the jobcentre are definately not helping, i myself have experienced these mandatory job applications that are unrealistic, but if you don't go along
no more money. i live in Derbyshire and was made to go for a job interview in Bolton! i don't drive so after two trains and a bus (costing just over
£11 to get there) i attend a group interview (really weird, i'm supposed to compete for a job by co-operating with other applicants?) anyway i
failed the interview (by the way did i mention i'm a machinist and the job was to work at the cheque centre? a horrible payday loans company that
sucks you into a cycle of forever being in debt with them). so the jobcentre wasted my time and cash by sending me for a job i was never going to get
at a place that would have cost me over £50 a week to travel to. i look for work all the time and i volunteer for a charity (restoring donated
furniture and the proceeds go to said charity).
the jobcentre at one point wanted me to quit my HND to go on a course "to help me find a job" as i pointed out to them at the time that the course i
was on would probably help me get a job because it had a real qualification at the end of it. i asked what the jobcentre course would entail, and i
quote "during this course you will be talking to other unemployed people about why you are unemployed." i felt like crying. luckily i got work in a
bar and with my HND got a job as a machinist in a bespoke furniture factory. now how would have talking to other unemployed people have helped me get
that job? quite simply it wouldn't have. this felt like reality that day.