Adventures With The Job Centre Plus: A (Completely True) Story By Ben Stuart

To showcase some examples of the quality that the Job Center Plus offered in its service, I kept a record of my dealings with them. It goes something like this.....

Diary of A Job Center Plus User-The Beginings

It all started one day in 2010. After week by week passed looking around for a job, I decided to join the Job Center Plus, and claim Job Seekers Allowance whilst I looked for work. I hoped that the Job Centre Plus would be able to use it's resources to get me into work, or perhaps at lest provide me with a helpful course that could lead me on to finding a job.

I had mostly heard bad things about the Job Centers around the country, like them not being well ran. And all those who I knew had used the service, they actually failed to have any good words to say. But I thught that hopefully, the Job Centre Plus could fit me up with a job, and the benefit money would help with varous equipment that was needed for some jobs I was applying for, along with other things. So I filled in a long form on the direct gov website, which is used for new claims: (https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/jsaol/lp) and by the end of it was told that I may be eligiable for Job Seekers Allowance. I had to arrange a time to be called back by a member of the Job Center Plus team about the claim, so I filled in a time in the afternoon for the next day, as I knew I would be around then to take the call.

I got the call the next day, but it wasn't at the time I requested online. I was not yet avaliable when the lady rang (hence the reason I didn't ask for the time which she called at) so my Mum had taken the call for me. And get this, my Mum mentioned to me how the JCP worker had told me off, saying about how I couldn't be bothered to wake up for the right time! The cheek. Little did I know that this experiance was going to set the trend for the quality of phone service that I'd recieve from JCP. After my Mum informed me of this winning show in customer service (she commented how rude the lady spoke to her-somthing else that would become a reguler occurance), I rang back JCP to point out how that ladies behaviour was unfair. I don't remember any agreement on this from the other side of the phone (guess what another character trait from the JCP, not admiting when wrong). But I got someone to ring back at a time that I actually arranged. We did the interview over the phone, (is it just me, or was it all the questions I had just spent about an hour filling in online?). I was then given a date for my first interview at my local Jcp, which in this case was the Romford branch.

So the date came and I attended said JCP. This branch was located at Romford Main Road.

Ah, Jobcenter Plus Romford, this was where the magic happens:  

This JCP was a very busy branch, as all are, most times of the day-not surpising with unemployment at such a high rate, here in the UK. So many people looking for a job, so many applying for the same jobs, especially with the reccession. So it's kind of one of those organizations where a lot of people are relying on good service. Good job they deliver on that, eh? Ah.

 Read Part 2 Soon!