How the DWP screw you over and keep you poor PART 2

 So I get a date to start the Costa placement. Everyone is nice, too nice. I tell myself it will be fine, I can learn to make coffee, make the most of it. I end up being the cleaning girl. I fill and empty the dishwasher, over and over again throughout the day. The other staff don't touch the dishwasher when I am there, even if there is time without customers, and there was. This was a brand new, very quiet Costa, opened in an area where nobody wanted it. It's not very popular and working there, you see that right away. The store manager tells me from the get go, there is no job here after you are done. Ok great, let me finish this and get the f*** out. I constantly clear and clean tables. Refill the sugar and sweetener. The stirring sticks etc. I finally get a chance to make some coffee. Americano, cappucino, latte and coolers. The coolers are the easiest as the machine does most of the work. Put paninis in to toast, and serve up. Very easy. I make a fantastic cappucino, but since I won't be staying there, it honestly doesn't mean much. I don't even attempt a flat white (the one that always has a lovely pattern on it, takes LOTS of practice). I was made to do all of the cleaning on my first day, the other staff member didn't do any. My back and feet were broken by the end. I was rewarded with sandwiches and cakes with that day's date on for free. Ok cool, I will eat well while I'm working here. Lord knows I need it considering I am sanctioned with no way of buying food myself.

First weekend of placement comes around. I am tired with a banging headache so I call in sick. The manager sends me a text saying he was RELYING on me today. So I give in and say ok, I'll come in. He punishes me by not letting me attend the charity event at the local park, the one that he said he was relying on me for....... OK whatever, be a baby. That same day, I do the usual, clean tables when needed, load and unload the dishwasher. I was due to leave a couple of hours before closing that day, but another staff member says they need me to stay on. She also tells me to go and clean tables I already cleaned. I declined to stay. I told her I just cleaned those tables, why do they need done again? I grab spray and cloth anyway and go off in a huff to do it all over again. Some of the tables are still wet from me cleaning them just before. I clean them anyway, just to make a point. I complain to the manager about how I was treated. He says if she tells you to clean, you do it. He points out things from my CV, jobs that didn't last long. He talks about how he started at TGI Fridays as a plate washer or whatever. How he worked hard to get where he is, and obviously I have done nothing in my life, clearly. I have actually had to overcome many personal challenges, you won't see that in my CV. I went to school up to year 7, after which my parents removed me for religious reasons. I took myself to college and courses to try and get myself looking clever on paper. I left home and lived in a refuge. But you know, he worked at TGI Fridays and became a Costa manager, so who gives a flying f*** what I overcame.

My bus ticket runs out at the beginning of the second week. I try to get another one from the jobcentre, but they refuse, telling me to walk. It's around 2 miles and with my broken feet I am not prepared to do that. The Costa manager, to his credit, bought me tickets for the last few days. I pay him back when I get refunded. It is actually the jobcentre's responsibility to fund bus travel to courses and placements that they put benefit claimants on, but you know, DETAILS.

I have another week left of the placement, thankfully still getting free sandwiches and cakes. I live off them. I eat the sandwiches for dinner when I get back every night. I eat cakes wondering how much they would have cost had I bought them. My partner helps me so I can still feed my cat and buy litter for her. He gives me some of his hard earned money here and there so I can live. I start to hate Costa sandwiches and vow to never go into a Costa ever again. I feel they and the DWP took advantage of a poor person for their own gains. DWP can pretend I am employed for a couple of weeks and Costa get free labour. No need to employ the person after, just let them go and forget them. Never mind the fact they are a major company and can more than afford to pay someone on a work placement. If I am supposed to be experiencing real life work, doesn't that include getting paid? I'll leave that with the DWP. Shame on DWP and Costa for taking advantage of poor people.

How the DWP screw you over and keep you poor

I have had possibly the worst experience in my whole life dealing with the DWP. In January after I lost my job, I signed up for benefits. I was told I had to claim Universal Credit. Ok I said, go ahead then. I was told I would have to wait up to 6 weeks for my money to come through. Fine I said, I have my last wage coming through, I can live off that until the UC comes in. I was still responsible for paying some rent, as I was when I was working. I was advised by my job coach to use most of my last wage on paying rent and council tax, meanwhile I got a food bank voucher so I didn't have to worry too much about buying food. I went on a hospitality course to pass the time while I was unemployed, which was to lead onto a work placement at Costa coffee, with no promise of a job after it, no matter how well I did. The time came for my UC to be paid, and there was nothing in my account. I called to ask why there was a delay. Oh we don't know how many bedrooms your flat has. Ok, talk to the council, they will tell you since they own it. They wouldn't. (I mean isn't it the next obvious thing to do since they didn't believe me that it only has one bedroom?!!) Next day still no money. Oh it will be paid in later today just keep checking. Nothing. I call the day after that and I am told my claim was terminated because I had an 'income'. Yes, my last pitiful wage is now an income. I was being treated like I was a secret millionaire and they had just discovered all my hidden away cash. In reality it was £505 that went fast because I was paying rent and council tax with it. No sympathy for them telling me to spend all of my last wage, leaving me with nothing to live on.

I call up in tears insisting they put me on JSA, there's no way in hell I'm waiting another 6 weeks HOPING they will pay UC this time. No, just get me on JSA, its a much shorter waiting time. I fought for it and got what I wanted. Meanwhile, I was waiting for the Costa coffee placement to start. My job coach decided to put me in job club for a month. Job club is a useless, 10-15 minute gathering of the herd of unemployed to tell them what they're doing wrong when applying for jobs. Why it has to last for a month is beyond me. I start attending job club, but the bus makes me late. 10 minutes late to be exact. I get sanctioned. My job coach then has it out for me, despite me being pretty much penniless. She obviously gets off on taunting people in poverty. I continue to attend job club, despite the fact I will get no JSA for doing so. My hardship allowance gets approved, but it will be paid nearly a week after my sanction finishes. So I 'survive' for a month on zero money, but its ok because JSA paid in £10, as my job coach reminded me, I did get SOME money. Yknow, because £10 is a lot. You could do your weekly food shop and buy gas and electric on that! For a month! While you're sanctioned!! My job coach continues to try and make my life a misery, by claiming that I came in an hour late one day. I was actually 5 minutes early, but you know, DETAILS. I'm guessing she never bothered reporting this lie, because one look at the cameras would tell you I was in there early. So my sanction stayed as it was. We could get you in here everyday if we wanted to, my job coach cackles. Pretty sure she sits around with the rest of the coven when everyone is gone, talking about all the evil things she managed to get away with that day.

Next blog post will be about the truly awful Costa coffee placement that I did while sanctioned. Stay tuned!