Sally Goes To A DWP Assessment.

As soon as the woman comes out of the lift she said, “O my god” because there were 10 of us waiting outside the door. She rushed into the room and yanked tables around and then clicked her tongue and waved to make us hurry in. “Have you got the form? No that’s not the right form.” Even when it was. She reminded me why it isn’t so bad not having to work, she reminded me why I hated working with people like her.

Three men had been sent to the wrong college. One woman had been sent at the wrong date, it was all written down they hadn’t made the mistake but they had to come to the wrong place on the wrong day, and then had to make new arrangements. About 6 of us hadn’t been told to bring a particular bit of paper, we’d all been referred on the same day by the same person but it was our fault and so the 6 of us couldn’t register for the course that day, we had to come back with the form.

The computer assessment was alright, and then we had to go up to be told where to go next. There was another form to fill in but nowhere to sit. She was sat down, I had to stand, it reminded me of being at school. She gave me some dates and asked if I could do them. I told her about my sons appointments with the doctor and she said “You have to attend all of them.” So I asked her, “Why did you ask if I could do all the dates, why didn’t you just tell me I had to attend all the dates?” And she just said something about having to attend all the dates.

She had an assistant who was nicer, she was Japanese I think, very polite, very calm, and then this mad old bitch in charge of her.

Some of the men panicked, one had to leave, he said he felt unwell, A couple of others had never used computers so just clicked ‘next’ for 15 minutes and then left. The rest of us just got on with it. It was something I had to do, it could have been alright, it might be alright depending on what it leads on to and if the Job Centre allows me to attend all the days. I don’t know what I have to do about signing on, ‘cos you have to sign on and you have to be at this place 9-5.