Did the legislation around the Job Network change, or did I just misunderstand it?
When I was forced to do Work for the Dole at the Matey Mission (see the first posts on this blog), I was told that each person had X amount of money that could be spent on getting them "job ready". This could be training, steel cap boots or a set of snazzy clothes for that all-important job interview.
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This was the poster that changed my life. Thanks, Ascendence Pty Ltd! |
After multiple listenings of 'Eye of the Tiger', I felt inspired about actually working in some sort of field of endeavour. I thought, "Maybe I should get a qualification so I might remove myself from the dole." I shouldn't completely blame the finest song by Survivor; working for a month last December was actually pretty good.
The dole obviously isn't enought to pay for things like TAFE fees and materials, so I figured that this is where the Job Network comes in. Perhaps it is naïve of me to take the mission of the privatised arm of Australian welfare at its word. After a week of trying to get an answer from my JNP (Job Network Provider) as to whether I can be subsidised so I can go to TAFE (it's fucking Holmesglen TAFE by the way, not fucking Melbourne University), I'm still in the dark.
Well, not completely. I phoned some sort of "customer service" number regarding my situation and for once, the person I spoke to was extremely helpful and kinda sympathetic. She told me that each JNP actually has a pool of money based on the amount of people registered with them, rather than an alotment for each individual, called the "Job Seeker Account". There are guidelines for the expenditure of this money, though the specifics are not available to the public because it is part of a contract between the JNP and the government. Broadly speaking, the guidelines are about employment outcomes and "not bringing the [system] into disrepute", all of which is up to the discretion of the JNP.
I was told by my "consultant" - that's the person at the JNP who has to deal with me - that I would have an answer today. As I said, I didn't get it. The woman from the customer service line suggested that I ask to speak to a manager at the JNP. I tried to do this but, as the secretary helpfully told me, no-one was in the office. Fucking no-one. Not Simon the Consultant. No managers. Nothing.
Why the sense of urgency? The money to pay for the materials in my course is due in tomorrow. Dammit.
a word about my job network member.They have the audacity to call themselves "Ascendence", preying upon popular - and bullshit - ideas of class mobility and, even worse, tapping into the idea that the unemployed are beneath the employed. I mean, don't they know that I have important skills? Do they think that just
anyone can put umlauts above the "i" in "naïve"?
Ah, to be back in the heady, care-free days before the World Trade Centre attack, when it was perfectly acceptable to take pictures of Palestinian militants and produce a mistake-ridden pamphlet.
