After finishing the joke of scheme "The Work Programme" that lasted two years and was of no help to me i had to go and see the jobcentre for an interview i found the advisor at the jobcentre very rude & intimidating treating me like some thick layabout just because i am autistic has anybody else been treated like this at the jobcentre?
Hi Longman, I'll try and get an update for you.
Cheers Intenseworld - "Job Centre robot" really does it for me.
The thing is NAS is supposed to be helping JobCentre plus to be more supportive. So where is this outcome? Are we talking better services weeks ahead, months ahead, years ahead, or never?
Osborne's "clever" comparison of the shift worker and the shirker on benefits www.theguardian.com/.../strivers-shirkers-language-welfare , and the "strivers versus shirkers" rhetoric coming out of Government, has rather "pulled the rug out from under" any efforts to properly support the disabled in this context.
The trouble is most current non-workers are either those unemployed not by their own choice struggling to get back into work, and people who, because of their disabilities cannot secure employment. The long-term shirkers and benefit cheats are fully identifiable and could be tackled by more direct methods, rather than this damaging political rhetioric.
What was easy for the clever-*** chancellor to say will take years of undoing. And it has created a culture in the Department of Work and Pensions and particularly Job Centre Plus staff that unemployed disabled are shirkers.
So the attitude and rudeness you are seeing is to them justified.
Sadly these days politicians don't get to "hang" on their words, or have to fall on their swords.
Sadly Osborne will never be called to account for the words "Where is the fairness, we ask, for the shift worker, leaving home in the dark hours of the early morning, who looks up at the closed blinds of their next-door neighbour sleeping off a life on benefits".
Sadly he doesn't need to give a thought to the consequences. In a just world he should....but this isn't a just world.....
longman said:Judging from craigmason7's latest experience - what exactly bigger than zero understanding are they hoping to refresh?
Longman you crack me up, I love the way you explain things. And yes, quite right - how can you refresh nothing!
They also say they are "currently looking at how we can personalise employment support more to ensure that we always look at someone's abilities and barriers rather than their disability". Evidently a case of more than what?
...how do you remove the massive barriers that exist:
...and no doubt lots more.
It's not simply about a Job Centre robot finding out what physical tasks an autistic person can do and not sending them for things they are unqualified in.
I tried going into the Jobcentre Plus a few weeks ago because I needed to proove my ID for claiming PIP. The DWP's letter said that I could take the documents into there rather than posting them and they'd check the details and pass them on to them. I too found the staff rude, patronising, and not entirely helpful. I left feeling very grateful that I didn't have to rely upon them to help me find work! Having seen the people who I'd be trusting to post the authorised copies of my docs on for me I decided to do it myself, which the lady seemed to doubt that I was actually capable of! Perhaps they simply assume that if you have a disability you must be even less capable than they are.
Unfortunately my experience is that "frontline professionals", and "professionals" in general, are often not very helpful. Very few seem to find some sensible middle ground between either completely disregarding your disability/taking no account of it and being hideously patronising. There are also, of course, many who don't really know what they're talking about.
Did you have anybody with you at the meeting? I find that sometimes that seems to make things go better.
This is a useful opportunity to ask if NAS has any feedback from the Autism Discussion Event last Monday (3rd March) between NAS, Department of Health and Department of Work and Pensions (Including Job Centre Plus staff).
This meeting was supposed to establish how JobCentre plus could better support people with autism/aspergers, and how DWP could improve the employment situation. It looked like mostly being one of those sit in little groups and discuss how little you actually know, and then have a results session at the end, which further confirms that nobody there has a clue.....
Job Centre plus admits they have a long way to go....."We're continually working on our training and communications". They have recently arranged with NAS for some 'refresher' training for Disability Employment Advisers.
Judging from craigmason7's latest experience - what exactly bigger than zero understanding are they hoping to refresh?
They also say they are "currently looking at how we can personalise employment support more to ensure that we always look at someone's abilities and barriers rather than their disability". Evidently a case of more than what?
NAS Moderators please could you get us some feedback on Monday's meeting
