Navigating The Dole. (1 Viewer)

[gril]

also, does anyone know if they're actually allowed make you fill out one of these forms before your claims been approved? they say my claim wont be processed until i give them this looking for work form, but friends in the same position as me have already had their claims approved with none of these forms? obviously citizens advice is the place for that question, but in case anyone has any insights as to what it might mean that i got this form and my friend didn't...

 

[roxy]

also, does anyone know if they're actually allowed make you fill out one of these forms before your claims been approved? they say my claim wont be processed until i give them this looking for work form, but friends in the same position as me have already had their claims approved with none of these forms? obviously citizens advice is the place for that question, but in case anyone has any insights as to what it might mean that i got this form and my friend didn't...

?? That's mental. I filed my claim back in June and they sent out a wad of paperwork showing me all the calculations and how much I'd be getting. ALso in this wad was the sheet with the boxes but it said that it didn't have to be back until July 22nd. So I had the bulk of 2 months so sort it, and the money was coming in all the while.

Maybe it's coz I had ben occupied with college until a week before I went near the office.

But that seems a bit odd, Eyelish.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

it's reassuring to know that some thumped peoples are on the dole - explains how yr posting all day i suppose

and to the person who started this thread never approach the dole office untill you talked to a seasoned pro who will tell you what to say. honesty is not the best policy when navigating their murkywaters.

best of luck with it

 

[sefronia]

feeling yr pain..
on a similar note, does anyone know what the story is with working 6 days in a once off job while you're on the dole?

 

[nokia]

"...and that welfare cheque,
that came in the post today,
did it fill your need
or increase your greed?"

FUCK the dole
don't take anything from them
and they can't take anything from you!

I'm unemployed by the way

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

have you tried using an astrolabe?
HOYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Buzzo]

Nokia- the dole is for winners. Get with the programme.

Eilis- get your mates to make up fake logos and write you letters of refusal. Or, get other people to email you refusal letters that they've gotten and just change the name and date on them. I had to give them one of those looking for work forms. Have had to every time I've signed on.

Sefronia- don't bother telling them if there's any way of avoiding it. More hassle than it's worth to sign off and back on. My mate just had a terrible time with that shit.

In all fairness now, everyone's calling the dole pricks n all, but they do give you free money. That's pretty sound.

 

[gril]

?? That's mental. I filed my claim back in June and they sent out a wad of paperwork showing me all the calculations and how much I'd be getting. ALso in this wad was the sheet with the boxes but it said that it didn't have to be back until July 22nd. So I had the bulk of 2 months so sort it, and the money was coming in all the while.

Maybe it's coz I had ben occupied with college until a week before I went near the office.

But that seems a bit odd, Eyelish.

i made my claim about a week afer college too. they were no where near as organised as giving me calculations or anything though. the whole thing was backed up so they didnt process anyones claims for about two weeks after all the info was handed in.

i went to citizens advice and they reckon getting the form has just got to do with the officer who processed yr claim, and that the whole thing is illogical and disorganised. they told me to just go into a bunch of shops in town, ask if they have vacancies, and when they say no, ask them to sign/stamp the form. i have my doubts as to whether this will fly with my witch of an officer but i got nothing to lose at this stage. a nice woman at fas also wrote a note about how i was looking for work on the website, although i didnt have records.

the whole thing seems really disorganised, vague and unhelpful.

also watch out if yr on the dole and you decide to busk - i heard of one officer who recognised a busker, went over and counted the change in his hat and told him it would be coming out of his next payment. they think they're the police.

 

[Bag'o'cans]

Sefronia- don't bother telling them if there's any way of avoiding it. More hassle than it's worth to sign off and back on. My mate just had a terrible time with that shit.

It was very simple for me, they'll just take 6/7 of your weeks dole or whatever, 1 week and 1/5 of the next weeks. Thats how it worked for me.

 

[Zeelander]

It was very simple for me, they'll just take 6/7 of your weeks dole or whatever, 1 week and 1/5 of the next weeks. Thats how it worked for me.

A chick I know told the dole that she'd done a weeks work and would be paid for it the following month, but they deducted a week's dole off her then and there, the stupid dopes. So working while she was on the dole and admitting it wasn't exactly financially rewarding for her.

 

[Bag'o'cans]

A chick I know told the dole that she'd done a weeks work and would be paid for it the following month, but they deducted a week's dole off her then and there, the stupid dopes. So working while she was on the dole and admitting it wasn't exactly financially rewarding for her.

She should have told them a month later

 

[taubstumm]

a lot of this kind of stuff depends on where your local social welfare office is - some are nice, some aren't. the first time i was on the dole my local office was blanchardstown, and they were generally really helpful, respectful and non-pricks with me. the second time it was the office on tara street, and they were unbelievably nasty, like as if they were going out of their way to make things difficult. (they also had quite a problem with dealing with people respectfully; i hate that shit. is it so hard to say 'please' and 'thanks' when the person on the other side is poor and possibly desperate, and their life might be really fucked up, and what the person behind the hatch says will have a big effect, and they might, just might, want to be treated like a human being for a change?)

however, in both cases, i didn't get any money until i'd filled out all the forms and returned them. i also had to go for a farcical interview with fas before i got any money, where a guy asked me what kind of work i wanted to do and generally treated me like a moron.

@ eilis - they made me fill out the 'looking for work' form, alright. i sent a load of emails to random jobs and got rejection emails back from a few of them, printed them out and used them. you could just as easily forge them - they won't care.

generally:

go in as early as you can. if you're let go from a job on a tuesday, go in to the dole office on the wednesday morning. your money is back-dated to the date of your first claim.

have your story straight, especially if it's all lies. you live on your own or with flatmates (not cohabiting) and you've been let go (not fired, not quit). you're looking for work in a specific area (don't be vague, pick a specific area - i said interactive design - cos otherwise they'll try to get you to apply for anything that's going).

if you reckon you'll be on it for a while, maybe try to make sure you've got something to do, like a giant project or art piece - the dole is not a fun place to be when you're just sitting around doing nothing. i hated being on the dole, it's horrible, i started getting pretty freaked and depressed. other people seem grand with it though (a friend of mine was a doley for 15 years or something! jesus!)

if you're working on the side, don't tell them if you can possibly get away with it (duh). i was working for a photographer a couple of days a week while on the dole, and also doing a work placement in a design company. i stupidly told them about the placement, meaning this big fuss because, by their logic, the time i was spending doing the placement was time that i *should* be spending 'trying to find full-time work'. this was despite the fact that doing the placement would be far *more* likely to get me a job than marching around doling out cvs. this, however, was a different universe of logic for them, and they were having none of it. in the end i had to get a letter from the design company saying that my placement was a form of genuinely seeking work. the irony was that if i was sitting on my arse doing nothing, that would count as 'genuinely seeking work' and everything would be grand.

i ended up just giving up on the dole a while after that - i just survived on the earnings i was getting working 2-3 days a week instead. it was tricky, but i got my life back instead - no more endless cycles of justifying yourself to random strangers who have power to help you or sink you.

funny dole thing: i was filling out forms at the hatch in the blanch office, and asked about some question on a form regarding current earnings, then made some joke about what the local drug dealers put down on the form. the woman said that quite often people *did* write down that they were selling yokes or whatever, and she had to tell them *not* to put down that they were dealers. dorks.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

if you reckon you'll be on it for a while, maybe try to make sure you've got something to do, like a giant project or art piece - the dole is not a fun place to be when you're just sitting around doing nothing. i hated being on the dole, it's horrible, i started getting pretty freaked and depressed. other people seem grand with it though (a friend of mine was a doley for 15 years or something! jesus!)

right on - if ya have creative stuff to occupy yrself with then yr grand - consider it a miniscule arts council grant

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

or just get really stoned everyday

 

[wankstains]

two things -

1. I worked for the department of social welfare, in the navan road employment exchange (hatch 9 of a wednesday) for 4 years between December 91 & December 95.
QUOTE]

No, You didn't. I would have remembered you.

 

[roxy]

No, You didn't. I would have remembered you.

Well.

The gauntlet it thrown down.

 

[It Will Never Last]

Well.

The gauntlet it thrown down.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Sketch!

p.s. kick his fuckin' head in Pete.