically contact my employer, and I don't want them to get the wrong impression of me." "But you've got to understand that I'm here to help you in any way possible and give you all the support you need to find a job..." "I'm not signing them... That's that." At this point she looked at me blankly for a couple of seconds, went "...Right. Okay." and that was that. When she wrapped the interview up, she told me to take the forms home and think about it. Empty forms still reside in the plastic pocket she gave me a week ago, and I intend to keep them free of ink forever. She also gave me an e-mail address to forward her my CV. I'm still not sure if I should do this. Any ideas? Anyway, there's my story so far. I'll be sure to post here when appropriate to update everyone and hope I get some helpful responses- likewise give other people advice- with how to deal with these leeches in future