The Introduction

You might be wondering, have I just exaggerated how bad the service is for some reason? No not at all. I think the service drastically needs improving. I don't think people should have to put up with the form of low quality service they so often receive, and at an organization where it's so important the staff get it right, too. I think the bad service has gone on for long enough, well far too long really-as it's not even a new thing. Let's be honest the Job Centre Plus are well known for their low quality of service. 

When you have a situation where the staff has such a high rate of getting it wrong, it needs improving, no questions. It's not even that it's just one branch of the Job Centre Plus that lacks quality; it's every branch up and down the country, where the overall standard falls short.

I have used many services in my 23 years on this Earth (probably not so many in the first few years) and by far one of the worst shows of customer service, and all round management, came from my time using the Job Centre Plus. And, it's likely that I'm not the only one who will have made that statement, or at least one that reflects the themes of some very rubbish service. So much so, when I hear or read people talking about the Job Centre Plus, I would say around nine times out of ten, it’s with the mention of a problem with the service.

This inspired me to campaign to get this service improved-or provide better alternatives. You know, customers of Job Centre Plus should not be subjected to as much unhelpfulness, rudeness, unfair judgment, a truly disgraceful telephone manner that so many have been. The overall satisfaction rate for the Job Centre Plus really is so low; I really wonder how they have got away with it for so long! 

The deep irony is that, without us customers, those staff who perform so poorly wouldn't even have a job themselves. The further irony is that this is meant to be a service that helps those out of work to get a job, and offers advice on the ways they should act in order to get a job, yet many of the staff of Job Centre Plus act so badly in their own job! How annoying is that?

So what is it about the Job Centre Plus branches around the country, that they means they have such a large amount of problems? Why is there a lack of good service? Why are so many mistakes made at the Job Centre Plus? These are some of the questions I hope to answer. But it's important to note: I have not just randomly decided to pick on the Job Centre Plus just because I thought they were an easy target or anything like that. No, I'm highlighting the problems with Job Centre Plus because for whatever reason, they are performing so badly with what is, let's remember, a key service for many, therefore letting the public down. 

Not all the fault of the Job Centre Plus, but the System too

No, it's not all on the Job Centre Plus. I do not believe the bad service is all the fault of the staff that work at JCP. Don't get me wrong, that service needs improving, and I'm not going to make loads of excuses for them;after all, if they don't agree with/like the system, why work under it and enforce it? But I do think it is not all their fault. I think it's down to the system they work under too. That's the system the Department of Work & Pensions set up for JCP to work under.

Something that I noted at the JCP was how, under the system they were using, staffs were forced to take an action, that they might have believed themselves, would not be for the best. I often overheard staff complaining about various points of the system. Sometimes when I complained about an aspect of a service from JCP, saying it was unfair, some staff even agreed! So, all JCP staff fed up with the running of the system-have any of you been trying to make that point heard?

The JCP has been under the management of the Department of Work & Pensions since the latter half of 2011. There are definitely problems with the way the DWP run and monitor the JCP. If they ran the service better, a lot of issues could have been prevented. Not only that, when, complaining to the DWP regarding complaints geared towards JCP, some of their replies have been woeful, to put it politely for this website. I'll be featuring some examples of these too.