back to article Recession exacerbated Jobcentre computer woes

Research has revealed that IT problems hindered Jobcentre Plus in dealing with an influx of people at the beginning of the recession. Glitches and crashes in the services's computerised job vacancies database, the Labour Market System (LMS), exacerbated delays experienced by unemployed people. The research, commissioned and …

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  1. Number6
    Coat

    No wonder...

    "Glitches and crashes in the services's computerised job vacancies database, the Labour Market System (LMS), exacerbated delays experienced by unemployed people."

    I'm not surprised it didn't work properly, it has "Labour" in the title.

  2. James 47
    Thumb Up

    Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    I'd love to be paid to developed software that crashed when used. And then be paid to fix it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Mmmmmmmm....

      Doing hugely overpriced dodgy work and then being paid to fix it has been the basis of most govt and local govt contracts for many years.

    2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects 1
      Happy

      ,/IN sert Tit le her e>

      But you would have to sign off if you worked for more than 16 hours per week on it.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Contradictions?

    Not working "as intended" yet they admit they haven't had the required level of training so they have been "thrown in at the deepend".

    Did they intend for the system to do their job for them without any kind of thought about what they were doing?

    FAIL: It's not my fault, the nasty computer won't do my job for me.

  4. Seanmon

    Is it

    an EDS creation, by any chance?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      or maybe ...

      Could be written by EDS, but more than likely running on Windows Server.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        An equal opportunities employer

        I think you'll find that it would still be a turd whatever you try to polish it on.

  5. seanj
    FAIL

    Awww, diddums....

    I find it laughably ironic, considering that it was probably the poor sods from IT departments across the country whose jobs were being outsourced quicker than you could say "Indian call centre" that were putting them under strain - I know I was one of them....

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    staffing?

    laying off loads of staff probably wasn't a good idea either

  7. Adrian Jones

    Jobcentre IT is nothing *but* a problem.

    The last time I had to sign on, I registered on-line. Then made an appointment to go into the local jobcentre. Where my details had been printed out for the clerk to re-type them in to her computer, while asking me if each question over again.

    Really inspired confidence in their ability to help me.

    1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects 1
      Paris Hilton

      U kid I not

      I went in with my name and number writted out for them to let me past the bouncers. Said home made docket in lieu of the official booklet, in smart transparent plastic, long lost.

      Sweet boy goes over to a viable computer and writes same info on an official temporary piece of paper in lieu of home made version for me to pass on to the receptionist at the next level.

      It's a good job they have got computers, regardless of whether they work or not. In fact if they are not working properly it makes the staff look even more like they are working properly.

      Oh yes and I had to wait a while before they sent me <s>y<s>our money. One has to laugh.

  8. Joe K
    Boffin

    Anyone work there?

    Its been about 5 years since i worked with the appaling collection of programs known as the LMS, does it still run only on Windows 3.11/NT?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    oh yes LMS

    Ah yes LMS, I remember supporting that...

    Listening to people talk about problems with obscure dialog numbers etc and cryptic error messages and not really know wtf they were talking about.

    Then many months later after leaving EDS I realised "oh it's that thing they use to lookup jobs"

    1. Seanmon
      Thumb Up

      Ah!

      EDS - I thank you!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Waste of space...

    Hardly a representative sample I know, but...

    I hadn't seen the inside of a JobCentre in 40 years, when I called in one late last year to make a simple enquiry on behalf of a disabled friend. I spoke to 4 separate members of staff. None seemed to know what day it was, and all were clearly a waste of the air they were breathing...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Is this the thing staff use?

    Looks like an MS Access DB with chunky low res graphics (surely just a front end) where staff have to enter *everything* in UPPER CASE.

    Or is this the thing up front with the touch screen LCD screens?

    The one's that asks for your location, then ignores it.

    Historically it has been worse. It could be better.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Having signed on for years...

    I have a good knowledge of the LMS and its evolution. In the early 1990's they coded the current system to meet Windows 3.1 for workgroups, and it hasn't evolved much since. they now have XP boxes and whizzy consoles (also XP boxes). It worked rather well on 3.1 and they had that 'til about 2001 whern they upgraded their network to Windows 2000. I was interrupted in 2003 by getting a job whern they made a bigger leap into expanding the network to include the newly created DWP, where I worked. It must've been about 2006 whern they finally upgraded the whole lot to XP, kludging the LMS to work with it, along with the old black screen and white text "legacy" system, where all the payments are processed. (The admin bods forget this, you don't get paid). Anyway, the system is still buggy, as it doesn't save details (my 1992 details are retained for some reason, though), print properly (it won't print "£") and I think it's still set up for old daisywheel printers and not the Lexmarks they use today as text isn't linspaced properly. The admins don't know enough about computers to sort these things out. Oddly enough they do have access to the internet and the direct.gov and the soon to be got rid of jobcentre+ website where they could just paste the reference numbers into the necessary forms and print from IE. However, that is a common sense solution, which is something that government doesn't do. Oh yes, if you wan't to crash the consoles just touch a lot of stuff at the same time. This causes the Flash interface to crash, having the side effect of taking all the consoles out.

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