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Hello my friends i am very new to this site and having been reading throught the forum for a while tonight i was wondering if any of you could offer some advice.
I am a single mum who has a daughter who has just turned 7. I have been signing on in the Northampton job centre plus since July last year. I have seen a lone parent advisor since January this year. The first meeting i had with her she tried to get me to change the hours avaliable for work( they are at 25 hrs). She wanted me to put down that i could start work at 9am regardless of the fact that i am lone parent. Needless to say i challenged that and was kind of made to feel that i was causing a problem because of it. The next interview i asked about any college courses and was told i could be referred for a IT course, i asked her how long it was and she said i was a 20hr course( it has since transpired that it is 20hrs a week) and i start this tommorow. My advisor has now informed me that after week 44 of signing on i will have to go into the job centre DAILY to sign on! I asked her if she realised how much this would cost me as i did not want to walk the 10 or so miles a day and she said i could get a job seekers bus pass for half price travel. i have since been in touch with stagecoach buses who have told me the pass only applies to single fares,so this will not save me any money at all! That will be £12 per week out of my jsa which i can not afford. Also if i have no job by school holidays does that mean i have to take my daughter in there every day? My lone parent advisor said that this was accross the board and she had no say in the matter although she knows i am looking hard for a job! I can not face going into that place every day and am very stressed by this. Have any of you guys had to do this?
Many thanks
Hi Mary,
Thank you for getting bck to me. I have filled in a question form from the link you supplied,many thanks!
I started the college course today and although i don't quite feel empowered i can not see it doing any harm :) All the information i was given was wrong from the number of hours to the actual course itself and qualification or lack of ;) It is very basic working from a booklet and includes how to turn on your computer and although i am by no means a genius i do feel that the assessment i already went though should have informed me properly of this.So as far as the course goes it will be fine!
As for the daily signing i really am not sure what to do, i can not seem to find anything about it.There does not seem to be a official line about this but will look again later as i am definatley going to challenge this. I look for work and until recently i was still volunteering at my old place of work. I start new volunteering training this week and my advisor knows all of this.The daily sighning feels like a punishment! And as my fab advisor said to me 'you dont want to come i here everyday do you?' So as far as i am aware week 44 is daly signing and then week 50 is work fare. I have a job interview on thursday so fingers x i will get it and then i wont have to do any of it.
many thanks again 
Hi bagpipe, i can't say that i have heard anything about the daily signing on, i will check with Laura our guru on all these types things and get back to you.
Good luck with the interview.
bagpipe,
I hope it is some sort of mistake about daily signing. If not I don't know what purpose it is meant to serve. It just appears to be intentionally disruptive and of no value whatsoever in helping you find work. In my opinion it does appear like a punishement. You mention the cost and of course that will be a huge problem. But also it could be stressful. Being a Mum is a full time job and to deliberately make you waste time on a pointless activity means you have less time to care for your daughter.
If your daughter has to accompany you daily during the holidays it also seems very unfair on her. Why should she be forced to attend a jobcentre (not the most pleasant or child friendly places) every day during her holidays.
Good luck with your interview and hopefully you will escape daily signing. I can only feel concern for any single Mum and their children who would be forced to do this.
Bagpipe,
I am afraid that individual jobcentres can make up their own rules in relation to the frequency that they can ask people to sign on. I agree that it seems unfair to get you to go each day and I am not sure how this will help with your job search. It is also totally not on that you have to pay to go there each day. The jobcentre should pay your fares. Ask if they will do this under the Flexible Support Fund. In terms of the school holidays you can request for postal signings to take account of your caring responsibilities. Your daughter should not be expected to spend her school holidays travelling each day to the jobcentre. Overall although Jobcentre Plus do have discretion about how often someone signs on I think it is worth complaining to the manager of the office (set it out in writing). Raise your concerns and ask them why they are doing what they are doing.
Let me know how you get on. I am happy to raise with the Head Office of the DWP if you do not manage to resolve with the jobcentre.
Laura
Thanks for your post Laura,
Bagpipe, will you write to the manager of the Jobcentre, it would be great to hear how you get on. It seems so ridiculous.
Hello friends,
Many thanks for your replies. I am going to try and fight this if and when it happens. I am dancing through all the hoops i am being given and there has been nothing in my time signing on that would give them the need to make me sign on every day. It is a degrading,depressing punnishment for not having found a job yet and i feel this is wrong on so many levels! When i asked what the point was my lone parent advisor told me that it was because people dont lok for workand it was accross the board and she had no hand in it, i took this to mean that everyone will have to sign on every day after week 44. i will complain and raise my issue with the manager when the time comes. Also just to mention my lone parent advisor said i would not be able to claim for fares into the job centre and instead gave me a job seekers travel pass that will not save me any money at all! ,she also said it shouldnt affect job search as i can look on computer in the evening. I am doing the college course, i am going through mentor training to volunteer and i am looking for work i am not sure what else they want me to do.
I will let you know if this happens i was supposed to see her next week but due to mentor training i won be seeing her untill may.
Thanks again and hope you are all having a good week xx
Bagpipe,
It sounds like you are doing loads to move into work. So frustrating that the Jobcentre are also making you jump through additional hoops. I will raise the issues about fares with the DWP. It does not seem right that your fares are not covered if they expect you to go in each day. In terms of your daughter her well-being should be protected in any job seeking agreement that you sign. So for instance the hours that you agree to work and journey times. In terms of your agreement and job seeking preparation you are now expected to spend the same amount of time looking for work in a week as you would the hours when you move into work (so if it is agreed that you will need to work 20 hours then this is the amount to time you should be spending preparing to find work - including volunteering). There are flexibilities that mean that you should be allowed to spend time with your daughter as well as job search. Expecting as routine that you should be job searching in the evening seems unfair and I would raise this.
I know that you will not be seeing your adviser until May. Do keep us informed about how you get on and all the very best to you.
Laura
Bagpipe,
I raised daily signings with the policy people at the DWP. You are getting the wrong advice from your Jobcentre. This is what they stated:
"However as a general guide it is correct to say that Jobcentres have the discretion to decide how to deliver their services and this may, at their discretion, include asking jobseekers to attend the Jobcentre more frequently. In terms of travel into the office the guidance states that claimants living within two miles of the office can be asked to attend daily; claimants between two and four miles from the office can be asked to attend twice a week; and more than four miles from the office must not be asked to attend more than once a week. Jobseekers that are being asked to attend more frequently should be informed that they are entitled to have their travel expenses reimbursed if they are attending an interview not on their normal day of attendance."
Do let me know how you get on with your adviser after your course finishes. Thank you also for raising this important point. I will make sure that other single parents are made aware.
Laura
Laura
I can not tell you how happy your last post has made me feel! I have googled the trip from my front door to the job centre and it is 6.2 miles! I shall go and see my lone parent advisor armed with this knowledge! I am shocked at how much the individual advisors re-invent their own policies. When i was told that i would have to sighn every day it caused great distress and lowered my already low well being, all i could think of was how was i going to manage it and what would happen in the holidays. I would do it if i had to but my daughter shouldnt be put through this.
The help you have given me has made me feel better and i do thank you very much for that! I also agree that it is important to make single parents aware of this, coming from a counselling career i know how worrying over things like this can lower well being and affect a whole family!
I finished my mentor training and have now been accepted as a volunteer mentor working with probation, and i am wizzing through the IT course,another job interview tommorow so thinking good thoughts!
Again thank you so much for this information, and i hope you are all having a fab sunny day!
Bagpipe,
All the very best to you and fingers and toes crossed for your job interview tomorrow.
Laura
Hello bagpipe,
Welcome to One Space. What a terrible going on for you! The difficulty a lot of people are facing at present is that the benefits individuals are entitled to is changing rapidly, so unless you are totally up to the minute with what's going on you can be told everything/anything (and you obviously go along with it for fear of losing your benefits altogether). It is an absolute farce that it depends on the advisor you have as to the quality of advice you recieve (but I know this to be true from when I was getting Income support/JSA).
Have you read through any of the other threads in this (Benefits and You) section? some of them might prove very useful to you. You could also contact our benefits expert - I've inserted a link here - they ay well be able to answer you queries.
What you have been told with regard to signing every day certainly seems excessive - I'm not surprised you want to check it out. I've posted a link to the JSA pages here as well, just for you to read through and see what the official line is.
How are you feeling about starting your computer course? I hope you're feeling it's something that might empower you rather than something you've been duped into doing.
Stay in touch,
Mary
P.s. I edited your real name out of your message so you can post anonymously :)