Correction

I had previously stated that the letter promised by my Work Programme adviser hadn't arrived. This is not the case. They actually have furnished me with a letter, which I only discovered amongst all the other bumph sent, including the photocopy of the Provider Guidance I had mistaken for that letter. It would be remiss and irresponsible of me not to correct this. It would be dishonest of me to misrepresent my experiences of the Work Programme since that does me, them, and you, dear reader, no favours at all - and defeats the point of this blog entirely!

That said the letter isn't as committal as I'd like. That might sound a bit mealy mouthed, but this lack of commitment is one of the great problems the unemployed/poor/sick face. Doctors for example don't like to commit to writing sick notes or to accepting people might have problems dealing with work. It's the same on the Work Programme: advisers aren't that keen on sticking their neck out. I guess I can understand why, but it does no one any favours. If we are supposed to get the kind of help that the government has promised (the letter mentions that it's the job of the WP while on JSA to monitor jobvsearch activity for instance) then it's not enough to just equivocate in the face of the issues that claimants have - especially if you want to get paid for it.

That's all I have to say for now. I also may have some problems with the blogger software not processing responses properly as I've gotten email notification of a couple that arent' showing up when I go to respond, and I try to respond to every post, since people have taken the time to read these misbegotten cries of self pity. Woe is me.

Also I've had a look at what I understand to be the government's emergency regulations, in response to the court ruling on Workfare this past Tuesday. From what I can gather they seem now to be endorsing unrestricted work for benefits: specifically it states that a claimant mandated can only stop if either his claim ends or the secretary of state (or presumably the DWP) gives the claimant leave to stop. That's not much help!