JSA claimants welcome sanctions…

Dear Sir

I am continually delayed in my shop visits because of queues of people trying to buy flowers, boxes of chocolates and gift vouchers for the Jobcentre-Plus staff who have sanctioned them.

Quite clearly they have been left with far too much money!  Perhaps sanctions could be extended so that they are only allowed to leave home, accompanied by armed guards, to attend the huge number of job interviews that they are all offered.

Yours sincerely

‘Disgusted’ Iain of Tunbridge Wells.

Gareth I think you’ll find that if you hang around shops that sell “flowers, boxes of chocolates and gift vouchers” the real delay is with them having to bring extra staff in to cope with the demand. Those staff are of course on zero hours contracts!

The idea of a new section in card shops labelled “For your JobcentrePlus worker” is overwhelmingly appealing. I shall see if my local card shop will cooperate. They have sections for “Death of a distant relative from whom you now want to see if you can prompt a donation to your bank account” and similar, like “Death of a relative you never really liked” etc.

You have all started my day off with a great surge of hilarity. To borrow from Private Eye, “Great stuff, guys!”

Brilliantly I had a totally unrelated reason to visit a local card shop yesterday and mentioned this thread in passing. I was horrified to learn that the son of the owner is currently working there as a volunteer as he was sanctioned for being 5 minutes late for a meeting because he had to open up the shop for his Dad who had an emergency to deal with.

Incidentally, I now want to add in “Farewell card for a colleague that you are so glad is leaving at last” and perhaps a whole wall called “Contractual Obligation”.