MaliA wrote:
Is there anything else I need to take to the job centre, apart from ym sense of self worth which I assume I can leave at the door?
Balls to that man. You've worked, paid National Insurance, and you are legitimately out of work through no fault of your own. You are entirely entitled to be doing this and entirely entitled to Jobseeker's Allowance and whatnot. Don't let the fact that there are people who game the system[1] take away the fact that the system is supposed to be there to help people like you at times like these.
[1] I heard of someone who was between their undergraduate degree and PhD and didn't want to work but did want the dole money; he spent most of that summer revising and stuff, to be fair, and not lazing. He signed on, and naturally they tried to pressurise him into work, including all sorts of stuff like six month contracts that he actually couldn't do. The job seeking system wouldn't allow him to specify that he only had six weeks or whatever it was.
In the end, fed up with being forced to attend interviews with employers who couldn't actually employ him, he modified his skills profile to indicate that the only thing he knew how to do was to be a shephard, as he grew up on a farm. Thing was he was reporting to a job centre in the middle of inner city Birmingham. Funny thing was, it worked, the staff stopped hassling him about jobs and let him draw his dole for a few weeks, whilst (presumably) keeping an eye out for shephard jobs within 5 miles of Birmingham...