Work for what now?

So been on Centrelink for awhile now so this isn't so hard to believe but it's still pretty terrible. What am I talking about? I'm talking about their Work for the Dole initiative. When you are on Newstart, what you get as a new job searcher, for like 6 months they put you on Work for the Dole. They give you work with a company that needs volunteers and what it's for is that you can put that on your resume as experience. Well if your resume was good enough you would have got a job already, or that's what they assume I guess. So it's not a terrible thing. 

I've done Work for the Dole before. Nice computer refurbish place. However the problem is during one of the change with the government they removed this initiative while I was working there so I stopped that. That was like 7 or 8 years ago. They only just recently brought it back end of last year. Problem with this is that because they just started it back up there is a lack of connections with companies so a lack of volunteer work. I tried to volunteer for it back when I started back on Newstart but they said they had to reserve those for people who are suppose to be on the initiative before they can let people volunteer for it. Okay so I had to wait till I needed to do it.

So in Jan I was suppose to start Work for the Dole. Problem was once again there was limited places. Fortunately they found me a place in Box Hill basically down my street. Sweet. Worked out the paperwork. Immediately the next day I receive a call telling me that connection has been cut and was in renegotiation so I had to choose the only other place which was in Southbank. Bleh fine. Wasn't very happy. However with the thing that happened with my brother happened at the time they told me I didn't need to come in at the time. Thing is after a week of not attending apparently it is automatically cancelled by the system. This I didn't find out until 3 weeks later ... Fine they scheduled me a meeting so I'll wait for that. However just a week later before the meeting I receive a call checking on how I was doing with Work for the Dole ... Okay I really don't get how their system works. The system cancels my Work for the Dole however my automated scheduled phone checkups stay up ... it's messed up. So tried to work it out. And now apparently there are 0 places for me to work so they put my studies as Work for the Dole activity ... aren't I basically on Austudy which is for students? Then again I'm getting paid more this way, guess I can't complain.

Unfortunately my studies don't go so well so I defer. Of course this means changing my Work for the Dole. They tell me there's a place in Balwyn, sweet. Problem, they expect more hours then someone my age is suppose to do ... then why did you even tell me. Hating. They place me in Collingwood for only 2 weeks because that's when their agreement is for. Okay fine, don't place me anywhere close and make me come in after 2 weeks to do this all over again. So I turn up in Collingwood and guess what? The place is close for the holiday break ... I call up my jobsearch place and find out they weren't informed. Of course. They tell me they will work it out. 2 weeks and they tell me just to come in to work out a new place.

That brings us to this week. Kew, not so bad. I turn up Tuesday. Apparently the Kew place didn't know I was coming in. They weren't informed and they didn't get my police check so I couldn't even start if they could allow it. So call my jobsearch place and again they say they'll work it out that day. They call the next day and tell me to come in the next week because can't be worked out this week.

My head hurts just reliving it. Wasted so much time. Hopefully it is all worked out by Tuesday ...

The System

So I'm on Newstart. Getting money from the government paid by the taxes of working people. Not trying to rub it in. More like acknowledging and thanking the hard working people who have to pay taxes so the society we live in can continue to operate as well as can be. And I say as well as can be.

Work for the dole is back. I did working for the dole 7-8 years ago until they shut down the program as the government was moving funds around so pulled funding from there. Now that it's back they have to start from scratch setting up. In the past you could volunteer to work for the dole. I volunteered last time because it's something to do and you can get references for doing that. However because the system is just back there was not enough places because they were reserved for those who have been on Newstart for six months. 

A month or so back I hit the mark when I needed to start working for the dole. Thing was when I went in to get my work for the dole drawn up, they dumped me into a group meeting. During the meeting, someone realized they put me in the wrong group and eventually I was in an one on one to plan out my work for the dole. They put me in an administration role in Box Hill basically right down my street. Sweet. What was not so sweet was the call the next morning telling me that they contract with the company got cancelled so I had to go back in to get a new place. The new place they put me as a outdoor laborer in Southbank which was not terrible. However when I was suppose to start that was when my brother's thing happened so they didn't expect me to go in. A fortnight after I was sent a letter stating that it was cancelled and they would get back to me about it. It wasn't until last week they called me, asking me how I was doing in my work for the dole. Huh? They didn't even know it was auto cancelled which I found out what had happened. So they booked me in again today. So once again in to plan my work for the dole. This time I had someone else setting it up. This time they tried to put me in retail assistant role somewhere near St Kilda. I say try because like 5 minutes later they told me there was no position there. After around 15 minutes they came up with no position for me. Instead they are using my study at Swinburne as my work for the dole. I guess this means I won't be using too much of my time working so I can study, but at the same time I'm not getting any more work experience which I'm having trouble with ... In the end a lot of time wasted. Hopefully they work it out in the next 3 months before I need to go back in to update my plan.