Work Programme

[jasta11]

On a slightly different note, I have a UJM account I didn't give them the right to view it for a long time but it just got too much whenever I signed on, the hassle and grief they give you, so in the end I give them the right to view it and to be honest I have had no bother at all, most the time they never check it when I am there any way, never have any messages from them, and it is easy just to log all my job search where they can see that I am trying my best to find work.

 

I never get asked to give access now, nor do they even mention it at all - the advisors know they'll get reported if they get pushy.

 

Just remember to check your UJ regularly - they might not message you for ages then when you're least expecting it, they'll find a job for you to apply for and you miss it. I wouldn't put it past them to deliberately do it this way to catch people out.

 

My advisor is always very happy with the screen prints I show from Reed and CV-Library - she says it makes her job so much easier as there's nothing to raise any doubts over, everything is neatly listed, detailed and dated. She's even showed them to her managers before and asked why aren't customers being told to use these sites rather than UJ?.

 

..naturally her managers didn't listen to her. Last thing they want is for all of us to produce well-documented jobsearch; that would lower the sanction rates!

[tezzaa61]

Hi,

 

I missed an appointment with my "Work Coach" on Monday, it would have been my second appointment with her. I just forgot I had the appointment as I have recently just signed-on again for JSA and in my head I was just thinking I had to sign-on every two weeks as I used to - so as I was due to sign-on on Thursday this week, it just slipped my mind that I had an appointment with my Work Coach on Monday.

 

I have an appointment with "Enquiries" at the JC this morning, for them to find out why I failed to attend.

 

Is there anything I can say in mitigation or should I expect they will be keen to sanction me?

 

Thanks in advance.

[jasta11]

Don't want to sound negative but this is exactly the thing they will sanction people for, as it's an easy cut and dried case. Had it happen to me once for exactly the same reason as you; I got the dates wrong . Luckily for me they didn't follow rules and inform me in writing of the sanction so I got it overturned. In a fair world they would take into account your previous record of punctuality and accept that it was a genuine human error but the JC are target-driven and will take any chance to sanction people. This is why I use zero tolerance against them now and report them for the slightest error. It's sad things have to be this way.

 

If you can think of (ie invent) a good - and proveable - reason which would justify your missing the appointment, ie family emergency or something then it's worth a try. If you simply admit it was an honest mistake then it won't do any good, as apparently we're supposed to be perfect! If your adviser is a decent person they may let it go (and I hope they do) but sadly decent advisers are few and far between, I have found.

 

If they do sanction you, make sure they've done it in accordance with the guidelines and notified you first, not just stopped your money. You can then at least raise a fuss and it may get overturned.

 

Good luck and let us know what happens.

[essexmat]

My JCP and WP provider used to text me the day before reminding me of my appointments. I have mine in my g-calendar anyway but it is always useful to be reminded.

 

I hope you don't get sanctioned and you can convince them it was an honest mistake but as jasta11 says I am not sure how much weight this will hold.

 

A bit of advice without preaching - if you have a gmail account/calendar or smartphone set up reminders as you find out about appointments or even the less techy way, big bit of paper by the place you go to most in your house i.e. toilet/kitchen with black marker writing saying "JCP TOMORROW AT 11AM" etc - set alarms in advance as well.