The Lunacy of the System

I haven’t written on here for a while, but this week, there have been a few things that seemed so strange that I had to highlight them. As a bit of background, for those that don’t know, I am currently out of work, and as such am claiming Job Seekers Allowance. For those fortunate enough not to know, this involves fortnightly attendance at the job centre to sign your name on a piece of paper and talk to an ‘advisor’, about what you have been doing for the past 2 weeks to find work. As part of this you have a Job Seekers agreement to say certain things you will do to look for work – mine says about looking on various appropriate job vacancy sites to see if there is anything suitable. Ok, so now to this week. On Wednesday, my signing day, I was unavailable in the morning as I had a job interview elsewhere. This not only involved an interview but I also had to do a presentation on the analysis of some statistical data I had been sent a week previously. Now, as a result of this task, I spent most of the last 3 days or so working on the data analysis and presentation, to try and make sure it was as good as possible for Wednesday morning. Presentation & interview completed I then went to the job centre that afternoon to do my signing. Now I will admit now that I didn’t take my record sheet of what I had done over the previous fortnight with me as funnily enough I had my mind on other things on Wednesday morning, but I thought ‘I’ve been for a job interview and spent the last week preparing for it – surely that’s evidence enough I’m looking for work’. However, it turns out that that isn’t how it works. I spent 3 days preparing for an interview, but apparently because I hadn’t been looking on the relevant websites for jobs in that time, the ‘advisor’ was threatening to send a request to head office to make a decision on whether I was still entitled to my funny. Now this is what I find strange about this – I was under the impression that the aim of the job centre was to get people out of unemployment and back into work. If this is the case, then how can it be more important for me to look at websites that may or may not have any more suitable vacancies than to prepare thoroughly for a job interview that I already have? The system seems designed around a box-ticking exercise to give the impression you are doing something, yet doesn’t allow for those who would much rather be in work than out of it. Surely my time is far better spent trying to get a job than filling in pieces of paper to show I am looking for one? The day I am penalised for trying to get a job rather than looking for one is a very strange day indeed and it would be nice if some degree of common sense could be implemented sometimes. The whole thing appears to be set up to be ‘seeking work’ not to be ‘getting work’ – surely if that is the case it is the wrong way round and just encourages those who never have any intention of finding a job at the end of it. Anyone can fill in a sheet to say they have done certain tasks to look for work – particularly if it involves looking in newspapers or on job search websites. The key point for me is if you find something suitable to do something positive in an attempt to try and get the job – which doesn’t appear to count for anything on the score sheet of the advisor I spoke to on Wednesday!