Pertemps was too much for one university graduate. She decided to complain to their New Deal Personal Adviser after being inspired by reading this site and give New Deal Scandal a copy of the letter. We have published it here for you to read.
Complaint:
Dear Sara [ND Personal Adviser]
I am currently writing having decided that I have had enough with the flawed New Deal scheme. Having taken part in the scheme over 3 months I feel the scheme in no way aids me to find employment, but rather on the contrary prohibits me.
I have been looking for work over the past 10 months having graduated from university. I have had a difficult time looking for work as the recession hit just after I graduated and now there is very limited work so I enthusiastically joined the New Deal Scheme. Little to my knowledge did I expect it to be the most unhelpful and inefficient use of time in my life.
Pertemps is a glorified detention centre where the unemployed are forced to attend in order to have enough money to survive. The time I have been there it’s been a depressing and demoralising environment, with advisers that are just trying to fill the quotas for the day.
The advisers are cold and unwilling to help; we are required to attend 6 hours a day which and the only activity that I see anyone doing is copy out of news papers. We are given job search sheets and are told to fill them each day, the majority of these are fake, you see groups of new deal candidates sitting round tables copying any jobs that are advertised into there job search logs. This is done with the full knowledge of the personally advisers and is a simple way they again make there quotas.
Since the first day I went, I was promised placements such as at the BBC and Radio stations but this all turned out to be hot air, as through out my entire time on New Deal not once was I offered a placement, on each of my visits I asked if there was any placements available and the answer was always no. I was desperate to get out of the “detention centre” and requested anything but even this was too difficult for them.
As a graduate in BA (hons) Industrial Design, whilst looking for work more related to my specialism I need to look at design and media related websites, but this just isn’t possible at pertemps as any website that would aid me search for design related jobs is block for access at pertemps prohibiting my search for genuine work. If I have found a job in my own time whilst at home, as at home I can search for work without the limitations, I also need to spend time applying for the job at home as pertemps don’t have the facilities nor the software in order for me to submit my application, again further prohibiting me looking for work.
Having given the scheme a try for over 10 weeks, I have recently decided that its really prohibiting my job search and therefore would like to come off the scheme even though I only have 2 weeks left till I complete the scheme I feel those two weeks could be much better used with real job search and time to further improve my portfolio.
Please could you see if this is possible as Id rather come off JSA then literally waste my time and tax payers money at the pertemps building.
Yours sincerely
Source:
A direct request via email.
I thought one angle re forced detention for money was to liken the provate cpmpaniies to Trafficers and pimps and was akin to Slavery and therefore in brech of the United Nations Anto Slavery Charter. Try that for a letter of complaint to the provider, DWP, Police, Liberty and your local MP.
By the way if you want some mpney, at the detyention centre have an accident, call an ambulance and sue for negligence / Health and Safety….one of the other great USA industries thwey dont want us to omport..personal litigation.
Clif
6 Jul 09 at 12:09 am
First get this prog sorted as im unable to corrst my first attempt at my name and then get accused of threft. There again delete dont work. Did six weeks iof new deal in dumfries a few weeks back. I had to provide my own transport in the 32 miles as there are no public facilitys. first three weeks i considered commiting suicide four times. Ive been stopped from looking at jobs ive been doing over twenty years. Ive been abused the area manager calling my cv a tissue of lies in front of everyone and my finding that tesco were rerecuiting for a new store was told to apply for part time as with my work record i,d be even lucky to get that.
Have read peices that say people were allowed to play games and read and listen to the radio . we were locked in a locked room all day and had to sign in and out and i was told i could not talk to new people. Or move from my desk. Any wonder i walked out and am still under threat of six months stoppage entirely of benefit. If this is truely not for publication if the stoppage goes ahead ,because of the lies written by the manager of the new deal provider in purest hate , i intend to kill the bastards therby costing them £1000 a week for the rest of my life .
Ive got nothing at the moment but my life to lose , so will take great delight in making sure the scum that i suffered under will not harm damaged vunerable unemployed people antymore.
D P burgessBBB
13 Sep 09 at 7:53 pm
They should not have locked you in a room this a gross breach of health and safety and fire safety rules what would happen if there was a fire in the building? was there a fire exit in the room?
personally if i had been on that course and was being locked in a room i would have been phoning the fire hq and reporting that a new deal course being held at blah blah were locking the room the clients were sitting in and this was in gross breach of health and safety and fire regulations also i would have pointed out to one of the providers that they were in breach of fire regulations by locking us in the room and also went to see my ndpa and stated i was refusing to go back because the room is was in was locked and therefore the nd placement provider was in breach of both health and safety and fire regs ndpa couldnt threaten benefit sanctions as your personal safety is at risk.
another way would be to phone H&S on your mobile withholding the number of course making them aware of this situation before entering the building that is a surefire way to ensure an h&s visit providers cant prove who did phone H&S wont reveal the info as all they can say is it was a with held mobile number as long as the H&S number is deleted from your phone immediately as providers may ask to check everyones mobile though they have no authority to do so either way if h&s did pay a visit chances are they could close the building down and take providers to court?
allan johnstone
23 Oct 09 at 5:13 pm
dp totally agree with you these ndpa’s are a bunch of bastards my ndpa when i was on nd in 2006 got me so worked up one day i very nearly walked into a pub and asked for a double scotch and i have been a teatotaler all my days but i resisted the temptation to do so and decided not to let him get the better of me that i would get the better of him
my ndpa kept harping on that i had a negative attitude pratt am surprised though that they sent you to a nd course where there was no public transport pratts
my ndpa wanted me to go to leven which is 12 miles from cupar about 15 mins in a car over two hours each way by bus to do jobsearch at the opportunities centre when there was one in cupar he threatened to sanction me until i asked him if the oc in cupar had closed because when i had passed it on my way to the jc it was open i also pointed out that it was a two hour bus journey there and back and that was more that the travelling time specified for jobs outwith cupar which is 11/2 hours each way needless to say he backed down maybe he thought i was a problem and getting me out of cupar i was out of sight out of mind?
They shouldnt have told you you couldnt apply for jobs you usually do nor should the area manager have held up your cv and told the room it was a tissue of lies how did he know it was this(LIES) and also to say that applying for a part time job with tesco you would be lucky to get it is just insulting i would have said well if its such a good job why dont you apply for it then when your job becomes vacant i can apply for it
i would have also pointed out to the area manager that locking the door was gross breach of fire regulations as well as health and safety regs and that you would be notifying your ndpa about these breaches of your personal safety
i had a different ndpa in 2001 and he said he was going to send me on a bee keeping course but where he shot himself in the foot is that the only beekeeping course in scotland is in the borders area when i mentioned this to my new ndpa (THE IDIOT)and also told him i was allergic to bee and wasp stings he told me they wouldnt send me on anything that was detrimental to my health handy tip that if they try that one another is if they want you to work with a slater on a ndp tell them you cant stand heights if they force you to do it tell them well if you hear about the fire service rescuing me from a roof dont say i didnt tell you although small these things niggle them
allan johnstone
23 Oct 09 at 5:46 pm
http://feedback.flexiblenewdeal.me.uk/topic/jobcentre-plus-warns-flexible-new-deal-providers-from-responding-to-mp-letters
No to MP Letters
6 Nov 09 at 8:54 pm
PPDG is a total joke, most advisers have no clue to what a real career is they seem to want to stuff you into any dead end temporary low paid agency job just to meet there targets.
They lecture about there data protection policy and then interview you in a small room of 5 people, I overhead another victim (jobseeker)who was right opposite me’s name address date of birth and loads of other personal information - brilliant data protection there.
On top of this they can be down right rude and ask stupid question like why havent you got this job when you are applying for a single position and when you phone the empolyer for an update you find out that 250 people applied for a single role you get this attitude in the current economic crisis.
Advisors get about 25k + bonus payments a year of government money and jobseekers get £3072 - now who are the real scroungers here!
Whoever wins the next election should scrap it, give jobseekers there entitled benefits and assist businesses more to create real permanent jobs and growth in the economy.
Rant Over
Dave
6 Feb 10 at 8:44 pm
I was on the New Deal 13 week course August-November 2008. I called it a prison sentence. 13 weeks detention for being a dole waller.
At the initial interview I was told I would get on the job training. My Advisor had told me the same. Being sceptical about this i told my advisor it sounded like slave labour. Another great ooportunity for employers to get free labour.
After starting the “course” I soon found out that job placements had to be in an area of work you had experience in, so there was NO training involved. For those who had never had a job (mainly the under 24 year olds) they were forced into any old crap, and over worked, the employer taking advantage of them. In short, abused.
As I have worked in shops before I was sent to a charity shop. There I learnt how to tag and steam clothes. Obviously I was impressed that I could write that on my CV. Being unhappy in this job placement for various reasons, I told my placement officer. He was unhappy and to cut a long story short he caused me a great deal of stress for the remainder of my course. ONE thing he did was to shout at me in front of a room full of people that I was kicked off the course (and I didn’t know if my benefits would be stopped and for how long, so ofcourse I was worried). He semmed hell bent of kicking me off but I managed to stay. Luckily I was able to take control of the situation and keep him out of my time there by getting myself another job placement.
After leaving the “course” (no I didn’t find a job through it, suprise suprise), I wrote to the New Deal manager about that advisor’s treatment of me, (he did similar to another woman). They wrote back saying the matter was being investigated. After a few months I recieved a reply basically telling me to fuck off. Personally I would have preferred them to say that rather than be formal about it, letting that c*nt off the hook for his abusive behaviour and trying to lay the blame on me saying that I was unresponsive to getting help from the ND provider.
I sort of believe in Karma so I feel the c*nt will get his just desserts one day.
So mostly most people spent 30 hours a week literally doing nothing while the company providing the course raked in the money. Those on placements were used and abused. It was a complete waste of time and money.
If the Conservatives win the Election we can start looking forward to being on the chain gangs. Maybe we’ll even get a chance of working in the sewers. Yipee.
Julie
20 Feb 10 at 10:27 pm
Hi, is there any way to get a copy of this letter? I am doing a presentation on the inept manner in which these courses are run. A copy of real feedback would be of great assistance, tried to copy and paste, but site seems to be blocked. If anyone could help that would be great. Many Thanks.
alison
2 Mar 10 at 9:04 pm