Fuck everything

[sessifet]

I've been on JSA since January 6th and have been putting myself out there with agencies etc. No solid leads yet, but a lot of people are starting to remember my name and CV. This is good and I'm not worried. Right up until today. I had my call with a Job Centre representative this afternoon and after telling me my sign-in appointment last week shows as not attended (that's now fixed) he drops the following bombshell:

DWP considers me to have been unemployed for nearly a year by now and they feel I should be applying for every job I'm capable of doing, including customer service roles that are way under both my skill and pay grade. I explained that I have not been unemployed but self-employed.

So, being self-employed is enough to get my claim delayed until you're satisfied it's actually "merely" my partner supporting me while I "renovate the family home" but it's not enough to be counted as *real* employment? What kind of loophole's that? You know what? I've not been out of a job for a year. I am not going to go do a crappy little customer service job because the DWP thinks I've not been spending my time doing Real Work.

I'm not going to drop below 23k a year at my age, with my experience and with my skills. I'm a woman in tech, for fuck's sake. Do they have any fucking idea how fucking damaging a call centre job would be for my CV? I fucking did my time in the trenches and I'm done. If they seriously expect me to start applying for these dead-end jobs, I'm closing my claim and continuing doing up the house.

At least *I* know what I'm worth and so does Alex.

Fuck all of this. With a brick.

Comments

[swaldman.livejournal.com]

My understanding (which might very well be wrong - the last time I claimed JSA was a fair few years ago) is that the point at which one is expected take any job is after 13 weeks of *claiming*, not 13 weeks of being unemployed. It's none of their business what you were doing before you started to claim[1].

And no, they don't care what a call centre job would do for your CV. They are not there to help you in your career, or even to help you get a job; they are there to meet their targets :-/

(and yes, you know this. Sorry.)



[1] Well, it can affect what benefits you get, but not whether you are eligible at all.

[rjw76]

Yep, I'm pretty sure Simon is right. They cannot legally do that to you until 13 weeks. Whether or not the individual JSA advisor knows that is a massive lottery, of course...

[xidia.livejournal.com]

Yes, Simon is right, but your advisor has to put this on your claim as its reserved for those - like you - with professional skills and a career.

[khrister.livejournal.com]

Gnnh. Can you really find a big enough brick?

Maybe lots of bricks is a valid choice. Dropped from orbit.