Man On Jobpath Got His Dole Cut Two Weeks Before Christmas

I was speaking to a man who is also on Jobpath and he was telling me about another man he knows who got his dole cut. I will tell you what he told me.

An unemployed man on Jobpath in Letterkenny said he wanted a painting job as he is a painter by trade. His job adviser in People1st rang him up one day and told him there was a painting job in Omagh Northern Ireland and could she send in his C.V. He said yes as he thought he wasn't going to get the job so what was the harm in sending in his C.V. A day of two later she rang him back up and told him that he had got the job, he asked her how could he have gotten the job when he never even had an interview and that it would not pay him to go to Omagh everyday from Letterkenny, that he was not refusing a job but that he wanted one within 10 miles of Letterkeny. His job adviser never said anything to him and when he went to get his dole at the Post Office the following week he found that his dole was cut. He never so much as got a letter to say his dole was being cut, the first he knew about it was when he went to collect his dole at the Post Office. This was two weeks before Christmas and a man that has a wife and children.

When he went to the Social Welfare Office they told him his money was cut as he refused to take a job that his job adviser on Jobpath had got him. The person in the Social Welfare Office told him he would have to appeal the decision and to give his version of events. The person also asked him if he had got his Christmas bonus and he told her he had got it the week before and the person in the Social Welfare Office told him "That will keep you going until you appeal this outcome" it would be funny if it wasn't true. I think someone should make an Irish version of the British film I, Daniel Blake
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/

Letterkenny to Omagh is a over an hours drive, an unemployed person would need to be getting about €600 a week the same as a job adviser gets after tax for the job to pay and be better off. A job at the minimum wage traveling that sort of distance every day would not take an unemployed person above the poverty line, not to mention paying taxes in Northern Ireland which is the UK and with the Brexit coming up there could be job losses in Northern Ireland. To work in Northern Ireland you also need to have a National Insurance (NI) number to work.

Also if you live in the Republic and work in Northern Ireland and you loss your job there are special rules for frontier/cross border workers with regards to claiming Jobseeker Benefits.  http://borderpeople.info/a-z/jobseeker-benefits.html

When the man was finished in the Social Welfare Office filling in the form giving his version of events, he then went to the local Community Social Welfare Officer that week to see if he could get money so that he could feed his family a week before Christmas.

All this was done so that the job adviser at People1st working on behalf of Seetec can meet targets which they have to meet or else they don't get their bonus so forced the man into a job that was over an hours drive and expected him to drive there and back every day. When he refused the job on the grounds that it would not pay for him to travel there and back everyday, she reported him to Social Welfare who then cut his dole two weeks before Christmas. As I said before to be a job adviser you to have a lack of empathy and a black soul with a narcissistic personality and by doing the above only further proves that statement. How these people can sleep at night is a mystery.

http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie/2016/05/fit-for-work-targets-sick-and-disabled/

It looks like Seetec are doing the same here in Ireland as they already do in the UK https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/05/work-programme-adviser-box-ticking-sanctioning-sick-people and that is cut jobseekers money for jobs that are either too far way to travel to or jobs the jobseeker knows they would not be suitable for but their job adviser thinks they are suitable for as they have targets that have to be met and any job will do the jobseeker which defeats the whole propose of trying to get a long time jobseeker into a suitable job and making sure its suitable and is something the jobseeker wants to do so that they stay in that job as other wise its just a waste of time and the jobseeker will end up unemployed again which is what mostly happens in the UK, that is if they can even get them a job. UK back to work programmes had found jobs for only about one in nine (11 per cent) claimants of the out-of-work disability benefit, employment and support allowance (ESA), compared to its original “expectation” of 22 per cent

http://www.disabledgo.com/blog/2014/11/work-programme-failure-to-help-disabled-people-is-a-scandal/

Any unemployed person that is on Jobpath has more experience then all of these job advisers and managers at being unemployed  How many job advisers and managers that work for Seetec/Turas Nua/People1st have been unemployed?

So a job adviser gets a unemployed person a job without getting an interview for said job.

The unemployed person isn't told the hours, pay, or how many days they would have to work yet are expected to take the job and if not they get their dole cut. Its just like Velma* said at "Gateway" if we get you a job and you don't take it then..."

The employer doesn't interview the jobseeker so how do they know the person is suitable for the job, its OK for the job adviser to say they are suitable as they are nothing more than a sales person and most don't care if the jobseeker is suitable for the job or not they just care about meeting their targets.

Any employer who takes on a jobseeker without even interviewing them is in my opinion an employer who does not care about their employees and will employ anyone and everyone regardless if they are suitable for the job or not.

I know some job advisers are telling employers about Jobplus which is where the employer gets €10,000 euro from the Irish Government for taking on a long term unemployed person and €7,500 if the person has been unemployed for more than 12 but less than 24 months not to mention the job adviser getting their bonus.

The Department of Social Protection pays the incentive to the employer monthly in arrears over a 2-year period. It provides 2 levels of regular cash payments:

A payment of €7,500 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 12 but less than 24 months.

A payment of €10,000 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 24 months or more.

See link for JobsPlus below

 http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/employment_support_schemes/jobsplus.html

The only thing that matters is that targets have to be met and unemployment figures have to be massaged by putting unemployed people on Jobpath.

Not their real names*