Universal Credit - 35 hours a week - Legal Requirement?

johnsmithy

Hi

I was wondering if it is actually stated legally that people who claim Universal Credit are legally obliged to look for work for 35 hours per week? If so, could someone provide a link?

Furthermore, I am doing everything I can to find a job and look at all the sites like UJM, Reed, Indeed, CV Library etc. I can only do so much because I don't drive etc., I can look at the papers, review my CV etc., ask friends/family for help. This just isn't going to take 35 hours in total. I mean, you could spend hours looking at these sites and only find a couple of jobs or maybe even no jobs at all. Its totally dependant on what is available.

As far as I can gleam, as long as you are doing what is necessary to find work, surely that is reasonable?

1. I look at sites and apply for anything within my remit. I do anything else I can to find a job or enhance my CV/Speak to friends etc. about finding work. I look at the papers (though jobs are harder to find here) Also, as I don't drive, how can it be expected for me to go around to employers and give in my CV or have a brief talk etc.?

2. I follow my adviser's documentation to do tasks that have been asked of me.

I appreciate that if I do not adhere to their requests, my benefit could be sanctioned but I just don't find how doing 35 hours a week can be feasible - there's only a certain amount of jobs out there, regardless and I have applied for many already, ever since I was on JSA.

Should I just relinquish the claim? My parents understand I can't pay rent and the job centre are aware of this and I have an agreement in place with my parents where rent is concerned. The only real other thing to concern myself with is food but again, that could be put into the original agreement with my parents when I get a job and pay them back in instalments - whilst it might take a good while, anything is better than being subjected to, what sounds like to me, a system's requirements which cannot be realised.

I have done a lot to try and find work and as others will testify, sometimes, despite the very best efforts, it just doesn't work sometimes and some people can be out of work for a long, long time before they even find something.

What do you think? I am trying to find an answer and I know I am putting in the effort to find work but for 35 hours for me, for someone who doesn't drive etc., that will prove to be a difficult exercise, I am afraid. I can do the searches, go to town and look in the agency windows etc., ask friends for help, update my CV etc., do all the things that would be, in my opinion, reasonable, but its not going to take 35 hours.

Thanks.

sangie595

If you did as your advisor suggested and found some voluntary work to improve your position, that would help you to account for the 35 hours.

Could you explain what you mean by applying for jobs within your "remit"? At this stage, you should be applying for any job you can do. Does that not mean more than a few jobs a week?

And are you tailoring your CV / application to each job, because that is a time-consuming task, and if you just send in a general CV you are lessening your chances of working.

I think you need to be realistic - at 18 months of unemployment, you are becoming unemployable. So you real need to up your game with something. For example, have you tried registering with agencies instead of looking in their windows?

But I really do think you must reconsider that option for volunteering - at this point you have little to recommend you to any employer, and unless you are happy to never work again, then you need to up your game. It doesn't sound like that is what you want, but if you always do the same things and they haven't worked by now, continuing to do the same things doesn't sound like it is going to get any better results.

GothicStirling

When I first read this I thought you were an experienced professional of 40-50. Then I realised you are still living with your parents. Get up off your !!!!, go to your closest towns/cities and drop CVs off to anyone who looks like they might give you a chance. Then go home, and think of anyone else you might like to work for, and send of speculative applications, hell, polish your pitch and turn up at the bosses office and ask for a job (ready to tell him why his business needs you).

Right now, you should be applying for anything, not whinging about job-hunting for 35 hours a week.

fatbelly

johnsmithy wrote: »

Hi

I was wondering if it is actually stated legally that people who claim Universal Credit are legally obliged to look for work for 35 hours per week? If so, could someone provide a link?
Thanks.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-your-claimant-commitment-quick-guide/universal-credit-and-your-claimant-commitment

end of section 3

pupgrum

It's almost impossible to verify if you really searched for jobs for 35 hrs per week. Just say you spent over an hour on each job application, and pretend to went to employers and handed in your CV. It's not possible for most store to remember who handed in a CV, and most refuse to accept them and just advise you to apply online.

johnsmithy

sangie595 wrote: »

If you did as your advisor suggested and found some voluntary work to improve your position, that would help you to account for the 35 hours.

Could you explain what you mean by applying for jobs within your "remit"? At this stage, you should be applying for any job you can do. Does that not mean more than a few jobs a week?

And are you tailoring your CV / application to each job, because that is a time-consuming task, and if you just send in a general CV you are lessening your chances of working.

I think you need to be realistic - at 18 months of unemployment, you are becoming unemployable. So you real need to up your game with something. For example, have you tried registering with agencies instead of looking in their windows?

But I really do think you must reconsider that option for volunteering - at this point you have little to recommend you to any employer, and unless you are happy to never work again, then you need to up your game. It doesn't sound like that is what you want, but if you always do the same things and they haven't worked by now, continuing to do the same things doesn't sound like it is going to get any better results.

Thanks for this sound advice - I think sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and do something, even if you don't really want to, in order to become employable again but I am doing more than a few jobs a week, certainly also when I was on JSA.

johnsmithy

GothicStirling wrote: »

When I first read this I thought you were an experienced professional of 40-50. Then I realised you are still living with your parents. Get up off your !!!!, go to your closest towns/cities and drop CVs off to anyone who looks like they might give you a chance. Then go home, and think of anyone else you might like to work for, and send of speculative applications, hell, polish your pitch and turn up at the bosses office and ask for a job (ready to tell him why his business needs you).

Right now, you should be applying for anything, not whinging about job-hunting for 35 hours a week.

Thing is, getting to my town is fine, but cities would be tougher as I don't drive. I can use public transport and normally I do my applications through job sites. Trust me when I say I've done a lot of applications already and am working harder now to try and find work.

johnsmithy

fatbelly wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-your-claimant-commitment-quick-guide/universal-credit-and-your-claimant-commitment

end of section 3

It still doesn't say if its a legal requirement. It says its 'expected.' Even so, its going to be hard to make up to 35 hours a week for that.

Looking at an example jobseeker's guide for 5 days a week, adding all that up, that's not going to be anywhere near 35 hours, so its a poor guide to work from, for a start.

As far as I am concerned, when I look at a JSA guide, I look at someone's typical day to day routine and unfortunately, the thing is, jobs won't change every day, you may get some new ones come in etc. Also, papers don't have seemingly anywhere near as many jobs and talking to your friends and tailoring your CV, well, I've had my CV reviewed already.

Its ludicrous to think this will take 35 hours and I don't have the time or money in order to travel etc. unless I get support from my parents and they have their own jobs. This is why I am a bit stuck.

Tigsteroonie

johnsmithy wrote: »

Thing is, getting to my town is fine, but cities would be tougher as I don't drive. I can use public transport

Get a train or bus from your town to the nearest city?

That said, some people can rattle off an application letter and tailor their CV in 30 minutes, and some take a couple of hours - it just depends what kind of skills you have. So if you say that each good application takes two hours to complete, who is going to argue?

johnsmithy

pupgrum wrote: »

It's almost impossible to verify if you really searched for jobs for 35 hrs per week. Just say you spent over an hour on each job application, and pretend to went to employers and handed in your CV. It's not possible for most store to remember who handed in a CV, and most refuse to accept them and just advise you to apply online.

If I went to town and handed in my CV to like, admin places, which is what I want to do, that, I have estimated, won't take 7 hours, even if I made a list of all the employers I would like to work for, who were local.

Therefore, when you put everything else together, its not going to take 35 hours to do everything because you're only going to hand in your CV's once and then again maybe monthly as not to pester companies, which they don't like.

Also, my job searching online doesn't take too long and I always apply for jobs which meet my specifications.

I am reviewing the life of a daily jobseeker and I am working with this as a guideline and making notes and doing things I hadn't previously considered.

All I know is my activities won't take me 35 hours to do and if it becomes a problem (I estimate I will complete at the very least of 40 applications before my next meeting), then I do have my parents and something will need to be sorted that way because it all just sounds so ludicrous and ridiculous but in order to make myself employable again, I may have to consider voluntary which I am not totally opposed to, it just wouldn't be my first choice.

theoretica

If you are currently living with your parents, could you move anywhere in the country for a good job? That should broaden the search enough to take more than 35 hours.