Im asking for advice and opinions on how you would handle this situation

My son, 19, left college earlier this year and eventually signed on at the end of August when the casual work he had at his Uncles cafe dried up and all his job applications were unsuccessful

Since then he has been sanctioned twice (once for being 3 mins late to a group session at no fault of his own , but which I think fuelled his attitude 'of you have treated me unfairly so why should I respect you 'attitude'

They then after the sanction recommended him for 'a work placement' and he went to the company (JHP) for an initial interview and the guy there told him your here and you've been put on a work placement 'as a punishment'

He, rightly or wrongly walked out and said something along the lines 'being punished for being 3 mins late to a group who's best advice on how to find a job was 'look on the internet for vacancies'

He also asked 'if' work placements were the great government scheme to help people into work why are you admitting you are putting me on this for punishment (his thinking here was if he hadn't been 3 mins late he would not have been referred for a work placement)

. he also asked 'If I go and stick price labels on stuff at the back of a charity shop for a month do you really think I'd put that on my CV when I have skills and qualifications already , what does that say about me other than I was unemployed and put on a workscheme'

They then sanctioned his job seekers again.....then suspended it indefinitely . Then sent him p45 form saying he was obviously not entitled to JSA as he did not want a job!!!!!!

We now have Alasdair Darling MP , and Andrew Burns leader of the Edinburgh council involved too but , but this is my point............................

I created in part his attitude towards the DWP, Job Centres and work placements so should I just suck it up and continue paying for him (food, travel, roof over his head, clothes, hobbies etc) or should should I say ......you're unemployed and until you get the means to support yourself your going have to suck it up and play ball with whatever they want you to do for £56 a week

I'd really appreciate some views , thanks coz I'm torn between going 'gonna my son It is shit, it wrong and I'll support you' and 'Well you need to stand on your two feet

That's a really good question.

If it was me, I'd be telling him to do what he has to do and look at it as just a temporary stepping stone, until such a time that he can hopefully get a job that gives him some satisfaction & a decent income (well, you're lucky if you can get both imo).

I wouldn't like it if I was in his shoes, but he's got nothing to gain by resisting and being penalised for it. Not that he's got a lot to gain my complying either, but at least he'd not be relying on you for everything.

It's a crap situation, and I hope something comes along for him soon.

Thanks Gilly ....I'm a mum just like you and I'm all over the place with this one with what to do for the best

EDIT: and being being a mum what I mean is my political views on 'the System' fall into insignificance well below just making sure my child makes the right choices

I have thought I might have sounded hard but I did say to him 'your 19 , you're not going to change the governments stance on unemployment and disability just by being a smart arse.....so fall in line and use the system to your advantage, which shouldn't even be to his advantage he is entitled to job seekers allowance


Then I feel it's all my fault again because it was me and his dad who armed with this the view and now he is 19 and skint

I solved the dilemma by working for myself instead of someone else.
Its as simple as getting a trade skill and going for it tbh.

It doesn't have to be computers. Just something in demand that he doesn't mind having a go at.
It might mean going back to college for training or whatever but at least then he's entitled to some help.

Totally agree. Work for your-self, like Andy said maybe go back to college or get an apprenticeship in something you can go it alone with

so if he wants to sell stuff that cost him nothing on ebay that would be ok???????/

your son's mistake appears to be that he's approached them with the mighty tools of logic and common sense. which isn't how government depts like the dwp work......

there used to be help with setting up your own business when you were on the dole. is that still an option?
they used to be satisfied that the work you were doing preparing business plans, market research etc constituted looking for work. there were also schemes and 'courses' you could do through the dwp that gave you a business grounding. then there were grant schemes like the next king lizard's trust which helped you get ready to trade and through the first year or so.

are things like that still available? if so that's the route i'd recommend. it gets them off your back while you need them and once you're se, you are playing by a very different set of rules to paye...

if those schemes etc aren't available i suggest he takes any shite part time job he can get, 2 days and he'll have more than the dole. then concentrate on going se. ideally in something he loves but tolerates is good enough at first...

dawnbreak wrote:
If he can make a living out of it and do it well, then what the heck basically

If its on the black then so much the better

dubmeup wrote:
LOL!!!

Do you have to declare yourself as self-employed to make an income from selling on Ebay?

double post

Gilly wrote:
if you are trading, yes.
we are all permitted to sell our old stuff tax free but when you are trading for profit it's a good chance to go se

I would really advise against getting on any scheme like the Work Programme. It is very rare that anything good comes of any of these schemes. They're simply intended to make money for a raft of corporate providers, such as Serco, Atos, G4S, KBR and A4E. I believe that they're actually supposed to make you less employable so that you'll become more and more reliant on benefit, and so that these companies can profit from you more and more. Why else are the Jobcentre running training courses which are described as uniformly useless? I don't believe for one second that they're intended to teach anything useful, I think they're designed to do the exact opposite.dubmeup wrote: Unfortunately, all these schemes have been scrapped.

well i might have guessed eh. typical

He's 19 now I;m sure he can deal with it, let him know you're only willing to support him if he earns his keep

wake up Bomb......did you ever express your concerns about these organisations whilst you were employed at the DWP?

What did your colleagues think about the organisations?

Hope you don't mind me asking

Did any of your managers or communication from further ever hint at this when you were there?

Btw dawn, don't blame yourself. Some people don't snap out of the teenange' two finger salute to authority' phase until they hit their 20's. Maybe that's what's going on. Besides, any bright young person can see that there's something wrong with the system.

People our age are just more inclined to pick our battles and take the rest of it on the chin.

dawnbreak wrote: Yeah, like anyone would listen to my opinion! I frequently expressed my opinion on many subjects, none of which anyone paid any attention to whatsoever.

I think that most people are too focused on their everyday caseload to really consider or understand the consequences of what is going on. Also, unless you're directly involved with these people there's no particular reason that you would know much about them. You could work for the DWP for decades and never come into contact directly with Atos or A4E, and the likes of KBR and Serco keep their involvement pretty quiet. Nothing is really explained to the low level people except their minor role and how they're expected to carry it out. I guess most people are so snowed under with workload that they don't give anything else much consideration. It's much like you see people carrying out the census who couldn't tell you who Lockheed Martin are. And the people that are involved at a higher level who deal directly with these people, as in most organisations, don't give a toss.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19931604
Despite this, some people have worked out what's going on, and a larger percentage of people will obviously understand the futility of what they're engaged in, but will probably attribute it to government incompetence.

Companies like A4E make my blood boil.............how is it even possible for that women to become a muti-millionaire then when folk that get wind of what she is doing ,and she is being taken to task for Fraud,David Cameron then gives her job as 'family advisor'and magcial makes all the bad stuff disappear

So what they are saying is 'we can shaft you and if you cotten on to the fact we are shafting you we'll just shaft you more