Tales from the Jobcentre

Tales from the Jobcentre..Upstairs Downstairs

 

Worrying as I get ready to go to the jobcentre about whether I will be able to sign on at all, or as a friend once said to me....go to beg the government for some pocket money.

Last time I went to sign on, I was as usual put in the lift downstairs and someone met me upstairs to open the doors to the signing on office. As I am considered fit and well in spite of a heart condition, sight issues which affect my balance on stairs and mobility issues, I do not see a disability adviser downstairs and have to go upstairs in what is really a staff only lift and through security doors which only the staff can open...so much for disability access, especially since so many Job seekers allowance claimants are going to be disabled as they have lost their sickness benefit and been declared fit for work, having to claim Job seekers allowance.

It used to be that a member of staff went up in the lift with me and came down with me, however there now seems to be fears on the part of the staff of perhaps attack, maybe by frustrated claimants , or ….accusations of inappropriate touching, and now I just get put in the lift downstairs and met upstairs....or I did...

last time I went to sign on, as I was let out of the lift, I was asked if I really could not manage the stairs , I insisted this was so and the staff member explained that next time I came I must ask at the reception for my adviser to come downstairs to sign me on. This is because if there is a fire upstairs they cannot get me down. I was very alarmed, since it has taken them two years of my being on Job seekers allowance to come to this awareness. He then asked that I go to my doctor and get a letter to confirm that I could not manage the stairs. Well, that would be a case of looking for a needle in a haystack to get such confirmation from my GP, who refuses to write or sign anything that seems to support me the patient over the Department of Work and pensions, and in any case he has probably never seen the Job centre stairs and would just suggest I go for some physio ….

Sensing that I would need the letter from the GP or possibly risk not being allowed to sign on and get the Job seekers allowance, I contacted my Member of Parliaments office ,who contacted the job centre manager. The Job centre manager assured the MP's caseworker that there was no problem at all...I could go up and down in the lift !!!,,,and of course I must , to get the Job seekers allowance.

However, there IS a problem....the jobcentre staff, are refusing to guarantee to get me downstairs in the event of a fire. The manager, I have no idea of his or her name , or what they look like and all I know is the manager is upstairs and unseen, a figure like Big Brother....

I replied to the MP's office that since the manager was refusing to assure me that I was safe upstairs but insisting I go, I was going to write to the newspapers !!

When I went to sign on today, the adviser due to sign me came downstairs......

photo credit: erix! via photopin cc