The Jobcentre has now, by actively interfering, made it virtually impossible for me to find work

A while ago I wrote an article about how the Jobcentre only hindered my search for work. I must now update that statement: the Jobcentre has now, by actively interfering, made it virtually impossible for me to find work. And I don't mean the dewy-eyed, graduate-worthy type of work I so desperately wished for in my last article. I mean I'm trying to get work temping in a call centre and they are actively getting in the way. 

Since my last article I have abandoned all hope of ever using my degree in my career. Or even of having a career. Fate has decreed that I be born into a lost generation, and I have come to terms with this. My dreams are dead, and now I'm just trying to get by. Life can be cruel, but this I accept. After all, I'm not starving, and thanks to the few weeks I spent temping I can actually pay all my bills, which is pleasant. I wasn't even too bothered when that time ended, and I had to face the Jobcentre again. After all, I had found work. I had proven that I could get a job, and off my own back, since I had found the work myself through social networking and an agency. But I was expecting the Jobcentre that I left. Not the Jobcentre 2.0. At first it seemed normal. I was suspiciously interrogated about the numerous methods that I use to find work, and then pushed to lower the standards of my jobseekers agreement towards ever more menial jobs. But then something new, or rather a new face of an old enemy; I was referred to the Work Programme. Even though I had found work, even though this was day 1 of my claim, back to the forced volunteering. When I protested, asking why, I was told like the idiot I obviously am, that it was the accumulated total that they took into consideration. So even though this was day 1 of this claim, because I had spent more than 6 months on the JSA in my life, I was eligible for referral to the Work Programme. In disbelief I asked why this was so, and was told in no uncertain terms; 

            "Everyone on JSA will eventually be referred to a work programme." 

Everyone. Including, I imagine, all the people who have been "re-assessed" from their disability allowance. If your of an older generation, and have ever accumulated 6 months time on the dole in your whole life, then the Jobcentre now considers you incompetent and in need of "re-training." After all, you must not know how to wash your hands, or to not swear in an interview.

The icing on the cake was when my "Adviser" shoved a piece of paper under my nose and said "Sign here." When I asked what for, she said "to confirm that you've read and understood the referral letter." The same letter that she still held in her hand. The letter that she refused to give me until after I'd signed the legally binding document stating that I had already read and understood it. I know I shouldn't sign things under coercion, but I have been threatened before by my adviser with benefits sanctions of up to 13 weeks for "refusing to co-operate with Jobcentre staff." I may have had a few weeks temping, but to lose all chance of getting any JSA for 13 weeks could put me below the poverty line.

And so now I'm stuck with this stupid Work Programme. Again. My agency tells me it's very important, if you're temping, to be immediately available. They keep asking me if I am. But I'm not anymore, because the Jobcentre have put me on this Programme. I am unavailable for work because of the Jobcentre. How can an institution tasked with finding people work, after taking a substantial chunk of the taxpayer's money as their budget, actually destroy peoples chances of finding employment? Would it not be more economically stimulative simply to divvy up the Jobcentre's budget amongst all the unemployed, and give them all a list of numbers for local Job Agencies? 

At least they could afford to eat.