Are you required to use these offices?
Me, personally? At the moment, yes, being on Incapacity Benefit.
In general, you’re obliged to use the office if you’re on unemployment benefits, disability-related benefits, and various others. Apart from anything else, they’re the major source of advertising for low-wage/unskilled jobs; employers are not charged anything for the service, which suits them just fine.
Yes. In the UK you must attend the office once every two weeks to sign a declaration that you:
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have not done any paid work in the previous two weeks and
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are actively seeking work
You are paid retrospectively ie a couple of days after you sign the declaration you receive a cheque through the post for the previous two weeks.When you go in to sign the declaration they may ask you for details of your job search (but they probably won’t).
Many students do this over their summer holiday (which lasts a couple of months). At the moment you get paid approx £50 a week. Do you not have to do this in the US (attend the office every so often to confirm that you are genuinely unemployed and seeking work)?
I’ve claimed benefits when a student and I’ve also worked in benefit offices in my time. Interesting places to work - you see all types of humanity in there. Something bizarre (and often hilarious) happens at least once a day.
They’re certainly not supposed to (assuming you mean university student mid-course) - the student loan already supposedly pays their living costs for the summer holiday.
I meant after A levels and before University. Although back when I worked there (pre student loans) University students could claim during their summer holidays. Things have probably changed since I worked there though.
I did after I got laid off in late '99. My age and length of previous employment made me eligible for 70% salary for 90 days, so I decided to get back some of what I’d been paying for (In Japan, unemployment insurance is marked as a specific deduction on your monthly paycheck). Rather than ‘unemployment office,’ they have the charming name of “Hello Work” (probably the only government service that uses an English name), and a lot of the place was filled with job counseling and job placement facilities.
Lots of guys who looked in their 50’s there, and as bad as my situation was, I felt really bad for them. I always knew NEC would shitcan me at a moment’s notice depending on factors I had no control over*, but these guys had lived all their lives believing the mantra “The company is your life. Give everything you have to the company and the company will always be there to look after you.” Most of them looked like they’d been stabbed in the back by their own mothers. It’s no surprise to me that 40-60 year-olds now make up the greatest share of suicides in Japan.
*(they hired me back a few months later for a new project, after which I was able to repay the favor by dumping them for a better offer)
Yes, Jojo, I think things might seem unfamiliar - I signed on for a few weeks in a summer between different uni courses, and they certainly weren’t letting me take it easy: if I claimed I’d applied for 5 jobs that fortnight, they wanted to see copies of the letters of application, and even had me phone one of the companies there and then to chase up a reply.
My husband and I both work in a factory and every so often, due to scheduling and orders, have anywhere from a week to three weeks off at various times throughout the year, with usually a volunteer layoff over the summer (we don’t get one this year). At those times, our employer brings the unemployment person to us, and there’s a mass sign up. We don’t have to look for contacts, since we are on temporary layoff. We just call in at the end of every week to verify that we are still laid off, report any money made, etc. So we get paid for doing nothing too! It’s great! 
Hmm…I think you were unlucky with the office you signed on at. They don’t tend to hassle you too much (in general). Honestly, take it from me - I worked there. Most of the time, the person signing you on is as happy not to give you hassle as you are not to receive hassle.
They just wanna sign you and get rid of you. Then sign the next guy and get on with it so they can have lunch.
Maybe you found a real nazi-type one. Those types are hard work but, fortunately, they’re a rare breed.
Another possibility is that your approach was wrong. Maybe you asked too many questions or something. It’s best not to make waves. Be like a reed - bend with the wind. Comply with all their requests even if they seem odd. They are only following protocol, there’s no point in questioning it too much.
Some people make a big issue out of what benefits they are entitled to and why they aren’t getting such a benefit or other. These people run the risk of pissing them off. And so they get repaid by a closer scrutiny.
But then a further possibility is that you were too pliant and you went in there being all apologetic. Explaining in detail how your job search has been unsuccessful. Officially they are supposed to question you about your search but in reality they’ll be just as happy to sign you and get rid of you. If you start pulling out evidence of your search then they will obligated to question you about it.
Best to just stay quiet until asked. Co-operate with every request, of course, but don’t be too keen.
Here in PA you don’t have to go to an office but about twelve yrs ago, when I went, you did.
I remember that instead of standing in line the people put a piece of paper in line (on the floor) instead. As the line moved, people would go and move their piece of paper…ooookay.
You’re assuming of course that if the employer wasn’t paying the unemployment you would receive that money instead. I think not.
LOL - no, I wasn’t being ‘pliant’ - I was actually trying to get a job! Just that there were zero summer jobs, so I was trying to get a permanent one while planning to leave it after two months…and I’m not a good bullshitter. Yes, there were a couple of little-hitlers, but mostly they were alright, and it was clear they were ‘following orders’. One of them told me that their area was regarded as premium risk for fraud (this was central Manchester, after all).
I went to the Englewood, New Jersey Employment Office at 40 Bennett Road several times when I was desperate for work. Each time I got the same response: GO ON WELFARE! That was all they did, told me repeatedly to GO ON WELFARE. It was absolutely degrading and humilitating. How are you suppose to believe you are even employable when all you hear is GO ON WELFARE from the “professionals” who are paid by our taxes. That’s right, New Jersey people: you pay the salaries of “professionals” who tell people to GO ON WELFARE!
I wouldn’t go back there again unless you put a gun to my head. And if you did, I’d use it inside the office.
Oh yes many many times as Ireland during the 80’s was a nightmare.
We have a organisation called FÁS - Training and Employment Authority which are very like Jobs Centres in the UK. When you are unemployed you have to sign on to their register and go to any interview they may send you on. They also have lots of vacancies etc. in their office which is a very nice place to go and doesn’t stigmatise you at all. They also runs free training etc.
You have to go to a dole office one a month to sign on but you receive your money every week by just going to the post office and having your card swiped. The labour is about $140 a week cash and whatever extras you may get (rent allowances, child allowance etc.) once you are out of work and fulfil the requirements there is no time limit etc. on payments.
Alumnus of the Indiana unemployment office. Pretty much been described already in other posts. I hated to have to go, but all in all wasn’t as bad as I expected.
The only weird part was with the job search stuff. They wouldn’t let you get application info yourself, and there was a limit of 3 searches per visit (?)(!). I ended up swiping the URL of the search engine they used, and figured out how to do it myself from home.
I had a mini celebration when I turned in my last voucher, too.
I was there a couple of times in my life. Back in the early 80s, I was out of work for nearly a year and lived on unemployment until I got things together. It was not a very good time of my life.
Last time I was laid off I went down, but I got a new job before my old severance package ran out.
Went there once for about an hour when my dad was out of work. He wanted me to drop something off at 8 AM for him while I was home on break. Never mind that this was on my ONE 4-day break from school and work that semester, and never mind that he didn’t exactly have anywhere to be that morning…
Anyway. Very depressing place. It somehow managed to combine the utter banality of the corporate world with the desperation of someone whose rent is two weeks past due. Plus, you know, it was eight in the morning. And the guy I was supposed to give it to never showed up. Boy, was I ticked. I think I left it on his desk, even though my dad said to hand it to him.
I used to try to see a different “specialist” everytime I visited them. Employers evidentally had their favorites. I’ve even sat there while they called employers to ask about jobs being filled.
It was different when companies had their own personnel managers that did the hiring.Better then I think.