This is the draft copy of a report/presentation that I've been working on for the last few days. I'm on this pilot programme being run at Reed in Partnerhip and I've been asked to produce this document so that their members of staff are aware of some of the issues involved with long-term unemployment, and hopefully I'll get the opportunity later to actually deliver the report to senior management at the Department for Work and Pensions...or even do a presentation. It should give them plenty to think about.
Left school 1978; the year that most local pits stopped recruiting school-leavers/apprentices. A few months earlier I had been told by visiting careers officer that I was best suited to being a civil servant. I didn't really know what this meant and fantasised that there was a school of espionage and seduction at the back of Barnsley Town Hall. All I ever imagined doing though was working in pit offices or for the council - there were very few other employment opportunities available.
Didn't find a job and so attended Mexborough Sixth Form College, hoping job situation would improve, but it didn't. Couldn't take any advantage of social and extracurricular activities available because of lack of transport…and attitude of my parents.
1980 - signing on at Goldthorpe Jobcentre. For first six months spent up to thirty minutes queuing outside just to get into building and sign on. No support whatsoever, no job club, no help with stationery or bus fares. I soon began to realise that I was applying for the same jobs as recent school-leavers, but being 18 years old an employer would be obliged to pay me higher wages, yet I was no more experienced.
Whilst still living at Thurnscoe I was sent to attend jobclubs or various training programmes in Barnsley, Wakefield, South Elmsall, Mexborough, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield. Nothing worked for me. I felt that I was just a statistic to be processed; my details merely boxes to be ticked. I often felt I was placed in groups with people I had very little in common with.
Moved to Doncaster eleven years ago and have attended courses/schemes/programmes at eight venues…still haven't found paid employment.
Some of my experiences and comments about these places:
At one venue the whole idea was some sort of group confessional whereby each one of us spend several hours explaining our circumstances and then receive feedback/comment/criticism from the rest of the group. Included in this group were two teenage lads wearing tags on their ankles who were keen to show off to the 'available' young lady in the group. I had a word with the person running the group and explained that it might not necessarily be a good idea to have me commenting on the lifestyles and attitudes of these two young gentlemen and it was agreed to transfer me to another office. Additionally, another member of this group was a middle-aged woman with some sort of compulsive/obsessive disorder who would pounce on a cup as soon as she thought it was empty and spend the next ten minutes in the kitchen washing it. She would also patrol around the table making sure that everyone's pens and sheets of paper were always precisely parallel with the edge of the table. She shouldn't have been on that particular programme; she needed medical help and intervention.
On another occasion I was expelled from a programme for sending off too many applications and costing the company too much in postage. At another place I received a written warning about my behaviour because I complained that on the ethnic monitoring form that we were required to complete I couldn't identify myself as ethnic English, yet people who were Scottish, Irish and Welsh were provided with a box they could tick; so could people who considered themselves to be Chinese, Turkish, Caribbean, Albanian, Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi - I was only allowed to be 'White British'. Identity is very important; many people closely identify with their job, but when you're unemployed other aspects of a person's identity, such as gender, age and ethnicity become so much more important…and then to be denied the opportunity to express one of these [one's ethnicity] is surely in breach of a person's basic human rights. Yet the DWP and its agents continue with this unfair and discriminatory policy.
This is just one specific example of where I consider that the whole jobcentre/DSS/training providers system discriminates against me and people in similar circumstances and is failing to recognise the specific demographics of unemployed people. Whilst not wanting to criticise any individuals, or having any reason to criticise anyone, the people who work in the 'industry' are mainly female and young - however, many, if not a majority, of claimants are male and middle-aged. Additionally, the ethnic origin of the people featured on DSS posters and literature is not representative of the people who are unemployed in Doncaster and many other towns - this immediately creates resentment and makes people feel as though they are not really welcome, and their individual needs not prioritised.
There are successful and well-funded schemes and programmes for all sorts of people; women returners to the labour market, people recently released from prison and under the care of the Probation Service, people who have difficulty with numeracy or literacy, disabled people…and probably many more: but why is no effort being put into finding work for an entire lost generation of men such as myself, now in our forties who have been unemployed for most of the last thirty years, due quite specifically to the collapse of the mining, steel, and shipbuilding industries? Where is the support? Where are the initiatives? Of course, our fathers weren't counted as unemployed; they were all persuaded to become long-term claimants of sickness and disability benefits.
One time [this is the only time I felt I needed to complain about someone's attitude] I was on a scheme in Mexborough and the young woman running the group asked what 'curriculum vitae' meant, and so I told her…she seemed somewhat taken aback and then made some patronising remark about myself and Thurnscoe. I just got up and left the room, returned to the jobcentre and told them what had happened. Under no circumstances will I be treated in this manner. This behaviour by the group facilitator, although extreme, is quite typical of the attitude of many people at the jobcentre or training providers who assume that because you are long-term unemployed you are somehow lacking intellectually; it is insulting, time after time again to be forced to undertake basic numeracy and literacy tests when I've got 'A' levels in both English and maths - this does not put me in a positive frame of mind to be participating in whole process.
I've not only been sent on various jobsearch courses/programmes/initiatives. Over twenty years ago I was 'employed' on a 'Community Programme' initiative. This was the best experience I have had with anything organised by the DSS - it was proper work - doing work that needed doing in the community, and it paid the going rate for the job - £60 for 24 hours a week I think…good wages for the mid 1980s.
I've also been sent to do a six month period of workfare. I really enjoyed going on this placement; it was with a barge-based charity at Thorne and I enjoyed both the community development aspect of the job, and the regular opportunities to be out on the canal. However, if I had not landed such a fortuitous placement I would have been very angry and resentful - would any of you here work 34 hours for the benefits I receive and a free bus pass…£40 per week after I've paid the contribution to my rent?
More recently I participated in the Transitional Labour Market scheme and was employed by a local charity for six months and received minimum wage plus tax credits - a lot of money to me. It was only a fixed term contract though with no chance of it ever leading to permanent employment.
I've been informed that I'm perceived to be aggressive and unco-operative by the staff at the jobcentre because I refuse to be cowered and keep pressing them with positive ideas about how I might be helped. Yes, some of this suggestions might be impractical, and they, as an individual member of staff will have no authority to implement these suggestions. This is not me being UNCO-OPERATIVE though; it is me being positive and pro-active. It doesn't seem to get me anywhere though.
To be fair, sometimes a member of staff at the jobcentre will come up with a suggestion. There was the occasion it was hinted that I need to do some unofficial work (i.e. whilst still signing on and claiming benefits) just so that I would have something to put on my C.V. Naturally, I'm aware that this is illegal and so asked for this advice to be put in writing…
In conclusion I should like to say that from my point of view every intervention made by the jobcentre in the last thirty years has been a complete waste of time and has even had a detrimental effect - on two occasions causing me to have a nervous breakdown. Throughout this period of time, not once have I come into contact with an employer and given the opportunity to show what I am capable of; that's why the First Step programme is so important to me; it will allow me to get out into the workforce and have my capabilities [and weaknesses] assessed, hopefully leading to full-time, permanent unsupported employment. Nothing else has worked for thirty years.
