Published on 12, July, 2020
The job centre have now referred me to the government RESTART scheme, run by a private company called Maximus.
Yesterday I had my induction, phone appointment. As part of this induction they asked about my health and disabilities and the women on the line often repeated what I said, to double check the accuracy. I mentioned autism, she repeated, ' you suffer from the mental illness autism.'
An update on this madness.
Last week's session with the Moving forward scheme at the job centre was cancelled at short notice and rearranged for this week.
So this week, my diary reads.
Monday, Maximus, Restart scheme at the deaf and blind centre.
Tuesday, Moving forward scheme at job centre.
Thursday, universal credit job search review at job centre.
Yesterday's moving forward scheme at the job centre was 'mad', I was there ten minutes, on job centre premises on the moving forward scheme. when I received a phone call from the job centre asking where I was because I was missing my job centre appointment and my benefits would be affected.
It turned out that the individual running the moving forward scheme was not a universal credit work coach, and a universal credit client can only see universal credit work coaches, so my moving forward appointment was booked to see a different person, rather than the person I was actually seeing. Confused? It's how their computer system works.
Good God, and where in this dizzy round of conflicting appointments of overlapping schemes, do they expect you to fit in some actual job hunting?
These guys sound more like a hindrance than a help in finding work.