Job Centres’ dirty tricks: New Appointments Made at Last Minute – Beastrabban\’s Weblog

Last Updated: December 17, 2014By

Groovmistress posted this comment on … the Jobcentre sanctioning a young woman simply because she was pregnant, writes the Beast.

I was once sanctioned and money stopped, because I “missed an appointment”. I had an appointment at the jobcentre for 1pm on a Monday. On the Saturday before I received a letter confirming the appointment. However, as I was about to leave home I noticed that the time given in the letter was 11am. Obviously I assumed an error had been made somewhere so telephoned to explain but was told that the 11am appointment was an extra one they had made at short notice. When I pointed out that this was confusing the chap replied that it was a deliberate ploy to “catch people out” and something they did regularly!

Needless to say, I was too late for the first appointment. This resulted in loss of 2 weeks benefit, no discussion and when I, naturally, became upset and protested, I was forcibly removed by security guards.

I am a 60 year old woman by the way.

The Beast has a few things to say about this on his own site – give it a visit.

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12 Comments

  1. keltyk December 17, 2014 at 1:15 am - Reply

    Be ESPECIALLY vigilant at Xmas period. They know you LEAST expect dirty tricks- and that is what they give you. If you have a different advisor for some reason, also be careful. They find it amusing to leave you broke over the holidays if they can.
    Watch out for THIS trick-

    Advisor says- “Your next signing in the New Year is the 14th”. As he says it he hands you a printed sheet of paper (with your next date), perhaps even folds it for you. The piece of paper actually says the 7th. READ IT! There is no proof that he lied to you- its your fault for not reading the sheet of paper.

    • Maria December 17, 2014 at 3:22 am - Reply

      So despicable using Christmas to dupe you even more, when Christmas should be the time that everyone is nice and generous and decent with each other. Even in WWI I’m sure the Germans and us were nice to each other at Christmas and even had a ceasefire. Who are these people in the office of the DWP and what are they doing there?

  2. chunkyfunkymunky December 17, 2014 at 3:39 am - Reply

    Happened to me on Fri..given an appointment for today.I’m very lucky in having a genuinely great and understanding advisor who kindly phoned me back and did it over the phone. She also knows I shouldn’t be in the wrag after being arbitrarily shifted from the support group without so much as a phone call tio see how I was but I’ve been waiting over a year for my ESA appeal despite the fact in the meantime I passed the PIP medical (again remarkably fortunate in the examiner) and being classed disabled and awarded full care and mobility.failed the mandatiry recinsideration because i’d gone with my mother to pick up a new prescription from a new chemist. I was gone 20 min and didn’t leave the car! Despite the fact i have a great advisor I still nearly had apolexy at the thought of going in for an interview I’m that scared of the system as it now is. If the letter had come on the sat as they usually do I’d have worked myself into a hell of a state not being able to contact her till the day before the interview.my heart bleeds for anybody they spring this on esp this time of year. I know most people don’t know the system as well as i do afyer years of campaigning and arent as fortunate with their support.I hope and oray that one day IDS and his ilk are hekd to account and punished for their wanton cruelty to the most vulnerable and their ideological insanity and incompetence but i’m not holding my breath.(scuse typos, on my phome and my hands are like claws by this time, but hopefully you can understand the gist of what I’m saying. I’d say a lot more and much more forcibly but a) i’d sound like i was advocating violence in a deranged and dangerously unhinged way and b() I’m damned if i’m going to do time because of these psychopaths! But one day there will be a reckoning, i just hope i live long enough to see it. To all of you suffering keep the faith, you ate not alone, and united we will win. Take care and be kind.

  3. hstorm December 17, 2014 at 9:16 am - Reply

    Disgusting, evil… but somehow no longer shocking. And that’s a shock in itself.

  4. HomerJS December 17, 2014 at 11:09 am - Reply

    I know you are a strong Labour supporter Mike, and I respect that. However for me this is probably the area that disappoints me most about Labour. They should be showing more criticism of the unnecessary harshness of the DWP. It would be quite easy for them to accept sanctioning of the ‘bad uns’ but be highly critical of unfair sanctions for example. I would like them to at least hint of possible investigations and punishment for those found guilty of unacceptable behaviour.

    • Mike Sivier December 17, 2014 at 11:22 am - Reply

      Labour has spoken up many times on the subject of the DWP’s poor behaviour in the House of Commons, although without going back through that material I couldn’t tell you how much of it was to do with unfair sanctions. It is a problem that Labour is fighting.
      Having said that, I would like the party to do more and speak out more loudly about this. You can’t read Vox Political without realising that I am an outspoken critic of Coalition social security (call it welfare if you like) policy.

  5. David December 17, 2014 at 6:52 pm - Reply

    The Tories don’t believe in welfare or Social security. I remember (just!) when social security came under the Dept of Health and Social Security – the DHSS. The tories then decided it was better for business to put it under the DWP – they see these people as economic units or drones there to provide cheap labour, not people who need help and security.

  6. Wayne Leon December 19, 2014 at 1:59 am - Reply

    I think the time has long passed now when staff who are working in the DWP, and who are PUBLIC SERVANTS, be reported to the Hague too, for crimes against humanity. Because, without THEIR WILLINGNESS to push through these vicious evil, sanctions, then there wouldn’t be 2.2 MILLION INNOCENT BRITISH PEOPLE DEAD!

    Their mantra ‘We were only following orders’ does not wash. The Nazis were ‘only following orders’ too when they sent 6 million people to their deaths. Now is the time for all of us to push for the arrests of DWP staff as well as for British Ministers who have caused this.

    • Mike Sivier December 19, 2014 at 2:01 am - Reply

      How have you reached the 2.2 million figure?

      • Wayne Leon December 19, 2014 at 2:08 am - Reply

        Since 2010, there are now 2.2 MILLION British people now dead, DIRECTLY because of sanctions by DWP STAFF on the orders of BRITISH MINISTERS. That is now an official figure.

        • Mike Sivier December 19, 2014 at 2:26 am - Reply

          Where can I find it? I’d love to use it but I need the source.

  7. alextalbot December 19, 2014 at 10:42 am - Reply

    I wrote about this in the context of the Stanford prison experiment. http://alextalbot.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-great-psychology-experiment-with.html

    Give people arbitary power and they will abuse it.

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