The Job Centre Plus, for the un-married. (Job Centre Plus)

Member Name: stephbond89

Product:	Job Centre Plus
Date:	06/09/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good website which is easy to use and quite effective.

Disadvantages: Terrible staff who don't know what they're doing. Bad way of working out benefit.

I am 20 years old, and married. Yes I know young...but married none the less.

I moved from Lancaster to Warrington in June 2008 to be with my now husband, who has a full time job here. I went from been a full time pupil in high school, to been a full time student at college for 3 years doing my A Levels, the only days off I had were Saturday and Sundays, and as I live right out in the middle of nowhere, where the bus cost £2 each way into the town centre, and were only every two hours (I don't drive either), I found it very hard to have a part time job which paid enough to make it worth while spending £4 a day on the bus, and which hours worked around the hours of the transport. So I didn't have one.

In all my 20 years I have had 3 jobs, all of which have been part time, and temporary over Christmas. Two of which were in a shop, Wilkinsons and Tesco, both of which I HATED, it was so boring and monotomous that when the contracts ended I couldn't wait to get out- don't get me wrong I was good at my job, I was friendly polite, quick, good with the money, and came away with good references, but I hated it none the less and couldn't wait to go home after a short shift. The thrid was a cleaning job, which was cleaning a kitchen, I couldn't stand that either, and after just a couple of weeks ended up leaving (well actually been fired as they thought I had lied about a day off which I had to have due to not been able to get into or out of my house- long long story).

So I am 20 and unemployed. My husband works full time, he works over 60 hours a week as a security guard- he doesn't particularly like his job, but he has to do it, as it's the only job which pays enough to make ends meet in our house. We get (after tax) around £1200 a month from his wages. That may seem like a lot, but when your outgoings are £1250, without food bills, it really isn't much at all.

I cannot get a job, I have tried and tried, and I continue to try now, I apply to every job under the sun, everything and anything. From cleaning, to admin. I do DooYoo to make a little extra money every now and again, and also I do Mystery Shopping, but that's not a job.

So last year I decided to go to the Job Centre, I didn't want to have to go on Job Seekers Allowance, I wanted to work, I wanted to have a job. But when it had been 3 months and not even an interview had come up, I decided that I would go for the benefit, at least it would help up for a little while until I could find something. We'd just got married by this point, but I didn't think anything of that when I got my appointment to go and see someone at the JobCentre.

She sat me down and we had a chat about my life, what work I wanted to do, how far I could travel, all these other questions, and she took my bank details gave me a little book thing and off I went feeling happy, knowing that even if it was only £30 a month that I got, that I would get something and that it would help with the bills a little.

But, a week later, I got a letter "You are not entitled to any benefit". I didn't really understand, I had paid tax, albeit not much, but I had paid tax, and we were on a low income, or so we thought seeing as we couldn't afford our bills! But according to the Job Centre, because we are a married couple, it's not seen as I am on a low income. So I am not entitled to Income Based JSA, or Contributions based JSA, even though yearly we earn only £14000 after tax. This is a low income! When applying for EMA with colleges, if your parents get less than £15,000 a year, you recieve the whole whack of £30 a week, but when it comes to the JobSeekers Allowance, £14000 is plenty, more than enough.

This annoyed me, I was told I could keep going weekly to get a "stamp", and that eventually I would be in receipt of money, as National Insurance was paid for me as I got this stamp, but that would be in a good year or so and it would be probably around £10 a month that I would get. It was costing more in petrol to get the three miles to the Job Centre than I would be getting in the end, so I just decided to leave it and keep trying to find work elsewhere.
Now I know this is more to do with the Government than the JobCentre, but the thing that got me more was the fact that when I phoned them up after my initial application, they said nothing about me not getting any benefit from them, even though they knew what our income was. When I went to the job centre, and had my interview, again they said nothing, they lead me to believe I would be in receipt of benefit, especially by taking my bank details, but then a week later they decided oh no let's not give her anything. It was the fact that they didn't know what they were doing which annoyed me, the fact that they never once told me that I would not get anything from them, and lead me to believe that I would, and then turned around and said I wouldn't.

This part of the Job Centre is terrible, the way they work it out is unfair, which yes is the Government, but the JobCentre staff don't tell you this.
When there are people who aren't even looking for jobs in receipt of JobSeekers Allowance, and alot of them, many of whom spend their money on drinking, when there is someone and lots of other people like me who need the money until they have a job, and who are seriously looking for work, who don't qualify simply because they're in a relationship- as far as I can see, it's stopping people from getting married, as once your married, your seen as one entity, and not two.

The website for the JobCente Plus though I admit is quite good. This is the site I use alot for looking for work which is available. You can search your area for the type of jobs you want, with the hours you want to work, the days etc and how far you will travel, you can then apply for the jobs either by phoning the job centre who will send you the application form and details, or by using the contact details given by the employers on the website. I have had a few interviews from using this site, still no jobs...but interviews none the less!

All in all the website is great. But the actual job centres are terrible, if your looking for work use a computer, don't bother going to see these people, they will try and force jobs on you which you can't do, whether it be because they're too far away or because your not qualified. They'll try to push jobs onto you which your overqualified for, simply because they need to fill the jobs (normally in McDonalds, or KFC). And the way they work out the benefit is terrible, and very unfair on people who really are looking for work.

All in all, just go online and look there for work, and unless your household earnings are less than around 10k a year and you have worked paying the Government millions of pounds (ok slight hyperbole there...) of tax, then your more than likely not going to get a penny from them. But it's worth a shot, just don't get your hopes up!

Summary: Just use the website don't bother going to the centres!