Info and forum posts by 'Petracca'

RE: Job Seekers Allowance Farce

I am having problems regarding JSA at the moment. I have worked for nearly 40 years but the past couple of years I have found difficulty in getting a permanent job, mainly I think because of my age. I had to sign on and stuck to the rules i.e. filling in my book saying what vacancies I had gone for etc., after 18 months and a few interviews later I was still on JSA. They then sent me to New Deal. What a farce this turned out to be. After 13 weeks of making an hour bus journey each way to get to the ND office, I had not been shown ONE job (although I was still looking myself), all they seemed interested in was putting me on a course for 4 months to keep me off the streets. Being 59 years old I couldn`t think what course would benefit me. After a lot of stress a friend actually paid for me to sign off and enough money to have a 5 month break. When the 5 months was up I phoned the Job Centre and asked if I could come back on JSA as a new claim - the answer was yes. It has been nearly 7 weeks and I have not received a penny. The Job Centre gave me a phone number to ring (which I have done 3 times) and it has been a waste of time. I have now been told (after loosing my temper) that a Decision Maker is looking into whether I will get any money or not. It seems they didn`t like the fact that I signed off without having a job to go to, and they are also not happy that I managed to get by without claiming any benefit for 5 months. My reaction was that if I wanted to sign off and live off my own money that was up to me. It seems they think that there is more to it (which there isn`t). I will be retiring in 7 months and I have been treated like a criminal - it is a disgrace - especially when I have worked all my life life:( It is obvious that they ones who have no intention of working are allowed to get away with it - I have sat with people at the Job Centre who have strolled in hours after their time with a can of beer in their hand and they are "slotted in" so they don`t miss their payment - makes me sick.