Advice about UC

gilligansyle

My son has recently finished University and signed on for JSA. We are in a UC area, so he has the 35 hour commitment to searching for jobs.
That was fine, but he now has a job offer, and will be starting in 3 weeks.
In that time he has to find himself somewhere to live (as the job is in a different town) and get himself moved, connected to services etc.

JobCentre are still insisting he fills in 35 hours of job search activity a week.

What's the point? Why carry on searching for jobs when you have accepted an offer?
So they're basically encouraging him to lie!

IAmWales

Job offers fall through.

No one is encouraging him to lie, but rather not to put all his eggs in one basket.

He is free to sign off now if he no longer wishes to seek work.

gettingtheresometime

May even find a better job?

gilligansyle

Up until now, he's averaged 2 or 3 interviews a week, none of them locally, so the searching, speaking to agents attending interviews has pretty much filled his 35 hour requirement. Not to mention the cost of attending those interviews.

It's more that he hasn't got time to look for work, as he has to assume he's starting this one and start to plan for that.

The agreement says - you will accept any job offer at or above minimum wage and at or above 16 hours per week.

So he's fulfilled his agreement, he's accepted a job offer that more than meets the criteria; but while he may still casually look at the job market, he's not going to actively spend half his week spending £40 - £50 going to job interviews he has no intention of taking.

System doesn't make sense to me!

Easy seeing I haven't been out of work for a while!

gilligansyle

Maybe, but he can't really spare the time or the money to attend interviews if he needs to be moving to another city in 3 weeks time.

lincroft1710

Job Seekers Allowance is paid to people actively seeking jobs. Your son has a choice, he can continue to fulfill the criteria and receive JSA or just sign off.

Masomnia

The job centre adviser needs to tick a box to show that they have checked that your son is doing his 35 hours a week, and your son has to tick a box to state that he is doing it.

Just how it goes.

Your son has been genuine about finding work and he's done it. So really it doesn't matter. He should log enough time that all sides are happy and then move on.

TyreLever

For the next few weeks, just fob the jobcenter off. Send off "dumbed down" CVs to random local employers on UJM. Tell the jobcenter you have put CVs through to various factories, shops etc, even if you haven't. They cannot disprove these things. Just make stuff up basically, ensuring that what you do make up isn't easy to prove as a lie.

CVs handed in directly to businesses often go missing, so if a jobcenter does call up one of these businesses, and they say they haven't received any applications from you, then you just explain that the CV probably went missing. For this reason tho, use a poorly worded CV or application on UJM. That way the jobcenter can see you have applied for jobs. Just don't make the wording so poor as to let on to the fact you're just wasting time.