Job seekers + universal jobmatch

miamoo

That's brilliant thank you!

Just to update he has seen his advisor and she has changed it to 'he is allowed to accept any job within the same role that is the same salary as previously for 3 months'. Which is really good as he was pretty highly paid previously for his age. So he can refuse a job now just based on pay.

The bad news is that his advisor has said he has to log in to UJM every day (which is ok) but that he has to look for jobs on there! which is not ok as the site is terrible
He asked how long do I have to spend looking on UJM, she said it depends if you see anything worth applying for, 15 minutes if you don't see anything, 1 hour if you do.
But she said he does have to look for jobs on there every day and she's written it into his agreement. She said its not optional (as my son said he didn't want to use UJM for his search as Indeed was more user friendly and had many more relevant jobs available)

Mersey_2

That's good to hear. Yes, JCPs don't advertise the fact of the 'permitted period' where claimants are allowed to restrict their job search to their specialism for the first 13 weeks.

elsien

Logging into it himself regularly may not be optional. Giving the advisor permission to access the account to check up on him is. They cannot force him to show them the account, unless things have changed recently - this has been raised on this forum before.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/requirement_to_allow_access_to_u

I left the box unticked and refused to allow access.. My advisor was not happy about it, but when I refused to show them they took no further action. I told them it was because I didn't want sanctions imposed on me for not using an unworkable system but if your son wants to be less confrontational, he could say he has concerns re web security and so on and it's not specifically anti jobcentre. He can offer to provide ref numbers of jobs applied for etc but whilst it's not mandatory he won't be allowing access.

I would also suggest (because I have a suspicious mind) doing two copies of his job search information. One for them and one for him in case the one they take goes awol or there is a query about it. I told them if they wanted to keep my record they would need to make the copy themselves as I needed to keep it myself for my own records.

Another tip if he has his CV up on Reed etc - I was told be a recruitment agent to take it down each week then put it back up again. He doesn't need to change it but some of them use software to sift out the more recent ones and ignore the older CVs so it keeps him more towards the top of the list.

miamoo

That's a great tip, thanks elsien! I will tell him to remove and add his CV to all of the job sites he is registered with once a week, just incase it helps him get noticed.

I think I'll just suggest he ticks the box to allow access and then go on there every day for 15 minutes (Do they know how long he is on there, and what he's doing whilst on there?), looking through jobs, and not actually applying for anything. Then go elsewhere to a proper job search website and look and apply for jobs on there. If he updates the notes section of the UJM every day with a basic update of what he's done, and where he's looked etc they can't say he hasn't accessed it daily.

Firetastic

No they don't know how long you are on there. I usually write something like "Checked Universal Jobmatch. I did not see any suitable vacancies to apply for." or if I've applied for job "Have applied for the position of xyz".

miamoo

Thanks that means he doesn't have to waste too much valuable job searching time on that terrible site.

Really appreciate all your help, I will come and let you know when he gets a job