Hack it
A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to pitch my idea around why I believe working on the development of a new model for the JobCentre is important. I was given five minutes to talk so obviously I took eleven. If you do have chance to watch the above video then that’s going to give you the best picture of what I’m currently trying to do (and trying to get you to do with me) but if you don’t fancy it I’m going to break down the key points below.
Details of the upcoming hack day that I want you guys to attend is right down at the bottom!
- I’m no expert.
I’m not an academic, I’m not a trained researcher, I’m not even an expert on the DWP, the JobCentre or Universal Credit. Although I have some experience and knowledge of all of these areas the simple fact of the matter is the system is so vast and complicated that it’s very difficult to get a full grasp on the big picture. I’m putting together some ideas based on quantitative data which is hard to find and is often contradictory and qualitative feedback from people who either work in the DWP or have some recent experience using it’s services.
2. Yes, the inequality and unfairness of the benefit system is a problem but that’s not where I’m heading.
Throughout the benefit system under 25’s receive less money than over 25’s who are in identical circumstances, as a very basic example a single person under the age of 25 claiming the jobseekers component of Universal Credit receives £251.77 p/m as opposed to someone over 25 in identical circumstances who receives £317.82, a difference of over 26%. This is a problem but in a system that has many many problems it’s not one that I’m looking to focus on as a priority. The setting of benefit amounts is made at a very high level and the likelihood of more money being invested into the system to bring parity to this inequality is highly unlikely so therefore whilst I do acknowledge this issue I believe my time is better spent, initially at least, elsewhere.
3. It’s cost us more to sanction benefit claimants than we save from those sanctions.
The national audit office in 2015 stated that we spend between £230–250 million each year applying benefit sanctions and only saved £132 million from doing so. Stopping claimants money, which is often done unfairly and disproportionately hurts vulnerable people as opposed to actual benefit fraudsters comes at a huge net loss to tax payer.
Benefit sanctioning is an unnecessary and ideological process that only serves to abate the public demand that the boogie monster of the benefit cheat which has been developed as a story to scare people and justify negative reform is suitably punished.
4. It’s not just bad for the claimant, it’s bad for the staff too.
I interviewed numerous current JobCentre staff as well as staff who have left recently and the feedback is overwhelmingly negative. It’s worth watching the video to see some direct quotes here but to generalise I heard stories of workplace bullying, systemic lack of employee agency, brainwashing, stress and people driven to consider suicide, it was pretty bleak stuff. In fairness I did hear some feedback from staff who had some good things to say but this was most definitely in the minority.
Whatever future for the JobCentre I develop has to not only improve the experience for the customer but also for the DWP employee.
5. There is some highly disturbing things going on due to arbitrary employee targets.
I’m just going to put this quote from the video here.
“Advisors would book appointments for customers, not send any letters, not send a text message. The customer has got no idea they’ve got an appointment so they don’t come in. We don’t tell them they’ve missed an appointment so we then just close the claim. The advisor will just say a letter went out and there’d be nothing the claimant could do.”
A person I spoke to told me that they were given a target to get five people off the books each week and because this sometimes wasn’t possible they would do the above. If you haven’t clocked on to what the above quote means it means that they would deliberately close the claim of a claimant who did nothing wrong in order to meet their numbers.
The real world impact of this is that once the claimant noticed they had not received their payment they would have to go through the very lengthly process of reapplying for benefit which means they could not only lose the money they were owed for that previous period but also go months without any financial support whilst this new claim is processed.
This is unacceptable and must be exposed and stopped.
Join me!
If you’ve read this far and / or watched my talk then cheers! I’d really love anyone with an interest in this to get in touch with me and help me develop these findings further.
Coming up on Friday October 27th and Friday 3rd November we have two hack days taking place at Impact Hub Birmingham where I, alongside the other teams working on the Beyond (un)Employment programme will be developing their ideas and I’d really really love it if you fancy coming along and joining my team.
If you’ve never been to a hack day before I can confidently tell you that they are an experience unto themselves and worth taking part in and if you’ve never had the chance to visit the Impact Hub before I can also confidently tell you that’s a place worth visiting as well (there’s even a secret nap room hidden behind a bookcase!)
So please, if this interests you get in touch with me at thombartley@hotmail.co.uk or on Twitter at Thom Bartley and we can start to work on something magic.
