Benefit Busters Ep3

How do?

Well what can I say about benefits busters that hasn't been said already. Shaw Trust were doing just the same as A4E were doing in the previous programme in trying to meet targets and to get the £300 monthly bonus. It would not be so bad as if they could treat people with some empathy not just objects to meet targets. It did not show anything that Shaw Trust actually did for the clients than the initial interviews, what did they do in the time spent while at Shaw Trust?. Were they making models in cardboard in team building exercises?.

Sherrie was asking if anyone was interested in being canvassers or car salesman, to me it all seemed a bit unrealistic, for example, here we have 2 applicants for a job as a car sales, one a car salesman who has say 5 years recent experience and a person who has been on IB for 5-10 years has little or no experience. The IB claimants application would go straight in the shredder.

It was also disgraceful the way Sherrie was saying about the guy who did the painting and decorating and saying she would support him but you could see that she was probably thinking that he did not really have a cat in hells chance of getting a job at 57. I thought she was being ageist and she had virtually made her mind up before she ahd even started. The thing is she should of realised that older people have knowledge and life experience, he also had a history of running his own business and this could be transferred into something else instead of just giving him false hope.

I felt the better advisor was the one helping Mandy who had PTSD/alchohol/depression problems. She seemed to be more on the ball. I think Mandy had the right idea in that she wanted to do something but most employers probably wouldn't touch her with a barge pole so doing some voluntary work is probably the best route to start off with building up her self-esteem. The advisor was also right saying that she needed some counselling and to sort herself out which might take a year.

To get people back into the workplace after a long time out isn't like selling a car, people have lots of problems that need addressing before they are even ready to try and get back in the workplace. It is not as simple as shoving them on a course and doing job search and trying to get your £300 bonus at the same time. The thing is in this country these things are not in place as yet.

I can't say I have a lot of sympathy for Kieron as he had no problems walking and he could walk so he was mobile, he could pick up a bucket full of water and mop the floor. How did the bucket get in the sink to start off with? Picking up the bucket with a bad back is difficult. If he is worried about ending up in a wheelchair I wouldn't have thought picking up a bucket of water was a good idea. I also thought at one point when he dropped the piece of paper he was going to pick it up again and I thought he was reaching forward for the ball in the garden. Kieron has done nothing to change the minds of any watching daily mail readers.

I thought the job Sherrie asked him to apply for as an office administrator was totally unrealistic as he was not experienced and then the other guy was talking him out of it and suggesting going to college to do basic maths and literacy. Oh I forgot Sherrie wants her £300 bonus. I think Kerion could do something but you have got to start somewhere.

Looking at the medical he went to I thought from the questions being asked that he was going to fail and he did. Was the examiner who asked him to bend over at the assessment actually qualified to make a judgement because apparently these disability analysts are not doctors and have only been on a three week course?.

I didn't think much of Sherries use of the phrase having to spoon-fed her clients who she felt were too lazy. I think if she knew about people who are sick/disabled then she should have said that they were not motivated and would have used her skills to address this. If a person wants to buy a car they already have the motivation to do it, that's the difference between selling cars and people with illnesses and disabilities, they are more complicated.

I think the governments plans to kick people off IB onto JSA isn't going to do much for motivating people and it would send people into depression.

From what I have read in the last year the sick and disabled feel that the government are punishing them for being sick and disabled. I just think the government have just gone the wrong way about it and all they are worried is saving there money. When they thought up these reforms did they actually think of asking sick and disabled people who have got back into work what motivated them and then asking current IB claimants what would motivate them.

If I can see all these things in this programme the question is why haven't I got a job for Shaw Trust/A4e earning £2000 a month?. I would definitely make a better job of it than Sherrie. I didn't think much to Hayley Taylor's approach but you can guess by now I am definitely not a fan of Sherrie Jepson. This to me just shows all the things that are bad about pathways to work.

This programme did very little to show the actual problems that lot's of sick and disabled people have trying to find work. Neither did it show anything about employers discrimination against the sick and disabled. I felt it seemed to spend a lot of its time focusing on Kieron and his negative attitude.

If you are a person on IB and after watching a programme like this would you want to go on one of these programmes offered by A4e/Shaw Trust/Working Links when you know there are people like Sherrie who are out there who are target & bonus driven working in the pathways to work system?.

Are they thinking about your best interests and your aspirations or about meeting the target and the £300 bonus?.

Ta ta for now