Last Night’s TV – Benefit Busters
This show is certain to have ruffled a few feathers as it was all about the contentious issues surrounding benefit claimants, and for this particular episode, it was all about getting lone parents back into work.
The whole shebang was overseen by Hayley Taylor who’s a Michelle Holmes lookylikey – Michelle used to play Tina in Corrie and Terry’s wife, Britt, in Emmerdale – and who, by rights, should’ve had a fairly large set of testicles.
In the opening moments of the show, I took an instant dislike to Hayley but she sort of grew on me as the show wore on. What I still can’t decide is whether she grew on me in the sense of liking her more or if she grew on my like a fungal infection…
Hayley is the sort of woman who was born to be a boss, and she’s the kind of woman you dread meeting as your boss. She’s loud, she’s colourful – to the point of looking like Abba and Gok Wan’s love child – she’s brash and in-your-face, and despite claiming a trillion times throughout the show that she really, really, cared about the women she was ‘helping’, I very much doubted the veracity of that statement.
Hayley runs a course a six week course in Doncaster that’s aimed at teaching women who’ve long been out of the job market how to shape up and make themselves suitable prospects for an employer. A really lot of symbolism and metaphors were used to demonstrate Hayley’s points, for example, she held up a battery as she explained positive and negative. A largely pointless visual aid I thought, as were the paper butterflies in Hayley’s caterpillar to butterfly analogy.
Hayley also seems to have studied Being Patronising to degree level, and she’s clearly attended dozens upon dozens of those exceptionally tedious motivational sales courses and seminars on NLP. In fact, Hayley is clearly a born saleswoman; you wouldn’t dare not buy whatever it was she was selling.
And it was all very Americanised, with part of the course being called Tough Love in which basically, Hayley insulted the women by telling them the truth about themselves. In short, this tough love included accusing one woman of being an alcoholic, another of being fat and frumpy, another of lacking any motivation whatsoever and others of generally not looking attractive enough to get a job.
Hayley works for A4E, who are a private company charged with getting the great unwashed back to work, and the government pays them £100 per body to do so with a bonus if they get that body a job. And in that regard, as we met the bunch of women who were taking this experimental course, A4E had a fairly tough job on their hands…
Many of them conformed to the stereotype that we all have about benefit claimants while others genuinely wanted to get back to work and just didn’t have the confidence to do so. One woman even announced that she thought that she got paid too much by way of benefits and therefore, the government made her life too easy… I suspect there are a really lot of other people who would disagree there, such as pensioners or those caring for a disabled child for instance.
However, some of the women needed to be disabused of their notions about their chosen careers and others clearly didn’t want to give up benefits and go into work. One case in point was Donna who was introduced as an “unemployed DJ”. Now, maybe it’s just me, but I have an idea in my head of what DJs look like, and it isn’t Donna. Not even a little bit. However, Donna seemed very, very reluctant to get a job – even a DJing job – making many excuses and bursting into tears often when challenged on that point.
In the end, Donna did get a job working in Poundland, as did several of the other women featured, so it was time to bring out the butterfly metaphor again and much applause and back slapping followed as Hayley, and no doubt her boss Emma – a multi millionaire who’s on the board of directors of A4E – eagerly anticipated a hefty bonus for getting a few more of the proletariat off the government’s benefit back.
On the subject of Emma, we saw her dropping in on Hayley’s ‘class’ and asking the women what they thought of Hayley. All well and good but Hayley was sitting right there with them, so they were hardly about to slag her off were they? And they didn’t. In fact, so gushing was their praise that Hayley began to weep, causing something of a mud slide of make-up.
Overall, this was an entertaining programme and one that I’d expected to come away from furious, but somehow, I didn’t. I really don’t think anybody needs a six week course just to get a job but on the other hand, I guess if it works, then it’s no bad thing.
Next week, we’ll get to see how A4E in Hull is tackling the problems of the long-term unemployed. No doubt we’ll hear a really lot more motivational metaphors and proactive this and positivity that.
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Don’t forget that when asked what they thought they were only asking one person then another chipped in at the end – what about the rest?
See at first when you don’t question the programme you think she is weeping at the praise – I think it was more about what the others said who were conveniently not included in the TV show.
That woman has to be what Pauline from League of Gentleman was based on. She was so patronising, she treated those ladies like something she had scrapped off her shoe. I’m all for getting people of benefits, but those ladies needed building up after so long of being out of the workforce, not humiliating and having drink problems assigned to them. Just who the hell does she think she is?!
SOUTHPORT A4E GOT CLOSED 2009
complained to job center about my a4e this is some of the letter they sent (form 3rd party provision team merseyside district) me it is verry long and am not typing it all
jcp refer customers to a4e with varing degrees of knowledge and ability they are required to tailor the delivery to meet the individual needs. we apologise if this has not happened during your time with a4e. to ensure that customers are receiving training suitable to there needs jcp will monitor this via our internal process.( I and many others got no traning no work placement )
in relation to the it issues a4e have assured jcp that they have a good level of it equipment on site however on occasions this ,may run slowly. ( the computers are out the ark they must be 8 year old or more slow is not the word)
we complained about health safety its long this part so i cut it
as a4e is classed by health and safety executive as an educational and traning establishment there is no legal upper limit as to the numbers of customers in a traning room. however both a4e and jcp would not consider it to be conducive to good traning delivery to have excessive numbers. as numbers on programme stand and as a4e southport currently have more than 45%(joke) of customers undertaking placement activities they feel that the premises and staffing(1staff) are adequate they have explained that the customers group can be split between the traning rooms on the ground floor and first floor should it be necessary, this situation will be reviewed on a regular basis via jcp contract management..
with regard to the office supplies a4e have informed jcp that these are purchased on a monthly basis however if they run out prior to the bulk delivery arriving alternative supplies can be purchesed locally this should be resolved by the local office staff. basic suplies should be kept up to date and stored in cupboards which staff on site are aware of, if these run out again they should be replaced punctually . a4e have apologised if this has not always been the case and assured us that they will endeavour to ensure that in future supplies are kept in stock…we had no pens paper for cv no tolite roll soap tea milk newspapers we had to buy our own
a4e have investigated the issue regarding delays in posting application forms ets. a4e agree that there have been delays in the past, a4e have assured us that they have put systems in place to ensure that this will not happen in the future, they will ensure that mail will be posted on a daily basis. a4e agree that this type of error is not acceptable. jcp will monitor this process to ensure that appropriate action is being taken…we found job apps in the office not sent out from 4 weeks ago// the dole came in every day for a week in the morning to make sure they were posted, for 1 week only!!!!
that is just some of the letter notice how they say a4e have assured usa4e have informed us etc etc it just shows the 3rd party provision team and the job center dont care they just take what a4e say as gospel truth they dont go and check….. the health and safety is a very long part of my letter.. after the complaint an health and safety officer came to a4e it was a4e own health safety officer i pointed out our concerns he was having none of it all he did was put a few signs up( the wrong signs i might add)I have worked in the building trade for 26 years i am no expert but i no there were plenty of health and safety issues AND did they care no, no 1 cares.
i went to a4e so i was told to get my cscs card forklift traning placement i got none of them all i did was sit in front of a computer for 13 weeks. o yes i forgot my first week there an agency phoned me so i took the job they said it was for a week on the friday the foreman came to me at 1030 and said are you ok for anougher 2 weeks i said yes fine 1 hour later gets a phone call from the firm that i was working for , they were acting as an agency, he said i have had some woman on the phone from a4etrying to make me sign a form to say you might be here for 13 weeks(IF I WAS WORKING FOR 13 WEEKS A4E COULD CLAIM MONEY FOR ME THATS ALL THEY WANTED MONEY) my boss said that he could not say that i would be there for 13 weeks he said they were harrasing him to say it….. after dinner the forman came to me he said got some bad news your sacked!!! now i can not prove it was coz of that phone call but it was………………..back to a4e…….. I could go on an on like our skills tutor was in our local paper A NORTH West paramedic has been struck off – for lying about his GCSE grades. what about our placement officer
Alleged offence of GBH, without intent, on West Street.
No Plea indicated she glassed some poor soul
i can go on an on an on.
Depends what sort of worker you can be classified as however typically you are unable to be sacked just like that. Have you considered a tribunal?
Generally under emplyoment law it doesnt matter if the employer has “good cause” they must follow a set procedure otherwise even if you are sacked for “gross misconduct” and the procedure isn’t carried out correctly then it is “unfair dismissal”.
highpark1 – I am very interested in the letter – can you scan it for me and email it to me? Thanks.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992:
Room dimensions and space
10.—(1) Every room where persons work shall have sufficient floor area, height and unoccupied space for purposes of health, safety and welfare.
The associated Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) requires enough space for people to move freely and easily to workstations and within rooms, with each room having a minimum of 11 cubic metres per person.
Adult training etc. have similar laws to that of employment however unless you sit around by yourselves without supervision, the training room and centre is a “workplace” for the employees.
Theoretically it doesn’t matter if there was just one employee there to 1000 clients; the workplace doesn’t have to be crowded with other employees to breach Health & Safety – clients and strangers also count.