I had an appointment for an interview for the Royal Mail christmas vacancies today at 1pm in the Alexandra House Jobcentre in Cardiff. First of all I had to go to the enterprise centre in City Road to obtain a printout of the application form that I had to produce at the interview. I decided to walk to the Jobcentre and it should have taken approximately forty five minutes but I actually got a bit lost and went past it so eventually I turned up around 1pm in the pouring rain after walking for an hour. I was led into an office and was asked by a guy representing the Royal Mail for various documents and a passport photo. A woman on another desk was also interviewing people and very quickly in my case we came to a standstill. While the applicant on the other desk was all smiles and compliant and eventually was told that he had the job, I asked a question regarding the number of weeks I would be working. He said that he didn't know but it might be three to four weeks. I was a bit surprised and told him that I was expecting more like ten weeks but it would be full time hours. I did express my concern regarding the situation that might occur when I have to sign back on and would I lose out regarding housing benefit. The guy was very polite and said that he would ask a member of the Jobcentre staff. He left the office to photocopy my documents and I could hear him speaking to a member of staff who suggested that I should contact my advisor at Charles St Jobcentre. I then went to talk to her and asked if anyone at the Alexandra Jobcentre could give me some advice on the benefit situation if I take a job for three to four weeks. She said that they could not discuss specific cases so I asked her if anyone at Alexandra House could give me some general advice as I was in the middle of applying for this job. Her advice was that I should contact my advisor at Charles St Jobcentre, she asked for my advisors name and when I told her she apparently knew that my advisor was off today so suggested contacting the Charles St Jobcentre I guess in the hope that an advisor at that Jobcentre could give me the advice I need. The discussion I had with the Jobcentre woman got a little bit heated but that was only because she was sticking to a basic line and I was saying how ridiculous it was that in such a large jobcentre no one was available to give me any general advice that could allow me to actually sign up for some temporary work. I was given two phone numbers for Charles St but the guy taking the interview said he could not waste any more time as quite a few people were waiting to be interviewed and that I could always apply again as they are having more recruitment sessions in the near future. The guy was fine and he was right as quite a few were waiting, some had smiles on their faces and that was probably due to two reasons. Firstly they like to see someone stand up for their rights and secondly one of them might have thought that if I got a job then they might lose out. I went along to reception and was allowed to phone Charles St Jobcentre and was told by a polite and understanding guy on the other end of the phone that I would probably be able to do a rapid reclaim when my three to four weeks work ended. If someone at Alexandra House could have told me that then I would have signed all the documents and probably avoided any backlash that might come my way. Imagine if I apply again and the same guy interviews me, he might not be too keen to give me a job. I was applying for the night shift only because I don't sleep well at night and was told that it was the most popular shift as it pays the most. Today is the 19th September and the guy told me that the earliest start for the christmas temporary jobs at the Royal Mail was 18th November. That guy who was told he had the job will have two months before he is due to start work and it would be interesting to know if the jobcentre will let him avoid applying for any vacancies until then. He could hardly take any job offered if he has to spend half of November and most of December working for the Royal Mail. I left the jobcentre to walk back, soaked to the skin and feeling tired in the legs but I eventually got home. The only bright spot was walking past the wall around the Cardiff Castle grounds looking at all those stone carvings of animals perched on the wall. I guess my advisor will be back in work soon and will want to know what happened. I would have gone along with it all today if only an advisor had been available for a few minutes to give the advice on the housing benefit and jobseekers allowance situation.