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Jobcentre staff bully and harass claimants

This news post is over 8 years old
 

Claimants bullied and reduced to tears, MSPs are told

Holyrood's welfare reform committee has heard how Jobcentres bully and often reduce claimants to tears.

And those on welfare to work schemes spend all day repeatedly cold-calling frustrated companies who do not have any work to offer, MSPs were told.

The committee heard from claimants on a first-name basis only for fear of incurring sanctions by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

One claimant who gave evidence to the committee said that Jobcentre advisers made her ill and stressed after being made redundant from a lifetime of working.

Donna, a former Church of Scotland development worker from Glasgow, said she felt bullied by Jobcentre advisers.

She said of her first interview with the Jobcentre: "He made me feel like I was imagining my problems and I didn't have any problems,” she said.

I would have been in a mental institution if I had stayed with that first adviser

"He was saying to me: 'It's not like you've got a leg missing.' Each time he made me cry.

"I would have been in a mental institution if I had stayed with that first adviser - or I would have shot him."

Another claimant called Jake, from Glasgow, said: "Sometimes you sit on the phone from nine to five each day making calls for jobs but you know you're not going to get anything. It's depressing."

She added: "The booklet I got was all of the cleaning companies, the laundry companies, you were just to phone up and say you're looking for work. Most of them would say: 'Don't phone here again.'

SNP MSP Christina McKelvie said the system amounts to "class warfare" with "propaganda" against the unemployed.

"A report from the DWP suggested only 24% of people going through the work programme were successful and only 9% of them were in a job after a year," she said.

"The DWP had paid the providers £1.8bn since the scheme had started for that kind of outcome. Is all of that money worth it?"

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: "If it is as described, this is in effect state-sanctioned cold-calling. This has really disturbed and upset me. In fact it has disgusted me.

"The system that we have created and the atmosphere in this system is so wrong, I find it incredible the more evidence that people presents to us.

"It also disgusts me what they have done to public services on the frontline having to deal with people going through this bloody system, because I don't think for one second 99.9% of them want to treat people like this.”

 

Comments

0 0
emmahope
over 8 years ago
SO WHY DOESNT SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT FOR F SAKE
0 0
nik
almost 5 years ago
i agree with you about jobcentre staff mine is just sending me for jobs i havent done before
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Dawn
over 4 years ago
I am disabled and I have and I'm going through bullying from the jobcentre plus in Stroud Gloucestershire England they put me down and used to text me through the night they lie and whatever I try to do to get a job they say it is not good enough they also say my CV is not good enough I get threatening letters for spelling mistakes and I get told I that I do not want to work yet I have came out of work because of anosmia and back problems they do not look at my work search they tell me I am not looking for work yet my work search is there in black and white these people are very cruel I have complained band swapped advisor but they are all sticking together. And the next bully comes along
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t raven
over 8 years ago
None of this surprises me and all of it is enough to make people physically ill. People are expected to find jobs and apply for them, when they're just not jobs out there to apply for so how are they meant to do that.
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r
over 8 years ago
Yes, Good that there was that report. You try and train yourself but they don't allow you to train for a qualification. You end up doing volunteering for experience, rather than having a qualification. In my field, I get a lot of "what's your qualification?". Then another advisor tells you it's OK to study, if you don't tell anyone, then another, it's OK to study full-stop. Wasting people's time who want to get on with things.
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Chunk
over 8 years ago
All these stats are fixed and blagged so we only hear when they are positive.
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Craig Gilchrist
about 1 year ago

I have experienced this. I even have the conversation recorded. I was put in Limited Capability by DWP. I was facing homelessness back in 2019 and had to move areas. My Work Coach where I used to live was so nice and was helping me a lot. I then moved to the other side of the city. Covid happened and I was told that in certain circumstances I could keep my old workcoach. Due to Covid I heard nothing really until January. A really Bullying phonecall from a different work coach threatening me to accept circumstances I did not understand and threating to sanction me if I dont. He has taken years off me. I was so afraid on the call he wasnt even the same guy that was on my Journal. He knew nothing about me and was definatly told to just force me into something he was vile to me. I was so afraid of losing the roof over my head and not being able to eat I logged into my UC and the first screen up was You either accept these conditions or you will get no further payments. I just agreed to them in a daze. I suffer with Depression and Anxiety. I also have heart problems and this guy has almost killed me. I am on antidepressants and currently awaiting a meeting with a counsellor. I cant handle this anymore.

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christine
over 1 year ago

I am 64 in November and have had little recent experiance with work (covid etc) and am not well with diabetes anxiety and depression. I have been threatened with sanctions. The latest was when i let the job centre know i wasnt able to attend my appointment........I had a short break away (First time in two and half years) and told them a few days in advance. Not they say They wont sanction me this time but i need to know they might in the future !! This sanctions get you even more depressed because being in dept and barely able buy enough food is obviously very worrying!! We need it to live so they shouldnt make threats of sanctions all the time

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Michael harrild
over 1 year ago

I have copd and am being forced to attend the job centre even though I am at high risk of infections.i have just told them I can't make an appointment today because of a chest infection.to be told they have made me another on on a Saturday in 5 days lol.how long do they think chest infections in people with copd last for.i have been waiting for an appointment and assessment for incapacity for work.

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Plip
almost 2 years ago

Some of them are nice. Some of them are not nice.

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