Lockdown winds down, back in jobcentres soon?

As the vaccination programme accelerates and an imminent announcement about  the 'roadmap out of lockdown', what will this mean for benefit claimants? When do you think regular in-person appointments at jobcentres will be back on the menu for most people?

Are there any inclinations, hints or rumours?

My guess is end of May/June - make the most of it folks

I totally agree with you #parker123, about the JCP opening regularly again, 'my guess is end of may/June'.

Also is how will claimants be notified and how much notice will they get. And lets not forget the new batch of work-roaches, ega to make a name for themselves behind the desk 🤪. Worrying times indeed.

If I were to guess I would say sometimes next year.

First thing. While the UK is doing well with vaccinations, other countries are not. For as long as there are travel restrictions to other countries there will still be social distancing restrictions in place indoors. We don't want new variants spreading. We can only truly open up once the world are on track of beating it and it's not looking like it will happen this year. And next winter will also be rough.

Second thing. While work coaches can be horrible sometimes, they are unionised and their unions are quite powerful. They wouldn't let face to face appointment resume until it was fully safe. Many DWP employees are still working from home.

Third thing. Once furlough ends there will be even more unemployment. Even if the virus completely vanished there wouldn't be enough space for all the new unemployed and new work coaches. So I believe phone appointments will continue so work coaches can manage us in bulk.

Fourth thing. There's little point in opening up in a few months. There's lots less jobs available. Courses won't be able to take on as many jobseekers as they used to. I don't imagine work coaches will be able to help with much that they can't do through a phone call.

I could be wrong of course. I hope I am not.

Jara wrote:If I were to guess I would say sometimes next year.

Really? I respect your views and reasons for them but I just can't see the DWP being that compassionate. Especially as its all now come out and the main headline on BBC News is 'Social contact limits in England over from 21 June'

That is clearly their plan. Whether it will happen is another thing but my gut feeling is it will be there or there abouts.

Whether it will still be fortnightly visits, I'm not sure. Maybe they will combine phone appointments with physical. Make it every 3 weeks, or once a month you must go in-person? They can make us sit outside queing up like people do for supermarkets socially distanced. We are their cattle after all

I think slowly but surely they will begin to reintroduce in-person appointments for all and we'll definitely be back by Summer

There is more chance of them abolishing sanctions than not getting as many people possible back into jobcentres ASAP in my opinion

I asked my new work coach last week about face to face appointments re-starting. She said they don't have the capacity in our local office to socially distance, there are too many clients and too many work coaches, so the only way they can re-start them is if social distancing rules are completely abolished.

Step four:21 June*

All legal limits on social contact removed.  Mmm...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56158405

Universal credit is primarily a digital service.  Work coaches at this time can decide the method of contact.  Claimants have a say in the matter.

My work coach says he loves working from home and is not looking forward to going back to the jobcentre. I can hear dogs barking and children shouting in the background when he calls me. I can see this trend going on if/when the pandemic is over. A lot of office employees would gladly take a pay cut and work from anywhere. There is a boom of people selling their homes and moving into camper vans and work from remote. I would actually do that myself if I found the way to make a profit out of it and wouldn't have to beg money from the DWP.

There are a number of shocks/changes coming,
The government has spent a huge amount of money on the pandemic,
And will want that money back, So job centre appointments via phone are very likely to restart very shortly;
With severe penalty's with job seekers who dont comply with all there job search requirements.
Not forgetting the "Extra" UC payment of £20 is Highley likely to be cut in the up coming Budget.
The Holidays are over, and grim times are ahead.

Rebel-1 wrote:The government has spent a huge amount of money on the pandemic,
And will want that money back, So job centre appointments via phone are very likely to restart very shortly;

Count yourself as one of the lucky ones then, because I've had phone appointments with my work coach since last Summer. Started on a monthly basis but ever since October it's been roughly every 2 weeks phone appointment. (I'm on UC)

I've heard of others on UC who have hardly been bothered at all since last March, some like me have regular contact.

And I actually think the £20 p/w uplift will be extended for a little while yet. There is too much national pressure on them for it to be stopped altogether. I don't think the extension will be too long, but I think they will do something!

parker123 wrote:

Rebel-1 wrote:The government has spent a huge amount of money on the pandemic,
And will want that money back, So job centre appointments via phone are very likely to restart very shortly;

Count yourself as one of the lucky ones then, because I've had phone appointments with my work coach since last Summer. Started on a monthly basis but ever since October it's been roughly every 2 weeks phone appointment. (I'm on UC)

I've heard of others on UC who have hardly been bothered at all since last March, some like me have regular contact.

And I actually think the £20 p/w uplift will be extended for a little while yet. There is too much national pressure on them for it to be stopped altogether. I don't think the extension will be too long, but I think they will do something!

Did you claim UC after the pandemic started? I did. From what I can gather, that's the group that hasn't been spared regular appointments. It sounds like you might've claimed before, though, in which case you've just been unlucky.

It sounds like they're picking up again now.

They are already predicting a spike in July/August in order to prevent that 21 June "back to normal".

Regular phone appointments have started for both me and my partner. We are on Universal Credit. The work coach was very adamant that we used the journal to record job search and even added it as a requirement to our new claimant commitments. He also specified exactly how we are meant to record the evidence, by using the job application section in our journal. We were also questioned a lot about why we have not gotten jobs during the pandemic and wanted to know every detail about our job search.

We choose not to argue or fight them at the time. However we will look into having our commitments changed before we accept them. My impression is that DWP now got an army of work coaches and they seem very eager to impress their managers. Not looking forward to face appointments in a few months.

My roach (pre pandemic) asked me to record very specific details of my job applications (employer contact details etc). I asked for a written statement about how such information would be processed if I supplied it. The roach backed off and nothing has been said since then.

Jara wrote:Regular phone appointments have started for both me and my partner. We are on Universal Credit. The work coach was very adamant that we used the journal to record job search and even added it as a requirement to our new claimant commitments. He also specified exactly how we are meant to record the evidence, by using the job application section in our journal. We were also questioned a lot about why we have not gotten jobs during the pandemic and wanted to know every detail about our job search.

We choose not to argue or fight them at the time. However we will look into having our commitments changed before we accept them. My impression is that DWP now got an army of work coaches and they seem very eager to impress their managers. Not looking forward to face appointments in a few months.

#Jara, you could add some Hyperlinks of some FOI's like the one from #frank-zola, about the 'universal credit journal not mandatory'.🤩, to your journal. As your work Roach , seems to be confused upon such matters (seems like a new recruit from their lack of knowledge?).

https://mrfrankzola.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/dwp-says-universal-credit-journal-not-mandatory-for-your-work-search-records-or-cv-why/


https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/universal_credit_journal

Jara wrote:We were also questioned a lot about why we have not gotten jobs during the pandemic

From the end of March 2020 to the end of June 2020 there was no job search requirement. There were also quite a few "stay at home" orders over the last 12 months with extensive travel bans. The roach needs to be reminded that  their interrogation can't go back beyond your last payment anyway without very good evidence of non-compliance and a good reason on their part why they think it's ok to seek reasons for a sanction.