I last signed at the Charles St Jobcentre almost four weeks ago. I was told that the next time I was due to sign at the Jobcentre they would be hosting some event for the 18-24yr olds so later this week will be my first attendance at a Jobcentre for four weeks. I can't say that I've missed it but at least I have kept up my jobsearch records and made sure that I have applied for plenty of jobs and that no seven day period has less than the minimum required.I'm supposed to apply for at least two jobs a week so eight jobs over the four weeks and I have applied for fourteen so far. I hope the other over 25s who have had four weeks freedom from the Jobcentre don't get casual on their jobsearch as it could be a feeding frenzy for the Jobcentre staff in terms of sanctions. This morning I saw a job vacancy on UJM for a receptionist with Itec Training. I'm sure the job is real and would be quite an easy job to perform and I even applied for it. Any job that I believe that I can do is a job that I will apply for. I only mention this as many years ago I had to attend Cardiff Itec while on New Deal. I firmly believe this is the same company that is advertising the recepionist vacancy that appears to relate to Newport and not Cardiff. While I was at Cardiff Itec my personal advisor at the time from the Jobcentre came to see me and ask me how I was getting on. It was just after 3pm and I said to him "have you noticed that I am the only unemployed person in this building and if you walk around you will find no other unemployed person here but if you came back tomorrow you would find all the timesheets are signed showing that everyone stayed here until 4pm." He said that he had only come here to discuss how I was getting on and was not concerned about anything else. Even those days Jobcentre staff knew that many training companies were breaking the rules but didn't do anything about it. Whoever looks at my CV in relation to the receptionist vacancy might remember me but it's a job vacancy so at least it makes up the numbers. One of the saddest things about targets is this. The other day I saw two vacancies that I could apply for and after applying for the first one I thought it best to leave the other one until the next day as it will give me something to apply for instead of just recording jobsearch and mentioning a few websites. The pressure the unemployed are under just to maintain basic benefits is only going to get worse as the two main political parties are in agreement on so many things to do with benefit entitlements. Eventually workfare will become a reality and punishment for being unemployed will be working for benefits until you reach retirement age. A politician who in reality has a nice lifestyle compared to the unemployed doesn't seem to understand that doing workfare when you are near retirement age isn't that easy. Outside in all kinds of weather on workfare is a world apart from a warm office and some parts of the UK have a life expectancy age less than the retirement age of 66. Some people will be forced to work for nothing until they die.