A4E to claimant: “get a job”
March 16th, 2009In what has to be the most ironic riposte to a picket ever, protesters against the Welfare Reform Bill were told by an employee of one of the forced-training “back to work” agencies to “get a job”.
Report of the protest here. More seriously, an insight into how this company A4E (offices on Lothian Rd.) treats its “clients” can be found in this disturbing first hand account of the group, described variously as “Poverty pimps” and “On a campaign to re-invent bonded labour”.
I was forced to go to A4e and told I would lose my benefits if I didn’t attend. I already had low self esteem because I hadn’t been working for the previous 6 months and had tried to get a job that would cover all of my bills. I had even voluntarily taken up typing courses and had got my level 3 qualifications in the hope that I could get a job that paid enough. I was also waiting to start voluntary work at citizen advice but I couldn’t start there because of attending A4e.
Things don’t seem to be any better at their Edinburgh office. Some of their clients told the protesters “it’s a fucking jail” where they are forced to spend the whole day (some for 12 weeks) searching for jobs that just aren’t there.
Worse, there’s the “Volunteer to Work” programme, where you go work for nothing for a month. No wages, you go sweep the fruit & veg aisles in Asda or you lose your benefit. After a month’s “trial”, the company can simply get someone else to work for free for the next month.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
my madness ended 3 weeks ago i did a 13 week course with a4e it was the worst thing i have ever done, to say i was depressed for the 13 weeks is an understatment!. the course(so called) all i did for 13 weeks was sit in front of a computer no traning no work placement, my adviser a job center told me i was going there for training work placement to get my cscs card and fork lift truck license, i got none. job applications that we had sent to the office to be sent out were found 4 weeks later not sent out! that is just a bit of my madness at a4e what planet you on a4e made complaint to jcp got 3 page letter back
March 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I’m Currently doing the A4e ‘cource’ as part of the new deal partnership.
because of the economic downturn the place is so overcrowded that the classes every week swell up by 20 people.
I have been told by the placement guideness tutor/councellor that he can only do so much. & im not kidding when i say this you can see ALL of the staff are stressed out.
This doesnt help any of us on this scheme if the members of staff are so over worked that we are forgotten about.
You could honestly turn up at 09:30 & come back at 16:30 to sign out & no-one would bat an eyelid.
their motto at the Edinburgh branch, is help yourself to find a job. what if you havent had a job, or you need help in developing these skills? – They send you off on a work placement scheme which BTW you have to ask to go on or youre left there to do nothing for 13 weeks.
there are guy’s & doll’s there that are aged between 17 – 57 all with their own issues, some are lazy & cant be assed looking for a job & just are genuinally a nuisance we all know who they are, but the genuine people that need help are being hampered by these fools because theyre taking up all of the staff resources.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
a4e edinburgh, complain to your job center put it in writing, get everyone to sign it, thats what we all did, a4e were none to happy, the bought all 30 of us fish and chips lol as if that would stop us, complain complain…http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/5lr/5lr_20090405-1448a.mp3 donald mcintyre investigates a4e lol
July 15th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
watchinga4e website has been banned for defamatory comments apparently agaisnt a4e, Read telling the truth.
August 13th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Iam currently on a 8 week A4e course, i am 24 and this is the first time i have been on new deal. and hopfully the last! i dont know about everyone else but do all the corses make you feel like a retard. They set us some work to do we had to build a boat then they took us down to our local park to sail them. Can someone please explain how this helps you find a job. LOL!!! but when it actualy comes to looking for a job they wont let us out to do it. How mixed up is that?
August 19th, 2009 at 3:27 am
Another farm out too the luvvies excercise. Hopefully when their Labour paymasters get the boot they can award them a directorship.
A bloody joke. Like romania, all smoke mirrors and bullshit.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:47 pm
A4e are in employment tribunal in hull, 6 october, all welcome. come and see how greedy they can be with public money and how they tramp on rights.
June 6th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
An Open Letter (primarily aimed at Emma Harrison)
I felt compelled to write this after watching Emma Harrison on the BBC politics show today; she was outlining her plans to save the world. I have always said that the only winners from these ‘schemes’ ran by private companies like A4E are the people actually employed to execute them. As an unemployed job seeker I have been at A4E twice and its got exploitation written all over it, its not unlike been held hostage or you could liken it to a ‘holding pen’ as many people as possible are crammed into a relatively small room, on hot muggy days, no kind of air conditioning and been forced to sit there for hours on end with absolutely nothing of any worth to do. By the end of the day one feels drowsy, as if been drugged. I would flatly refuse to have anything to do with A4E in the future, and if need be would take a case to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds of mental torture, because that is what it is! We have better laws to protect the treatment of cattle. Emma Harrison and A4E are making a very nice living out of the unemployed, and in turn employers get cheap Labour, all courtesy of the tax payer. While I was at A4E a woman was sent on a placement at a pet shop, she refused to do it after a few days because the regular staff were giving her all the shitty jobs to do and treating her like a Victorian servant, the placement was then given to a young woman who happened to be crazy about pets, at the end of the course, the pet shop simply got another placement worker from A4E and the previous young woman had to go back on job seekers allowance, this can only be described as exploitation.
At the end of the day it’s very, very simple, it’s called mathematics. An interview I had, working for a commercial photographer had 80 applicants for one vacancy, he had picked 10 people to interview. (80 into 1 won’t go) I was told by someone at working links, they knew of at least 500 people going after one vacancy! (500 into 1 won’t go) What we need is an immediate ban on immigration and some population control, on the estate where I live, young woman living on benefits, seem to have kids almost like an hobby, usually from several different fathers and with no thought about how they will manage financially, its like a sub-culture that revolves around flawed relationships and having kids, all funded by the tax payers. All the vacuous bullshit fed to job seekers at places like A4E is just that, meaningless bullshit, delivered by people of questionable intelligence (which only adds to the torture) like the sycophantic employee of A4E I watched on a T.V. documentary about the same, who was getting all exited because she had been invited to Emma Harrison’s Mansion for tea and tiffin. It was painful to watch, enough to make a pig sick.
This latest political highlight about the benefits system, is not about concern for the unemployed finding meaningful employment, it’s about the Government saving money. Something which needs doing, as a Nation and as individuals people have been living beyond their means for far to long, but it’s a bit rich (no pun intended) coming from politicians, considering the recent expenses scandals, including the present incumbents, they have not been in office five minutes and one has had to resign already! If the Government is serious about ending the ‘something for nothing society’ I would suggest it will make bigger savings starting a bit closer to home. A well known family that lives not far from Parliament has been living on state benefits for centuries, they are calling themselves the Windsor’s at the moment. What about MEP’s who sign in the mornings to claim their expenses, walk straight out, and take their wives on a shopping spree in Paris, all courtesy of the tax payers! Governments don’t create wealth or jobs; they just dictate to us what they are going to spend our money on! I won’t take any lessons in morality or how to live from the likes of politicians and people like Emma Harrison. Just because someone lives in a Mansion, doesn’t make that person more intelligent or moral then someone like myself, a job seeker. If anything it indicates someone who is probably more cunning and greed driven, our culture has been brainwashed into worshiping and aspiring wealth/possessions, which accounts a lot for the present financial predicament. I judge a person by their actions and words, not by how much their house is or isn’t worth.
June 14th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
[...] A4e, who specialise in forcing benefit claimants into unpaid “voluntary” positions (featured here before), are the target of countrywide protests this Wednesday at 11am. Their Edinburgh office is at Earl [...]
June 23rd, 2010 at 9:59 pm
What a shame it was country wide when only 10 people turned up and they were all edinburgh Claimants Just bullies using unemployed vulnerable people to play their childish games.Pathetic.
June 24th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
First this confused me. Are you calling the protesters bullies? If not, ignore the rest of my reply.
Countrywide as in “protests across the country”, not “people from all around the country go to seedy Lothian Road office”. Idiot.
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Hi,
i’ve been on A4E, and understand peoples gripes. You’ve missed the point tho… its NOT training, its a ‘training course’ in name only. What is not common knowledge is you are taken off the list for long term unemployed.. its government figure massaging so they can say ‘only’ so many long term unemployed…
when i found out i ask A4E tutor who said it was true… jobcentre adviser said no it wasn’t.. after arguing with my ‘adviser’ he told me i had to fill out all the re-applcation forms to go back on the dole when A4E finished. why do you have to re-apply? cos you’re no longer on the dole (though you still got your giro)… you leave ‘unemployment’ and become a ‘student’
pure political figure massaging…
oh.. that and it got some people OFF the dole cos they couldn’t buckle down and go in .. drug user alcoholics and well, just unemployable people…
win win for gov and A4E
scandal.. we need positive action to MAKE jobs with decent pay. they say theres not enough housing, well lets train people as brickies plumbers and electrician rather than paying doctors to come here from abroad on £150K salaries and bankers with even more..
oh.. and there’s others.. in my opinion NOBODY needs to be on more than 40K and if they are its just pure greed
August 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
I have had a similar experience with Triage in Fife – another company coining in taxpayers money and only serving to destroy the moral of unemployed people who already feel low enough – noticed the fatcats nice cars and a fleet of brand spanking new Honda Civic’s – where is the sense in this and who will stop it?
August 12th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
A4E is a terrible corrupt place at Lothian Rd. There was a guy who worked there taking people out, doing outside volunary work, labouring jobs but he was taking back handers. One guy told me they done a labouring job on a building site (which is illegal as you need a CSCS card, health & safety) and seen the tutor get paid after using A4E clients to do work.
August 31st, 2010 at 1:47 pm
I have just completeed a course with them in which I was on CTF (Community Task Force). Which is essentially just community service………what kind a message is this sending out? That if you don’t get a job in six months you will be punished, no matter what the circumstances.