Universal Credit work coach asking for job search website passwords

ash28mg

Hi there,

Posting on behalf of my parents who have been on Universal Credit since over a year now. Both my parent's claim and the have separate work coaches. My dad had been told to login the hours he spent job searching on each job application, which I have been doing regularly. Now my mum's work coach has asked her to provide passwords of all the job search websites which are use to apply jobs i.e indeed, totaljobs etc, I know they have access to findajob.gov which is part of universal credit.

I personally feel quite annoyed with this and think it is an invasion of privacy. I already login the job searches alongside the ageny/employer name which is required. If they're so keen to investigate why don't they just contact the agenices or employers named directly to ask about the application? Asking for a print out is understandable, and I would happily provide that, but I am not at all happy to provide personal details such as passwords to anyone - regardless of who they are!

Also, not every work coach asks the claimant to do such things. They are quite old, and nearing the age of retirement, they both stay quite unwell yet being harassed. My parents have worked all their lives and now they cannot live in peace all thanks to Universal Credit!

I'd be grateful if you could give some tips/advice or share your personal experiences. Thank you

tomtom256

They shouldn't be asking for any passwords as it's a security breach.

Aslong as they are providing evidence of job seeking that would suffice, if the work coach isn't happy then they should ask for further evidence or refer it to a DM.

Forgot to add that if they try and add this to any commitents raise a complaint.

[Deleted User]

Don't be providing passwords, that is not what they should be asking for.

You should be able to provide sufficient evidence of job search related activity.

If you have issues, maybe ask to speak to a manager at your local job centre?

[Deleted User]

ash28mg wrote: »

Hi there,

Posting on behalf of my parents who have been on Universal Credit since over a year now. Both my parent's claim and the have separate work coaches. My dad had been told to login the hours he spent job searching on each job application, which I have been doing regularly. Now my mum's work coach has asked her to provide passwords of all the job search websites which are use to apply jobs i.e indeed, totaljobs etc, I know they have access to findajob.gov which is part of universal credit.

I personally feel quite annoyed with this and think it is an invasion of privacy. I already login the job searches alongside the ageny/employer name which is required. If they're so keen to investigate why don't they just contact the agenices or employers named directly to ask about the application? Asking for a print out is understandable, and I would happily provide that, but I am not at all happy to provide personal details such as passwords to anyone - regardless of who they are!

Also, not every work coach asks the claimant to do such things. They are quite old, and nearing the age of retirement, they both stay quite unwell yet being harassed. My parents have worked all their lives and now they cannot live in peace all thanks to Universal Credit!

I'd be grateful if you could give some tips/advice or share your personal experiences. Thank you

So you are pretending to be your parents and logging job searches and applications for them :eek:

calcotti

_shel wrote: »

So you are pretending to be your parents and logging job searches and applications for them :eek:

I would read it that OP is assisting parents with the digital aspects of managing their UC claim. It doesn't matter who enters the information as long as it is correct and the claimants accept responsibility for it.

[Deleted User]

Sometimes you have to jump through the hoops to get the benefits, not sure what the issue is with giving access to provide the evidence, I would be more concerned if they were getting access without asking, but maybe thats just me.

tacpot12

While one should never use the same password for multiple websites, it is a fact of life that many people do; particularly older people.

I would not suggest that your parents reveal their passwords to their work coach, as the work coach could use the password to access your parent's bank accounts if the passwords are the same. Complain to the Manager at the Jobcentre, and point out that it is not safe for their staff to have access to password that might give access to anything.

ArcticRoll

Nobody should be giving their work coach their passwords for anything.

I'd suggest, however, that it is reasonable for the work coach to ask someone to bring along their log-in details for the various accounts so they can show them evidence of jobs they've applied for.

Might be worth clarifying whether the request was:

- Bring your log-in details to your Indeed.com account so you can log-in on your phone or on one of the computers at the jobcentre I can look at your job applications

or

- Let me have your password for your Indeed.com account so I can look at what you've been applying for.


The former seems reasonable, the latter doesn't.

xylophone

They are quite old, and nearing the age of retirement, they both stay quite unwell yet being harassed. My parents have worked all their lives and now they cannot live in peace all thanks to Universal Credit!

What do you mean by "being harassed"? While a request for the passwords appears to be outside of what may legitimately be required, they are no more harassed than any other job seeker?

And I do not see what having worked all their lives has to do with the matter - most people have to do exactly that until they are in a financial position to retire.

prowla

It is shocking that they should be being asked for passwords; whoever is doing that is overstepping the mark, IMHO.


However, they may be validly asked for proof of their job searching activity; I would've thought that printing a page of search results to a PDF file, which can be emailed, would suffice.

wkdboi

giving passwords would be against GDPR