After the Honeymoon

Got myself a pass from signing on the 29th due to the blueblood's arranged marriage. A pleasant event I'm sure if you're a fan of hats and prearranged events designed to soothe the social outrage going around at the moment. Sorry Dave, nice try. Thanks for the pass though.

Anyway I get back to the Jobcentre and the old stress kicks in. I really cannot deal with attending this place. I can't function under this level of stress. People aren't meant to live like this. God only knows what it's like if your health condition is worse. Why is there no other way for dealing with unemployment than shepherding people to an arbitrary venue and processing a signature? Before the invention of the Jobseeker's Agreement people used to be able to sign via post! Imagine that in the new tory era: IDS wouldn't hear this at all - no profit in it.

So as I attend I find that I, and two others, are to receive special attention: we have to wait for some coordinated effort on the part of hte security staff because we have to go...upstairs! This requires a manoeuvre comparable only to the sort of stuff that must be happening in Libya right now.

We get upstairs and find out that things have 'changed' due, apparently, in part to the fact a few members of staff have left (can't say I noticed a deficit in manpower). This it seems means we have to go upstairs to be seen by some other people to sign on. People no different than the people that are still signing others on downstairs; people I saw last time. It also means I have to come in 15 minutes later. So that's now 30 minutes of wandering around the town centre with nothing to do (nowhere's open at that time of the morning for instance) while an apparently short staffed jobcentre resorts to some byzantine method for dealing with me. None of this makes the slightest sense. Why on earth do I need a security escort to walk up some stairs? I'm no more dangerous than when i first entered the building (and it's not like I got searched then either). The whole thing is typical jobcentre insanity that took longer than it did for me to get signed (thankfully).

I despair of this process. Currently I'm trying to find somewhere to get an Asperger's diagnosis. Though I have to wonder what for. It won't help me sign off, the jobcentre won't accept it as some excuse not to work or to help me find something I can do. They will continue to put me forward for unsuitable jobs and refuse to do anything else until they get tired of dealing with me and I end up falling foul of the system or being shunted off to the likes of Working Links again.