New Deal and Flexible New Deal Exposed

New Deal and the Job Centre is a sack of shit. I trained in construction and qualified in 2005 as a somewhat enthusiastic 20 year old, and now the industry has been decimated by cheap foreign labour, greedy contractors, and globalisation I have had no choice but to sign on for the past 2 years on and off whilst trying to change career. I have been sent on poxy courses where an interview is promised but am then let down. I have another one tomorrow where I have to explain my situation yet again to start another course which will probably lead nowhere, infact just making the small course companies money as thats all they care about. I got so fed up with it I applied for the Army in August 2009 and I am still waiting to join that because all pissed off people like me are joining up to escape this disgraceful society we live in, so there is waiting lists for it. And if that isn’t enough, you also get stereotyped by the people in work as a ‘Bum’ or a ‘Scrounger’ just because you are signing on.

Welcome to catch 22 Britain, if you’re working class, you’re fucked.

Also forgot to mention, they do have to meet targets and were forcing people into jobs that people didnt want, and if they didnt take them they were sending people back to the job center and losing there job seekers allowance, there was one guy on the course when i was there had 25 years in the shipyards as a wellder and they tried to force him into a job cleaning at the metro centre for min wage! Total joke. I tell you how well organised they are, 2 weeks after i finished the course i recived a letter saying you recently finished your a4e course at Gateshead i wasnt even at Gateshead i was at Newcastle. Didnt have a clue what they were doing? Total joke.

I have recently finished a course at A4e and i can honestly say that all the above is true. The place is a tip a accident waiting to happen, rooms all overcrowded, very unhelpfull staff, infact most of them were just hopeless. Toilets were terrible, doors hanging off. I was there 13 weeks and was never repaired. Windows wouldnt open, the hole place needed a good clean, never seen any cleaners, i think staff have to do it. Couldnt use the lifts but staff were aloud too. Could take drinks outside even though every dinner time there was a van outside that sold drinks. Were is the logic in that? Managment didnt know there arse from there elbow, one member of manager a female didnt even know 5 of the companys own health and safety rules. Other members of staff were, rude, treat you like you were at school. The hole place was terrible, health and safety executive would have a field day in there, and its a accident waiting to happen. Anyway just though i would pass this information on.

Job centre arranged a course for me, To re-sit my mandatory 5 year renewal for Gas workers, They were supposed to pay £300 towards this course (cost was £680 total) working links were supposed to pay the other half, I have a letter confirming employment upon passing that course, I completed the training successfully, Called the company, they said come in Monday, so I did, Accidently missed and appointment with working links, because i went to see the employer, got a phone call from working links saying they wont pay their half to the training (£380) because i missed the interview, And after 2 months of leaving notes on the managers desk at the JC, emails.. the lot.. Today they told me JC wont pay their half because working links wont pay theirs, So now i have a £680 debt with the college, £430 i’ve paid into my gas safe registration wasted, My public liability insurance ive set up is set up and paid for, but is a waste of money now because im not working (£440) And this is refused because I havnt put the effort in to make that one interview..? They are not for real? So now i cant search for jobs in gas (which ive done from leaving school) im now 24, They offered to help me find a porter job, Pot washing? Me? A registered Gas engineer? I pulled jobs off the machines, I see the advisor, He underlines where the phone numbers and email addresses are and sends me on my way, WWWTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFF???????????? When I am in work, I used to earn triple what those incompetent wasters earn, If anything im now surrounded by debt i dont have a job to pay back, I cant get a job in my field, Of which is pretty much all I know, Im sure I could get a job elsewhere, But why should I? this will determine my whole future? it’s what im good at so I stick with it, all for the sake of getting over excited about going back to work!! and because of missing one appointment, Left in this situation.. The job centre IS A WASTE OF TIME. If this was paid for, I can go back to work, So what now? I sit on jobseekers getting paid £50 a week for how long? because if its more than a couple of months, They have given me an equivalent amount of money and still no job, Definitely a fundamental flaw somewhere along the line, and that is the fact that they arnt really bothered whether we go back to work or not, as long as their packet reaches the bank for clicking buttons and underlining email adresses. Whats the point.