Dole queue is here to stay: MyGov will not replace signing on
Post Categories: DWP • jobcentre Plus
Tags: Building Britain's Digital Future, dole queue, gordon brown, jobcentre Plus, MyGov
Gordon Brown’s recent speech on Building Britain’s Digital Future has stirred up some confusion amongst jobseekers and news reporters. Tim Lott of The Guardian was probably the biggest news article on the speech and the future of unemployment with the headline “The dole queue is doomed” and tag-line “Gordon Brown has announced that soon jobseekers will be able to sign on online, at home“.
This was a false report on a simple misunderstanding about the proposed MyGov website designed as a dashboard to replace DirectGov. I read the transcript of the speech and Gordon Brown never mentioned anything about abolishing the dole queue or introducing signing on online.
Sign on, online!
The phrase “sign on” has two definitions (in this order of presence):
- Signing Labour Market Declarations (typically every 2 weeks; sometimes weekly signing)
- Creating a new Jobseekers Allowance claim
Tim Lott has obviously got this confused. MyGov (to replace DirectGov) will allow you to create a Jobseeker’s Allowance claim online through the proposed “dashboard” system. This is no big deal as you can already create a new claim for Jobseekers Allowance online and it has been this way for a couple of years that I know of.
Purposes of signing Labour Market Declarations
Signing Labour Market Declarations (“signing on”) is an old fashioned concept designed for the following reasons:
- For purposes of being Available for Work (AfW) – this being a condition of claiming. The reason why lateness or failure to attend (FTA) is taken so serious is the original intention was if a person can’t attend at a certain date once every 2 weeks then s/he is not available for employment. A rather lame way (if you like) of assuring the person isn’t in fulltime employment. This of course has since been built on with sanctions as punishment.
- A signature and declaration stating you haven’t done any work or for you to declare any work done. This is an old style technique that couldnt be replaced with a digital/electronical signature as would open the system up to fraud and for cases of alleged work on the side (“benefit fraud”) it would be difficult to prove that the person signed on (via information such as IP address etc.) to bring a prosecution.
- Interrogation in regards of how the person seeked work (Did they do enough to find work?) and occassionally submission to jobs
2010: New Sanctions for failing to sign on
Recently, The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Sanctions for Failure to Attend) Regulations 2010 were announced giving sanctions of up to 2 weeks for those who failed to arrive on time or attend their signing on appointments. Considering this new piece of legislation:
- If they were phasing out the “signing-on” dole queue element then this legislation would be obselete and pointless
- If the legislation was in force, would you be sanctioned for signing on late online or for failing to do so? See absolutely nonsense!
Gordon Brown speech snippet
Six years ago we launched Directgov, as the first version of a joined-up view of government on the web.
It now has 25 million visits a month, offering in one place a single portal of information for all citizens on all our public services. And by the end of May, developers will be able to use content from the Directgov website – for example, to translate it into another language, to rearrange it so that it is more relevant for a specific local community, to alert people when it changes, or to let people create their own personal tailored view of Directgov.
But we need to go much further.
So our goal is to replace this first generation of e-government with a much more interactive second generation form of digital engagement which we are calling Mygov.
Companies that use technology to interact with their users are positioning themselves for the future, and government must do likewise. Mygov marks the end of the one-size-fits-all, man-from-the-ministry-knows-best approach to public services.
Mygov will constitute a radical new model for how public services will be delivered and for how citizens engage with government - making interaction with government as easy as internet banking or online shopping. This open, personalised platform will allow us to deliver universal services that are also tailored to the needs of each individual; to move from top-down, monolithic websites broadcasting public service information in the hope that the people who need help will find it – to government on demand.
And rather than civil servants being the sole authors and editors, we will unleash data and content to the community to turn into applications that meet genuine needs. This does not require large-scale government IT Infrastructure; the ‘open source’ technology that will make it happen is freely available. All that is required is the will and willingness of the centre to give up control.
This bold new approach will transform the way services are delivered but, more importantly, it will be the vehicle through which citizens will come to control the services that are so important to their lives and communities. With Mygov, citizens will be in control – choosing the content relevant to them and determining their level of engagement. And their feedback will in turn help us to improve services.
With the rapid development of technology consumers today expect so much more – but when it comes to government they don’t always seem to get it. With Mygov they will.
Today you can book and pay for a holiday online in minutes. Why can’t you do that for a blue badge for a disabled person? With Mygov you will.
You can deal with your bank when and where you want, at any time that suits you. Why can’t you do that with your Jobcentre? With Mygov you will.
These days websites tell you what other services or products might interest you. Why don’t government websites do that? With Mygov they will.
And recognising the frustrations of having to prove ID in different ways to access different services, we have launched the access to public services initiative to provide a shared service across government, allowing users of government services to identify themselves simply and definitively, and to access those services online.
Online, Mygov will give people a simple “dashboard” to manage their pensions, tax credits or child benefits; pay their council tax; fix their doctors or hospital appointment and control their own treatment; apply for the schools of their choice and communicate with their children’s teachers; or get a new passport or driving licence – all available when and where they need it.
The Guardian Article
The announcement this week by Gordon Brown that the dole queue may be about to disappear as signing on, along with other government agencies’ business, goes online, sadly doesn’t indicate that unemployment itself is about to disappear. But it does represent a different way of imagining the condition of joblessness.
The dole queue is the most obvious visual symbol of the long-standing economic scar of unemployment. From the introduction of unemployment benefit itself 100 years ago, to the dole queues of the 30s through to the Tories’ Labour Isn’t Working advertising campaign in 1979, the image of glum-looking people standing in a line waiting to sign on is etched deep in the collective consciousness. Dole queues have fuelled working-class anger and political activism for a century. Now they seem to be doomed.
No one will mourn the end of the dole queue. Nevertheless, the dole queue has been a catalyst for all kinds of cultural and political activity since the opening of the first Labour Exchanges in February 1910. The idea of the dole itself has also gone through a number of transformations in the collective imagination, variously as a legitimate citizen’s right, a state manifestation of charity, or for the conservatively inclined, an inexhaustible teat for so-called scroungers and welfare cheats.
Mourn the end of the dole queue? The dole queue isn’t going to disappear – it is likely to only grow. I think this article is a rather embarassing mistake, which I initially thought was some “vote-for-me voting scam” trick.
*** WHATEVER YOU DO: DONT BE A MUG AND VOTE LABOUR THINKING YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SIGN-ON ONLINE – YOU WONT – THIS WILL NEVER CHANGE ***
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19 Responses to “Dole queue is here to stay: MyGov will not replace signing on”
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It does say “may” but continues with “as” [..] “goes online”… Very misleading.
So how often you visit your GP, what specialists you visit, what medications you are taking, what schools you want your children to go to, what countries you have visited, which of your children’s teachers you have spoken to, when you sign on, why you are signed off, employment history etc. etc. – information freely available to the government and its lackeys (and no doubt, for a fee, commercial organisations and insurance companies) with a click of a button.
It sounds absolutely grim.
4 letters: DATA
4 letters: HMRC
4 letters: LOST
I forgot…
4 letters: USED
Hang on a minute if everyone signs on online doesn’t that mean that the benefit offices themselves Become pointles. Thereby increasing the number of unemployed people
It was a simple mistake… it refers to making a new claim online via the proposed MyGov dashboard… you can already make a new Jobseekers Allowance claim online. It doesn’t mean signing on as in signing the paper every 2 weeks…
The Guardian should be publishing an apology/correction very soon.
Signing on once a month would suit me as an alternative to doing it online. In short, anything that involves less visits to the jobcentre
From April 6th itsays
if you have an interview at the jobcentre for a dot on or after the 6th aril 2010 your payment of jobseekers allowance will be stopped for 1 week if you fail to attend and are unable to provide a good reason within 5 working days
iF YOU FAIL TO ATTEND on more than one occasion in the same claim your jobseekers allowance will be stopped for 2 weeks if you cannot provide a good reason for not attending wothin 5 working days
Ifyou fail to contact jobcentre plus within 5 working days your claim to jobseekers allowance will be closed automatically
I was toldto sign for this little note. I toldthe woman
I think the simple thing to do would just be to allow them to sign you off. Then make a new claim and backdate it. Save you getting a sanction.
The better option would be to fill in the form to sign off and hand it in on the day you are late. The day after the next make a new claim via telephone. No sanction.
I told the woman I was visually impaired and could not read it therefore I shouldnt be signing for it. On questioning this and telling them of a problem I had at a4e she said well I am telling you what it says and go over there to get it blown up.
I went over there and got it blown up
FND got a question for you. If I have been given the above in small print. They hadn’t got any pre made. Could this be classed as discriminatory against me.
Especially the idea of telling me to sign something i cant read and when questioned they say go over to the front desk and ask them to enlarge it shouldnt they already have some of these xeroxed for people like me
Yes it would but I doubt you have a case. They should be offering such versions automatically… Its not rocket science they must have known the number of people with disabilities and the nature of such… therefore know how many audio, braille and large print versions they need.
Because I’m on FND I can sign-on anytime between 10-12. I’m curios to know if others on FND are also offered this flexibility?
No – and caution… you could be setup for a sanction under the new rules. Can you give more details on the arrangement?
FND: I just noticed your comment otherwise I would have responded sooner.
Where it says Time – in my signing on booklet – it has 10-12. So I’ve continued to do just that without any problem.
I’d still like to hear from others on FND if they have this flexibility. I’m surely not the only one offered this flexibility?
Should I mention where it says Attendance Point, it states “Provider Stage 4″ in my signing -on booklet.
Oh no FNS I was asking for clarification as to what the other people think. I was told by the casb and another person that every failure to issue me with large print moves back the time i can go to court. I.E six months from the date of issue
Interesting fact here. The DWP has helplines and no one calls them. Could it be because the bloody people on the other end dont want to answer the phone to us scroungers and layabouts. My attempt a being sarcastic could it be that people are being hived off to 3rd party providers who force you to dial mobile phones
1. The Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health between them have 573 help lines which have received NO calls at all, ever. There are more than 200 Department of Health numbers which receive under 100 calls a month, 58 phone lines for Primary Care Trusts and ten for the Ambulance Service that have never taken a call.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1280760/Osborne-wields-axe-Whitehall-unveils-6bn-cuts-package-warns-This-just-step.html#ixzz0orThZRRS
The Guardian refused to pull the article or correct it.
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