More from the jobcentre:
Today, I met up again with Eddie (name changed), a 51-year-old Kilburn man who has mild learning difficulties. He currently signs on for JSA. He has worked all his life in hotels and in kitchenwork, but has been unemployed for four years now. He wants another job, but is struggling to find one.
Eddie doesn’t read or write very well. He has no computer at home, which I know for a fact because I’ve been to his flat (it’s the tiny, one-room place you can see in the video below). Anyway, he was upset because at his jobcentre session today, he was given a sheet of paper which listed possible places for seasonal work this Christmas. You can see the list in the photo here – the place of business, the job and then a link to the job and an application form online.
The problem is that Eddie struggles to read and write, as I say. He doesn’t have a computer. He said the jobcentre hadn’t offered to help him apply for any of the posts on the list, or to help him fill in the forms. This means that Eddie is stuck. He was worried about what would happen next. If he can’t show that he’s applied for jobs, he risks sanctions. These things were very much on Eddie’s mind.
The upshot of all of this is that I’m going around to Eddie’s place next week with my laptop to show him how to open some of the links. I’ve already tried some of them this evening. The Argos one takes you to a list of jobs, then more about the job itself and the company offering it (Habitat – £7.06 an hour), then the company website, then the application form. That’s four clicks to get to the form and a mass of text to wade through – a real difficulty for someone who struggles with text.
I’ll update this post after I’ve been round to see Eddie next week. In the meantime, remember this story next week when Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith are wanking on and on about benefit scroungers and the feckless poor.
And just to compare Eddie’s life and Iain Duncan Smith’s life while we’re here: let’s look at these two videos.
This first video shows Eddie’s house. It’s a tiny, one-room place which contains a bed, a broken fridge and a broken oven. Eddie has complained to his landlord about the mice and cockroaches that live under the broken oven, but nothing has been done. His landlord collects housing benefit for this effort.
This second video, by way of comparison, shows Iain Duncan Smith’s weekend place. And isn’t it nice. I took this video when I accompanied DPAC and UKUncut to an occupation there last year. It’s got a lake, a tennis court, an enormous lawn and a mansion. It’s just the place to hang out when you’re beavering away on ideas like unjustified sanctions.
Jesus Christ. I mean – really.
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I had this I am deaf and there are certain things I can not do that I need to do to find a job, when I asked about them they kept fobbing me off until they admitted that there was no help to help me.
There hasn’t been any job search points at my local JCP for nearly 4 months now and it has 1 computer terminal and this is the 3rd biggest in the city
I would take this man to see his MP and get him to intervene with both the Jobsearch issue and his housing predicament. Having poor literacy skills and his living conditions make this man vulnerable and he needs support – are there no voluntary agencies in the area which can take his case on? There is a high probability that Eddie will be sanctioned for non compliance with the job search which will push him further into poverty and all that that entails – get his MP to intervene with the JobCentre and let it be known this man is not on his own for them to ‘pick on’. It is a usual trick that they earmark the most vulnerable who can’t fight back. I am glad to see that you are there for him, but the agencies and those in power are getting away with not doing their jobs – make them work.
Hi Kate – he may be able to find support at a local Work Club. I used to volunteer in one (in Hull) and they provide the kind of support that jobseekers with basic skills problems need – especially I.T. support. A brief search does bring some up for Kilburn – one called the South Kilburn Work Club, at the Carlton Centre, Granville Road, Kilburn, NW6 5RA. Kilburn Library also have one called the ‘Jobzone’ – I’m sure local adult education centres will also provide work clubs. Hope that helps.
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When I lost my tribunal and had to claim JSA for few months before claiming ESA again, I met lots of ppeople in Job Centre and Library who had ddifficult ties with online jobsearch I helped them as much as I could, I often think about how scary these new reforms are for people with learning difficulties etc. I sstruggle with them myself it’s so disgusting that those who need most help in this country are being offered the least and lets face it tortured and humiliated into the bargain.
It seems that Eddie’s case has resonances with that of Jason at a Scottish jcp as recorded on Scottish Unemployed Workers Group website: June 7: Can’t read? Can’t help you!