Drowning in the Jobwave pt2.

So I get back to this "program" that I must attend.
Everyone on assistance must attend one.
Its where private contractors, buddies of parliamentarians, suck money out of the assistance system at a rate that is greater than the amount actually paid to the recipients of assistance themselves.

They go on and on about "blocks to employment"
All the things that are keeping you from getting a job.
But they don't really have anything to offer you other than the same slips of paper that everyone else offers you. Go here go there, all over the city.

These people have cars, and they can't understand how hard it is to go all over the city for things that should really be in one place.

They have shitbox computers, but there's no real technician, and the antivirus is too lame to catch shit because its not updated, because of no techie, so they're afraid you're going to break the computer that they haven't got properly protected with a simple product my own cousin knows she needs to have to protect herself. If it breaks a techie could reimage it in 20 min if they had one. These people should definitely not have sex, unwrapping a condom would probably be difficult to get clear in their minds.
So you can't use a flash drive, and you can't use a floppy(ugh), so basically how the fuck do you get your resume to people?
The library lets you use a fucking flash drive. They don't seem to have a problem.
So basically the computers are useless. At least to me.
Obviously to other people too, since the place is always empty and the library is always full to the fucking brim with people trying to use the computers.
The ministry should just invest in the library, pay for a bunch more computers.
They've got sheets of job sites on the wall, but for some reason none of these bright young lasses has figured out it would be more useful to have links to the jobsites right on the fucking toolbar in the webrowser. Bookmarks aren't fucking rocket science.

I was getting a buss pass from PCRS before, so I could go to all thes places all over the fucking place to get food, use phones, use computers for job search, go to the doctor, go to interviews.
Jobwave doesn't do bus passes. They do bus tickets.
Do you know why?
Because each time a Jobwave employee opens her drawer to hand you something that you used to get directly at the ministry office, they get $18 bux or so.
So if they give you a bus pass, the cost of which they are reimbursed by MiniDeath
They only get 18 bux
But if they give you tickets, then you have to go back for more
so now they make $45-80 or more handing out tickets to you, one book at a time.
They even make their $18 bux if they only give you a couple of tickets, like 4 or so.
Ka-Ching!!!! The cash register rings
Money for absofuckinglutely nothing once again.
So I have to sit, instead of going to look for jobs on the internet at the library, because I need the extra ticket for a doctors appointment which takes two tickets, or so I can go to the food bank, which takes 2 whole tickets because you have to wait longer than a bus ticket is good for.
At the end, she asked me about the company I was having an interview with and started reaching for a piece of paper. I told her I couldn't remember the name of it. She's actually going to try and claim a "VICTORY for Jobwave" for a job that they didn't give me a lead for.
Money for nothing. More money than I live on as an assistance recipient. FUCK.

Yesterday I got 1 book of ten regular bus tickets -$18
Two single two zone bus tickets (not a book, just 2) - $18
A food voucher for $25 for Quest - $18
Plus they make $40 just because I sat in the chair for 5 minutes(and I got seriously grilled about why I needed a food voucher)

so that's $94 dollars for 5 minutes of nothing but a woman reaching into a drawer to hand me some pieces of paper that I used to be able to get directly from the ministry with no fees paid out!!!!!!!!! That's two weeks of living allowance for me almost, for 5 minutes of fucking nothing!!!!!!!!

And then I got told I couldn't even use my USB key to email my resume to people.
I spent the next hour waiting to use a library computer even though Jobwave was practically empty of people on computers. The library computer doesn't mind me using a key.

I believe we'd save a couple million just by going much simpler.
Put all the fucking sheets of paper that they hand out on display at the MiniDeath itself
Like they used to be.
Give each assistance recipient a picture ID
Make that assistance picture ID good on any bus, any bus zone, any recreational facility or community centre, and the library computers.
Give each recipient a sticker for their card each month to verify that they are allowed these services.
Suddenly there is no disbursement fees, no need to go to any community centre to apply for a separate card, the one assistance card works for the bus, the library computers (for a 2 hour per day job search limit, one hour isn't enough), and for the community centres.
One card to cover what a poor person needs

No more poor people begging the bus driver for a fucking ride in the rain cause they don't have no stingy ticket bullshit. The assistance card gets them on as long as the sticker is good.

These people make more per visit I make to see them than I get to spend on food in a week.

And I haven't been asked ONCE for my resume. In 4 visit + extras.

I have to add this. It's fucking gross.
2.5 weeks ago I went into the Jobwave client washroom, which is fairly clean.
Some gross ignorant goof had wiped a shit stain on the hand drier.
It's still there 2.5 weeks later. The same fucking dried shit stain. I told 3 separate employees, 3 separate times, nicely I might add, since if I talked to people the way I write I'd have to kill half the ignorant humans I meet. Better to blogvent than go berserk from the insanity of this fucking shitfest.

I haven't got any job leads at all through them.
They do the same tired old fucking shit we've been seeing for years.
"basic computer workshops" "Lifeskills workshops" "Job market workshops"

I bet they get $100 bux per client that sits in one of these money for absolutely nothing workshops. I live on $55 a week.

And they wonder why I'm so fucking sour when I walk in, stomach grumbling, and 2 bright and cheery "employment councillors" are beaming their fucking beauty princess smiles at me and piping up with their happy happy joy joy optimism fucking bullshit. Like Lt. Huxley in Demolition Man. Let's all sing the Oscar Meyer Weiner song together. Bah Humbug.

Job LEADS make a real wave, not computers you can't stick your resume on, fluffy bunny workshops from hell, and more of the same fucking slips of paper sending me to a skid row missionary for food.

That is, if I have a fucking ticket to get there.


A big thanks to Andrew MacLeod at the Tyee for sending me this article that lists the prices paid to JobWave.

BC Social Services Discrimination Enshrined in Policy

Apparently, if someone is not on a full medical disability, if they just get hurt and are limited in their employment options for a few months due to a serious health matter that doesn't really require a full ongoing medical disability, just a set of limitations on what they can apply for like no heavy lifting or what not, they actually get $125 dollars less on their maximum rent allowance.

The maximum social services rent allowance is already pitiful, its about $450.

But if you are hurt, go see a doctor, and he gives you a form saying that you can't lift anything heavy for a few months while you are getting this health issue addressed, then suddenly "kazaam"

you now are only allowed $375 per month for rent.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Isn't the concept of discrimination that someone can't be given less because they have a disability? Temporary or not?

The idea is that a person who needs to get an operation and can't do a particular task without hurting themselves is still a person. They are still looking for work, but they have to limit their search to some constraint set by a medical professional. And when they get their operation they may be housebound or immobile for a month perhaps, depending on the issue involved.

But since it's the government, who can sue them for discriminating between someone who is healthy and someone with decreased job options.

I have a number of things to say about plain old disability, I know a number of people getting regularly harassed while they live with daily real pain in a backlogged and strained medical system.

BC's rental maximums for assistance haven't gone up since 2005, while rents have increased in vancouver almost double in that time frame.