Experience of signing on during coronavirus

Joanna673

Like many I lost my role due to coronavirus.  I haven't signed on yet and was wondering anyone's experience so far.  Are they expecting you to look 35 hours a week and apply for like 10 jobs?   I am looking for new work but there is literally nothing out there to apply for and I've been told in my industry the situation won't really change until maybe the new year. Are the people that work at the job centre really rude or do they understand the situation?  Does spending time working on CV, updating skills count in their eyes or is it just a numbers game?

74jax

Joanna673 said:

Like many I lost my role due to coronavirus.  I haven't signed on yet and was wondering anyone's experience so far.  Are they expecting you to look 35 hours a week and apply for like 10 jobs?   I am looking for new work but there is literally nothing out there to apply for and I've been told in my industry the situation won't really change until maybe the new year. Are the people that work at the job centre really rude or do they understand the situation?  Does spending time working on CV, updating skills count in their eyes or is it just a numbers game?

Whereabouts are you based?
Can you look outside your industry?  

[Deleted User]

If you are referring to UC and the requirement of spending 35 hours per week job searching, it isn’t intended to only include applying for jobs, it’s all work related activity. That could include job applications, adapting your CV, company research, time spent searching, training, education, courses, attending interviews, etc. 

You will though be expected to look in areas that you might not have worked in before. 

Ella_fella

The DSS want you as quickly as possible off their payroll, simple as. So they are not concerned in the slightest whether you can't find work within your chosen sector they would expect to see evidence of you applying for any job that you could reasonably undertake regardless of pay or skills. I can't comment on their manners but I can guarantee that they want to be paying you benefits for as short as time as possible.

[Deleted User]

Ella_fella said:

The DSS want you as quickly as possible off their payroll, simple as. So they are not concerned in the slightest whether you can't find work within your chosen sector they would expect to see evidence of you applying for any job that you could reasonably undertake regardless of pay or skills. I can't comment on their manners but I can guarantee that they want to be paying you benefits for as short as time as possible.

The DSS hasn't existed for nearly 20 years.

Ella_fella

camelot1971 said:

Ella_fella said:

The DSS want you as quickly as possible off their payroll, simple as. So they are not concerned in the slightest whether you can't find work within your chosen sector they would expect to see evidence of you applying for any job that you could reasonably undertake regardless of pay or skills. I can't comment on their manners but I can guarantee that they want to be paying you benefits for as short as time as possible.

The DSS hasn't existed for nearly 20 years.

What do you they call it now then. Has always the DSS for me regardless of whatever rebranding they choose to apply to it.

TadleyBaggie

My son was made redundant at the. end of March. He put in a claim for JSA which started being paid a couple of weeks later. To date he has not been asked to make any effort to find another job or show what he is doing in this regard.

Neil_Jones

TadleyBaggie said:

My son was made redundant at the. end of March. He put in a claim for JSA which started being paid a couple of weeks later. To date he has not been asked to make any effort to find another job or show what he is doing in this regard.

Yeah it tells you this on the website:

https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/your-jsa-claim - "You do not need to attend an interview to claim JSA or go to appointments with your work coach at the moment because of coronavirus"

This will change at some point though, though it's probably going to be granted that you don't have to show six months worth of jobseeking at the next interview, whenever that may be, more likely it'll start from the jobseeker's agreement that gets signed.