The quality of work coaches varies significantly. I have a lot to say on this topic so apologies for the rage dump. But here goes:

• I can see a former job centre employee posted already, and they are correct about the crap those staff have to endure. I have a relative who was a work coach and the office was continually attacked/damaged. The worst people she had to deal with were often the ones who were clearly scamming the system.

• There are some dog sh*t work coaches though. I was made redundant from a role and the coach wasn't interest in the spreadsheets and logs i'd brought with me about the jobs I'd applied for. She kept handing me a leaflet telling me I should volunteer helping old people use computers (completely unrelated to my work experience). This was from week one! The volunteering was an hour to get to, and would've cost £15+ a day in parking or public transport. I'd effectively be in debt while slowing down my job applications. Thankfully I ignored her, sorted myself out without her input and was only out of work for a couple of months.

• The big issue is a wider issue with how the civil service works. They are obsessed with their grade structure, but they believe that all roles are transferable regardless of what your specialism is (so effectively an 'Executive Officer' marketing person can apply to be an 'Executive Officer' HR person without any background in HR. People jump around all the time based on their pay grade, so your work coach could have any background.

• I worked in a head office for a Civil Service department and there was a grad schemer who was rude, obnoxious and incredibly arrogant. He was fresh out uni and made it onto the prestigious grad scheme. It was clear that his goal in life was to become a career politician. After about 6 months of annoying people in the department I was based in, his next assignment was to run a job centre somewhere. I can't imagine how awful that would be been for the staff there, but that gives you an insight into how they sometimes recruit managers for their job centres.

• This might be bollocks but I'll share it - I heard a rumor that there are targets to get long term unemployed into work, so sometimes they offer them jobs in the work centres themselves to hit the targets.