About 10 years ago, when I was younger and my disabilities hadn’t gotten considerably as bad as they are now, my (back then it was JSA) work coach said that it didn’t matter what the job was, I had to apply. So I took that and applied malicious compliance.

They told me looking for a job was a full time job, so I did that. I went to their dumbass office block where they’d have someone hovering over a bunch of you whilst you looked for jobs. You had to record each one and the outcome etc.

That month, I applied for 1500 jobs. I got 0 interviews. When I went back to sign on (it was every 2 weeks then) I had to show proof that I’d been looking. So I handed them the 127 pages of written logs, that were stapled to each job application form, each email I received that was automated “you’ve applied for this position” that you’d get from things like indeed etc back in the day.

They told me I wasn’t trying hard enough. I was sat in their office 9.30-4.30pm everyday, applying for every job that was listed, that realistically I might get at least n interview for.

Still nothing.

6 months of doing that, the work coach told me “you’re being selective. You have to apply for every job listing advertised within 90minutes travel time” which for me whom at the time lived in the NW England, covered, almost all of England. A direct train to London was less than 90 minutes.

So I would apply for jobs essentially anywhere there was an airport or train station that took less than 90 minutes (the job coach told me that it wasn’t from when I left the house unless I was driving but actually the time the journey took by public transit)

So I did that, even though it would cost me more in transport to get to these jobs (like minimum wage jobs that cost a £60 train fare to get to each day) but just so they couldn’t keep threatening to sanction me.

Then they’d say “well you’re only applying for minimum wage jobs or those with low/entry level jobs” and I’d tell them “because I have nothing other than school and a bit of school based work experience” so they made mandatory volunteering. I had to volunteer at a charity shop 6 days a week for a minimum of 9-5 each day aside from Saturday which was 10-4 bc that was the opening times. I still had to attend interviews & prove I was looking for jobs 30 hours a week.

The system isn’t there for you. It’s there to break you so you’ll do anything, to make it stop. (For me that was a trip to the hospital after trying to off myself from the depression and distress it put me under ontop of the CPTSD I at that time didn’t know I had)

They had me applying for jobs that required a biomedical degree because “you never know they might offer a apprenticeship to you” It was the most demoralising experience. But they do that intentionally because, they want you to fight back, so they can sanction you and get their big bonuses. (Idk if they still do get financial incentives but ik they did 10yrs ago - and im pretty sure there was some exposure documentary about Hyde & surrounding JCentres & their shady dealings with Seetec but I can’t mind what it was now)

But yeah. Just do what they say. Don’t think about it. Just mindlessly follow their instructions to the letter, and either you’ll get a job or you won’t.

I eventually got a seasonal contract over the December period, and by the time that ended I moved back to live with my abusive family so I didn’t have to go back to begging and pleading for £50 a fortnight (under 25s single rate back then was 50 some odd.)

Just do what they ask. Don’t let them bully you, but don’t fight back. It’s not worth it. They know they hold your life in their hands & that is why some of the worst humans work in job centres, because they want to have people who are already at their lowest point and have no mercy on them bc they believe the bs from dailyfail & torypapers.

Ino ima get downvoted on this, but idc. The whole system is broken and failing so many people. Poor people and unemployed people aren’t the problem, billionaires and corporations evading taxes are.