Can't change sign-on appointment for job-seekers

[Pringle]

<RANT>

I just called my local Job Centre saying that I can't make my sign-on date, which is about a week and a half, and asked if I could come on a different day. Got a 20-minute lecture on how I should be available for work 24/7 because I'm being given public funds, etc, etc.

I explained I've been away for ages volunteering overseas so I'm seeing a relative that day which will be an all-day trip.

He said well call us the day after you should have signed on and we can make you an appointment to come and sign on instead.

So they're still expecting me to show up on the day that I can't come to even though I've given them nearly two weeks' notice??

I'm still job-hunting but I'm taking that one day off to see a sick relative that I haven't seen in nearly a year and apparently they can't change appointments. Thats just badly organised as far as I can see.

So now I look bad by not showing up on that day even though I've already told them I can't make it! :grump:

Also got pissed off by his incredibly patronising tone. I'm on job-seekers, I'm not mentally incapacitated and even if I was, you should NEVER be that patronising.

<RANT OVER>

So is it true that you can't change your sign-on appointment even with nearly two weeks' notice? I'm taking one day off from job-hunting which even people with jobs get to do sometimes, I'm trying to be responsible by letting them know that and apparently that's not good enough? :impissed:

I know I sound like this is just a rant, but I'm curious to know other people's opinions. Do you think this system makes sense? Am I just too annoyed at the moment to see clearly?

I can't wait until I have a job :(

[Kermit]

You chose to arrange to see your relative knowing full well what day you were signing on. I really don't see the issue.

You can sign on on a different day if you have compelling reasons for missing the signing on day. This would include emergency visits at short notice to seriously ill (i.e. dying) relatives, but would not include prior arrangements where it's reasonable to ask you to see your relative on a different day. When you consider the number of people they have to see each day, giving people free reign to change appointments whenever they want would cause chaos.

I think you're being very unreasonable and that the JC+ staff have behaved properly. You wouldn't expect an employer to change a job interview for this reason, so why should the JC+? Go see your relative on a different day and quit whingeing.

[MrG]

If you organised to visit a relative when you knew you had this appointment then its your own fault.

[Sa-ra-ra-ra]

Also got pissed off by his incredibly patronising tone. I'm on job-seekers, I'm not mentally incapacitated and even if I was, you should NEVER be that patronising.

I have this problem with the people who work at the JC too, they are incredibly patronising on occasion. I appreciate that they do have to deal with difficult people sometimes and that members of the general public can be a little tedious but there's no need to be quite as rude as they are.

Also, my sign on date was on bank holiday Monday last week, and I called them to ask if i needed to rearrange the appointment (it being a public holiday and them not working), and was told that it was fine and i should come in in another two weeks. For all that they're uppity about you having public money, they don't seem to be that fussed about checking you're doing anything for it - I could have been dossing about for the last 4 weeks for all they know.

(Not that it matters. I haven't seen a penny of JSA yet, three and a half weeks later...)

[Kermit]

They talk to everyone as though they're thick because most of the people they see are actually thick. It's slightly different in a recession, with more people out of work, but you can't believe how retarded some people actually are. It's easier and quicker to assume everyone's thick than to start off assuming everyone is moderately intelligent and having to explain the same thing fourteen times.

That, and they're not paid enough to actually give a shit. A decision maker only gets paid about £16,500; the frontline staff are probably on about £11,000. Wages are low, workloads are high due to staff cuts (guess where all Gordon's "sacked civil servants" came from?), and people are surprised that morale's through the floor?

They were uppity to the OP because they hear these stories all the time, and it's usually people just trying to scrounge their way out of the signing on commitment. Well tough luck, you don't sign on and you don't get paid, and the time and date only changes if you've got an emergency. You change your other commitments, it isn't that hard- if the relative's not been seen for a year, he can wait one more day.

[Melian]

Also, my sign on date was on bank holiday Monday last week, and I called them to ask if i needed to rearrange the appointment (it being a public holiday and them not working), and was told that it was fine

Isn't that different though because they're (I assume) shut?:confused: