Flexible New Deal Scandal:
Flexible New Deal

Flexible New Deal scandal has published 10 tips for Jobseekers to help them succeed. These tips are focused on the UK and assuming the jobseeker is receiving Jobseekers Allowance.

10 Jobseeker Tips

1. The Labour Market System (LMS) isn’t the be all or end all to find employment

The Jobcentre’s Labour Market System (LMS) is a requirement to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) when you have been submitted to jobs through a Jobseeker Direction (JSD) and for steps you have agreed on your Jobseeker’s Agreement (JSAg). My advice would be, apart from when referred to by an adviser; avoid the LMS system. It is full of spoof jobs, agency jobs etc. and the genuine jobs are submitted to circa 150-299 people as Jobseeker Directions and of course many more apply directly from the website.

You are unlikely to secure a sustainable job through this system and searching it a few times a week will just get depressing and waste your resources. Statistically long-term unemployed people (although have looked elsewhere too) have made the mistake by focusing on this system as their primary source – the irony is – it is what probably makes them long term unemployed.

2. Focus on greater mediums (such as the job paper)

So, if you have been searching for jobs apart from them who advertise both in other mediums and the Labour Market System (LMS); it can say a lot about an employer whether they wish to put the money where their mouth is and get a newspaper advertisement or whether a free advert on the Labour Market System (LMS) is sufficient.
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D is for Demotivation

New Deal without a doubt is very demotivating for participants. People generally on New Deal have a one week honeymoon period. This is called Induction. This is the best week of the course although some people criticise it for being stretched out for activities that could be completed in 2 days maximum.

This typically consists of everything done in Gateway 2 Work and job search. It gets worse for the following weeks after induction. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Ipswich Unemployed Action and New Deal Scandal has confirmed that Ipswich Borough Council has granted YMCA Training full planning consent for Dencora House.

Dencora House is a detention centre located on Whitehouse Industrial Estate – isolating New Deal participants from society. Even in an industrial estate, the property has a perimeter fence, the entrance is a vast distance from the main road and towards the opposite side the place is shielded from an even busier road by trees – it is good to see trees but I can’t help thinking that this place was chosen to keep the unemployed away from the town centre where most of the towns jobs actually are: funny that …and also where all the recruitment agencies are and the Jobcentre. They think the unemployed goes around creating crime such as stealing so sticking a large group of them in an industrial estate seems a way of solving that problem.

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C is for Cherry picking!

Government contractors (those that deliver welfare schemes such as New Deal) are well known to “Cherry pick” (Also known as “creaming“) and to “park” clients. “Cherry picking” (or “creaming”) means selecting those that are easier to help (in the case of New Deal; those that are deemed closer to the labour market or simply put “job ready” – as highlighted by Benefit Busters Episode 2 where New Deal participants were segregated into rooms).

“Parking” is when clients are deemed too difficult to help (such as not being “job ready”; regardless of being paid to do so) and receive little or none help at all. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

B is for Boredom

Whether you are 18, 30 or 60 you will find the disorganised 13 Week New Deal courses very boring. Episode 2 of Benefit Busters clearly highlights sticking a pool of people into overcrowded rooms without a timetable doing 30 hours a week of “intensive job search”. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

A is for Abuse

Jobseekers are in receipt of continuous abuse, harassment and defamation from New Deal Providers and even Jobcentre Plus staff.

As highlighted on the Benefit Busters series, in particular the second Episode, not only is the environment for jobseekers extremely bad natured but the treatment by staff is. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

If you have been on New Deal the chances are you had £4 unlawfully deducted weekly from travel reimbursements and expected to cover that from your training allowance.

New Deal Scandal and Ipswich Unemployed Action has confirmed this is in fact unlawful and New Deal participants may take action to recover the £52 deduction for the 13 weeks they attended. If participants have attended New Deal in the past they can still claim £52 for each 13 weeks they completed on New Deal. This could be £156 for some people.

Under 13 weeks? You can claim £4 per week for each deduction that occured.

You can also claim interest on outstanding amounts.

Unfair charges

We have all heard about the Jobseekers Allowance Scandal, how LHA rates in most areas have fell dramatically while the rent prices have not decreased by so much and now today, we at New Deal Scandal expose the unfair charges that estate agents such as JSM Property (who were lucky to be featured, a nice link back above) imposed on people trying to get a roof over their heads. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

So you are unemployed, about to make a claim for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) or have made a new claim for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) however not attended an New Jobseeker Interview (NJI) yet. This article explains what you need to know about claiming Jobseekers Allowance.

You wouldn’t have thought that the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) would be a crutial element to claiming. The problem is most claimants see it as simply a pathetic agreement which is created just as procedure, whereas the truth is the Jobseekers Agreement is in effect, within a limited capacity, your power to create a law to your specification of how some elements of the Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended) are implemented and used.

The Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) has two main uses:- The first is to trap the typical naive Jobseeker in to being required to apply for more widespread jobs than otherwise could be argued as reasonable. As the average jobseeker doesn’t realise the full impact of the Jobseekers Agreement they will go along with whatever the Employment Officer (EO) suggests, they then sign and it becomes a large element of the rules for receiving Jobseekers Allowance. The second reason is for the Jobseekers Agreement to be used for enforcement – or should I say to decide about applying sanctions or refusing later benefit claims.

You may also hear the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) being an agreement you negotiate, where you pledge what you will do weekly to find work, what your responsibilities are, your availability and what restrictions you have.

Was it just me? ..Or did I hear the word negotiate mentioned? Read on… View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

I can’t stress enough how great it is to have a job which is permanent and secured

Tonight I wish to raise the major unemployment issue: the System’s  Cherry Pick or Park approach.

Regardless of being in a recession or not, there are two distinct groups of unemployed people that are jobseekers who are on benefits:

1) The Lucky.

The lucky group will only be unemployed for a short period typically between 2 weeks and six months and head back into sustainable long term fulltime employment. This employment is likely to be secured by knowing friends and family, and even keeping in the loop of internal job vacancies from previous employers rather than the overcrowded application processes.

and

2)   The Unlucky.

The unlucky group is destined to remain longterm unemployed with the occassional unsustainable short jobs (Agency, temporary etc.) from anything between several hours a week here and there, and 4-9 months. The unlucky ones are forced to register for agencies who are only usually interested in promoting very casual work – which obviously are unsustainable, inadequate to live on, and without much notice (a phone call on the day to work is common) – and requires either signing off for the period (then signing back on afterwards) or going down to sign on and declare work resulting in no payment and probably a staff member reporting you to the fraud squad.

Wonder why there are so many agency jobs advertised at the Jobcentre?

89% of the recuitment industry in the UK is for temporary jobs.  The Government is supporting this multi-billion pound industry and sticking the economy before people as usual (apart from with the banks of course). Putting it another way; the industry’s combined turnover for permanent jobs and normal non-permanent contract jobs make up only around one tenth (11%) of their annual income.

The rest is made up of short term casual short notice jobs. Do you want to be rung up at 7:30am asking if you can start work at 8am for 4 hours at minimum wage?

Employers prefer someone who has stuck at their job for long periods of time

No employer likes candidates who have worked on several different jobs in one year.

Jobseekers Allowance terminated

The jobcentre has for a while allowed jobseekers to be more choosey for jobs they apply for. Generally, if you aren’t better off working than receiving Jobseekers you don’t have to apply. Agency work on the other hand, is an exception to this rule – if you declined the above offer for example – you would likely receive a sanction for it.

New Deal

New Deal is infamous for “Cherry Picking” and “Parking”…

This has to stop!

It actually is a human right for self-progression etc. it is not right for people to just be parked (like a car?) in the car park of unemployment waiting for petrol. Then someone comes along and hand washes the car. The car needs petrol! It doesn’t matter if the car looks brand new, still needs petrol to get anywhere! (don’t ask lol)

Unemployed? What category have you fallen in to?

I don’t believe that the “clever” ones get the jobs and the “dumb” ones don’t. This is why I called the groups “lucky” and “unlucky”. Luck has a part in all this too. Feel free to leave a comment, if you are unemployed, stick which group you think you fall in to, looking back at past events and the current circumstances.

The Department for Work and Pensions has been investigating Action 4 Employment and at least 2 other undisclosed training providers for fraud over the last 13 months – this comes after Maatwerk had their contract terminated for fraud.

This means that even though they weren’t restricted or blacklisted from bidding for Flexible New Deal contracts: they will now lose the Flexible New Deal contracts after at least 20 cases of fraud have been discovered in May 2008 at A4e in Hull where two staff members falsified forms meant for the employer and also forged signatures on the forms in order to receive job outcome bonuses from DWP.

Action 4 Employment was also involved in a temporary job recruitment agency scam – thus forcing New Deal participants into temporary work which resulted in more job outcome bonuses from DWP.

Another New Deal provider has been forced to repay £48,000 for fraud – the name of the provider hasn’t been disclosed.

The DWP was happy to pay Pertemps PDG over 2 million when a report clearly stated fraud – in this instance no concerns other than as a report were raised.

Also, so far all fraud cases were consisting of forged signatures on forms and such like – the DWP have not yet picked up on timesheet abuses (paid to be there for x hours, as shown on timesheets, but participants are there for significantly less i.e. 10 hours instead of 30), dismissal abuses (dismissing participants for false or trivial reasons to receive full 13 weeks amount without them being there for even half that time), guaranteed jobs bonuses abuse (some participants have received a job offer before having to do the course starting 2-6 weeks after the course starts, providers still get job outcome payments intended as a bonus if they get the participant work, even if they had nothing to do with it) and future job outcome bonuses abuse (getting participants to enter an agreement where the provider has “permission” to contact any future employer after the course has ended to get job outcome bonus even though you got the job after the course unaided by them) to name a few.

£187,500

This is the amount it cost Taxpayers to get a single Jobseeker of the dole.

This is the bombshell that stuck the final nail in the coffin of New Deal. A scheme setup by Gordon Brown for New Labour aiming to get less people claiming unemployment benefits and stop living a “life on benefits” lifestyle.

How did we come across this figure? Well…   The New Deal scheme costs Taxpayers £75 billion and claimants have dropped by 400,000 people (this figure excludes the surge in new claimants due to the economical crisis) – this equates for each person who is not claiming benefit: £187,500!!

Of course, we shouldn’t presume that these 400,000 people have all obtained sustainable full time jobs, due to benefits being made more difficult to claim in this period. We also can’t presume or expect that these 400,000 less claims were a result from the New Deal courses.

What I can quite confidently state that with £75 Billion instead of the 13 week New Deal courses, the Government could have employed 9 times more people (assuming that those 400,000 people got full time jobs) – or 3.6 million people to stick it as a figure – full time on an annual salary of £20,000 for one year.

Alternatively, they could have employed over 360,000 people on a £20,000 annual salary for 10 years.