Job Centres Unclear on Volunteering RegulationsPeople receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance can volunteer without their benefits being affected as long as the requirements for receiving the benefit are still being met. For example, jobseekers must continue looking for paid work and be available for interviews. There is also no limit to the hours given to voluntary work, and it can be a useful and positive step towards gaining paid employment.
Yet while the majority of Job Centre staff appear to be aware of these regulations, it seems a great number are not. In some cases, they are even advising jobseekers not to volunteer.
Beth Dickson, a former jobseeker from Stafford, has experienced this misinformation first hand. "I had been unemployed for some time and wanted to keep up the idea of working in some way,” she explains. “Volunteering for a charity seemed an obvious route to take. I knew of a local charity that was doing some really good work, and offered them my skills and help."
Yet when she informed her Personal Advisor at her next signing-on she did not receive the encouragement she had expected. “[The advisor] told me to stop the volunteer work as I was 'not actively seeking work' and that my benefit would be cut if I continued to volunteer."
Unfortunately this is not an uncommon situation, as recent enquiries made with ten different Job Centres across the UK revealed. While the majority were very supportive of volunteering, and knew exactly what the policies and procedures were, around one-third still seemed unaware and unsupportive.
Some advisors warned that volunteering could put a stop to benefits entirely. Others were adamant that if voluntary work was permitted, it must be limited to 16 hours a week. An advisor in Leicester said that if a jobseeker was interested in taking on voluntary work, it would be considered a special request and, "have to be referred to senior decision makers".
Beth also spoke to several different advisors and was given conflicting information:
"I was eventually sent a letter saying I could do voluntary work, but at the same time my advisor received official notification that I should not volunteer,” she says. “Rather than lose my benefit, I, sadly, gave up volunteering.”
Doing volunteer work is an excellent way for jobseekers to utilise their time between paid employment. Volunteering encourages motivation, increases skills and experience, and shows prospective employers a willingness to get involved. As one informed Job Centre advisor from Cardiff explained: "[Volunteering] looks good on your CV, shows you have active skills and can improve your chances of getting paid work."
Beth agrees. "I was getting out of bed early; I was in contact with other people; I was able to network... I felt that I was making a difference for the charity."
Any jobseekers interested in taking on voluntary work will need to inform their Job Centre advisor, who should be aware of the regulations and provide a 'Voluntary Work 1JP' form to be completed. If there is still any doubt about information provided by an advisor, the Job Centre website offers an in-depth guide with further details: http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/jcp/stellent/groups/jcp/documents/websitecontent/dev_015837.pdf
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Comments
Great article. It's amazing that this is still an issue. Years ago there used to be a regulation about the maximum time you could volunteer while on benefits and it seems to have lodged in the mind of some job centre staff.
It would be great to hear a gvt minister talking about how beneficial volunteering was for jobseekers - that might help get the message across.
Couldn't agree more - this kind of misinformation should have been sorted out ages ago - whatever happened to the booklet that Jobcentreplus used to distribute which was meant to explain volunteering rules?!...
Great article, especially as you've been out there and contacted 10 Jobcentres, so this really backs up your findings! And yes this confirms what we've suspected that despite the information available to Jobcentres they are still giving out mixed messages which is really worrying in the current climate especially given the DWP brokerage scheme.
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/Channels/Volunteering/Article/946469/First-figures-DWP-volunteer-brokerage-scheme/
When we go live nex week we'll make a big thing about this and get it out there - great feature to kick off with, well done and welcome to the i-vol team!!
Thanks so much, all! This was an interesting issue to tackle. It was amazing to find such inconsistant information being given out - especially as some were so adamant about the (incorrect) information they had! Considering the benefits to everyone concerned, it's a shame all Job Centres are not strongly encouraging people to volunteer. It is surely a win-win situation if they do.
When I was unemployed, the job centre told me it had to be limited to 16 hours a week; however, that 16 hours was between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. My advisor said I could do as many hours as I wished outside the 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday period.
She did say that wasn't what the regulation actually said, but that was how this Job Centre was told to interpret it.
After a problem free 8 years with our local Job Centre we now have volunteers being told they cannot volunteer for anything but a registered charity and they cannot do more than 16 hours a week! It is infuriating as it goes against everything in the JobCentre booklet 'Volunteering whilst receiving benefits' of which, the 2 advisors I spoke to on behalf of 2 volunteers had no knowledge of. Hopefully the partnership manager who has taken my complaint seriously will amend the situation but I wonder how many people have already been put off and not come to us for advice :(
This is clearly still a real problem. Should Volunteering England be taking it up with the Dept for Work and Pensions? I know it's been raised many times but the message clearly isn't getting through. Perhaps it's an issue that the Tories could be lobbied on.
I met someone from the Job Centres national team last night and told them about this piece - they said they'd take a look asap as they recognise it is still an issue out there...
How frustrating. You'd have thought with the current DWP volunteering brokerage package as part of the 6 month offer they'd have been promoting the correct message!
I work for Jobcentre Plus on a team that has been tasked by Ministers with looking at the issues the article and discussion group raises. I thought it might help if I gave you an update on what we are doing presently. We have been working with volunteering organisations since early this year, raising awareness within Jobcentre Plus and are working closely with Volunteering England to ensure volunteering organisations are aware of the benefit rules. All this has however been against a background of the recession and the fact we have recruited over 10,000 new advisers in our 750+ Jobcentres, so although feedback indicates we have made some improvements, we realise that we still have some work to do and are continuing this, including launching an update to the DWP ‘Volunteering whilst receiving benefits’ customer leaflet. This piece of research is very helpful to us and we would be happy to receive any local cases where problems have arisen so we can take them up.
Thanks very much @jcplus this is a useful update, we'll certainly let you know of local cases as we find them...
There must be lots of people using volunteering to step into jobs - I did it myself years ago. Don't individual Job Centres have internal team meetings? A centre manager outlining the rules to their people in a simple, clear way and inviting questions should get the message across. Can't help thinking there's a bit of a lack of individual initiative here at Job Centre level. No excuse for people still having to put up with these kinds of blocks and no excuse for staff to be giving out mistaken information.
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