Monday:
As this was my first "proper" day out of work, I needed to register with the Jobcentre as unemployed. However, it has been almost a decade since I was last in this position, so I first had to remember where I had to go!
I started out nice and early, to the area where I (vaguely) remembered it to be. This was not on the bus route from my house, so I walked for about half an hour. When I arrived, there was just this big empty building, with a sign in the window telling me that it had moved last year! It was now on the other side of town, in an area that would have been far easier to get to! So I turned around, and headed back in the opposite direction.
When I finally arrived, I saw a woman at the reception desk. I was hoping that I could get the registration process over with nice and quickly, then get advice on job hunting, available courses fro a new career, and available benefits until I got everything sorted out. How wrong could I be? All I was given was a leaflet with a phone number that I had to call, as apparently this is now the only way to register with them!
I returned home and made the call. By now the morning was just about over. I spent 20 minutes on the phone, being asked what appeared to be the same questions over and over again! At the end of the call I was given an appointment for Wednesday to actually talk to a real advisor. Finally!
Tuesday:
The day began with a call from my former employer. They had a redundancy agreement that I had to sign before I could receive any redundancy pay. I was also told that I would need to get legal advice. I went straight down to the office to collect this, then had to find a solicitor that would be able to produce a letter to state that they had advised me on the matter.
The afternoon was then spent tracking one down, and they gave me an appointment, also for Wednesday. This was going to be a busy day!
Wednesday:
I now had two appointments in the centre of town, 3 hours apart. Firstly, down to the Jobcentre. When I arrived, they asked for my name, and ticked me off a list. I was told to go upstairs, and wait in "area C". I was also given a tiny piece of paper, with a "C" on it. Did they think I would forget this by the time I reached the top of the stairs? I arrived at the top, and was greeted by another receptionist, who again took my name and ticked me off another list. She also took away my "C"! This was beginning to seem ridiculous!
While I was waiting in "area C", another member of staff approached me. Not surprisingly, she also ticked my name off yet another list, and told me someone would see me soon. I was beginning to wonder why the jobcentre had employed so many people with so many lists!
I finally was called over to see someone. This, I was told was the "Financial Assessor".She went through all the questions I was asked on the phone, and asked me to sign that my answers were correct. I then had to wait again to see the "New Claims Advisor".
When I was called over, the first thing I was asked for was my most recent payslip. I handed it over, and the advisor noticed a problem. The payslip stated that I was paid up to the end of August (this was the 26th). It turned out that they could do nothing for me. They were unable to register my claim until I was officially out of work on 1st September. No one had actually asked me that question! I had only been asked for the last day I actually worked. Therefore, my claim was cancelled, and I have to go through the whole process from scratch next week! What a waste of time!
This took a whole hour, and I was left with two more hours to wait before the next appointment. I walked into the solicitors on time, and was told that the person I was seeing was at another branch! I started to think that my whole day would be a waste of time, until it turned out that he was just running late! Luckily this meeting went according to plan, and I now have to wait for the solicitor and my former employers to sort out their paperwork.
Thursday:
I decided that with so much time on my hands, I could do the weekly shopping early. I may save myself the "trolley rage" of shopping on a Saturday (see previous post). Again, how wrong could I be? If anything, it was even more hectic than normal! Nevertheless, I got it out of the way, and came home with the local paper (Thusday is job day). However, there was hardly anything of interest this week, just one which was mildly interesting! I decided to think about it.
The other prioject I needed to complete was to produce a currect CV (Curriculum Vitae). The problem was, as I had been in my last job for so many years, I had trouble remembering where I had been before, and when! This process took ages, but I think I finally got there (a bit vague on the dates though)!
Friday:
Now that I had done just about all I could do (I felt a bit in limbo, as I couldn't quite get started with courses etc until I was officially unemployed), I decided to do a bit of job hunting on the internet. I also called about the one job in the paper, and agreed to email my CV.
Then I hit the next problem. Our computer, seems to have a mind of its own recently, and right in the middle of an application, it turned itself off! This is not the first time, and it's always annoying, but never more so than Friday! Once the computer goes off, it invariably takes ages before it will allow you to restart it. So, several hours later (try a few times, then leave for a while and try again) I managed to apply for a whole two jobs. Just have to wait and see about those, I suppose.
Saturday:
Priority job...
Catch up with my blogs (hence this post)!
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