Signing on

My first day to sign on I committed the cardinal sin of being late. Brief apologies and try to make light of the embarrassment. No, that doesn’t work. “We will stop your benefits if this happens again”. “Well as you aren’t paying me do I really care? In a word; NO”. My comments weren’t receive well, even less so when I offered to go home. No I can’t go home, I just have to wait with all the other sad looking individuals – sorry, we are no longer individuals with responsibilities and status, now we are reduced to a statistic.

When I am seen the interview lasts all of five minutes, “what have you done to find work in the past fortnight, have you been in paid or unpaid work in the past fortnight?” having answered “No” I sign their form and leave in less than five minutes.

Was that it? No humour, no support, no interaction or meaningful dialogue. I seem to recall Charlie Drake had more fun signing on, but that was in the days of black and white television. Colour appears to have reduced to a grey mass.