Universal Credit Job Search Help and Advice

Basically guys, I went to my commitment appointment today for UC, and My work coach seems such a lovely lady and was very informative. Basically she told me I had would have to do 35 hours of job searching a week-which of course I Already knew about. However she also told me that if say one day I have only managed to apply for 1-2 jobs and can't find anything else suitable to apply for, then I could write a note in my journal stating i had done so many hours of job searching; because it goes towards the 35 hours, which I didn't know about. My question is; say if I only applied for 3 jobs one day (which lets say took 3 hours), and then spent 2 hours further job searching without any luck. Would i note this down as having did 5 hours worth of job searching or would I class it as 3 hours? because the applications would have taken 2 hours (just an example).

thank you for any help I receive regarding this matter.
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Comments

  • Essentially you are just providing a record of what you are doing to look for work and an estimate of the time you have spent. For your specific question you could absolutely record 5 hours, as that would be the time you have spent. You could provide information such as what websites you used and what searches you ran, jobs you found and then which ones you have applied for.

    You can also record anything else you do, it does not just have to be internet job search. If you research how to improve and update your CV, write a cover letter for a position, fill in a paper based application form, pop into your local shop with a CV, ask your mum if she's aware of any jobs, prepare for /travel /attend an interview...etc etc

    I'm sure the coach will discuss things with you if they don't feel you are doing enough. I wouldn't stress too much, as long as you are looking for work and can provide evidence and discuss this with your coach you should be fine.
  • Just to ask, when it comes to providing evidence to show my job search and applications. Would that just be classed as me noting them down in my journal or at my work search review appointment would I actually have to show emails from the company’s ive applied to etc?!
  • calcotti
    calcotti Posts: 15,696
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    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720614/admj3.pdf

    paragraph J3102 Evidence of work search includes
    1. evidence from employers, employment agencies or other bodies that the claimant has contacted
    2. the claimant’s activity on Universal Jobmatch
    3. copies of letters or applications that the claimant has sent to employers on-
    line, by post or in person
    4. the claimant's uncorroborated written evidence (claimants should keep a record of their job search and other efforts to find work)
    5. the claimant's own verbal evidence, recorded by an officer of the Jobcentre Plus office.
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • annandale
    annandale Posts: 1,469 Forumite
    I have been on UC 18 months. I have never been asked to show evidence, copies of letters. There is no such thing as universal jobmatch anymore. Monster lost the contract and the work coach now cannot see your jobsearch online. They used to be able to. If you apply for a job on indeed you will get an email acknowledgement. I cant remember the last time I applied for a job online. My work coaches have been happy as long as I have recorded in my journal daily and listed the websites I have been searching on.

    They also said that they do not expect someone to show a complete breakdown of a 35 hour a week search as that is unrealistic, just that you are making a decent effort (but some people are more pedantic and will expect that).
  • Thank you very much for your reply. Wel I’ve basically been listing all the websites I’ve been using underneath the notes when I’ve been adding a job on the job applications section. But also in my journal every day I have just been stating how many hours I spent job searching and made sure I put a date on there.

    For example: 2/09/2018-I have spent 4 hours job searching and applying for jobs today using various websites e.g. indeed.com, totaljobs, find a job.gov.uk

    Basically I’ve been putting that sort of thing in my journal everyday. But I don’t know if that’s correct or not lol. Like to word and display it that way.
  • donnajunkie
    donnajunkie Posts: 32,412
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    Basically guys, I went to my commitment appointment today for UC, and My work coach seems such a lovely lady and was very informative. Basically she told me I had would have to do 35 hours of job searching a week-which of course I Already knew about. However she also told me that if say one day I have only managed to apply for 1-2 jobs and can't find anything else suitable to apply for, then I could write a note in my journal stating i had done so many hours of job searching; because it goes towards the 35 hours, which I didn't know about. My question is; say if I only applied for 3 jobs one day (which lets say took 3 hours), and then spent 2 hours further job searching without any luck. Would i note this down as having did 5 hours worth of job searching or would I class it as 3 hours? because the applications would have taken 2 hours (just an example).

    thank you for any help I receive regarding this matter.
    I am sure it has been said but i will say anyway. The requirement is 35 hours of any job seeking related activity. So it can include attending courses, attending the jobcentre, researching a job, updating your cv, preparing for an interview etc. Upto half can be voluntary work. Travel time is included also i believe.
    Silly requirements like this minimum 35 hours thing just encourages dishonesty and distracts peoples focus from quality jobseeking. Instead it becomes a tick box exercise. For example if you are 30 minutes short and nothing left to do comes to mind what are you going to do? Well you can tell the truth and get sanctioned or just say you took 30 minutes longer on one of your applications.
  • donnajunkie
    donnajunkie Posts: 32,412
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    annandale wrote: »
    I have been on UC 18 months. I have never been asked to show evidence, copies of letters. There is no such thing as universal jobmatch anymore. Monster lost the contract and the work coach now cannot see your jobsearch online. They used to be able to. If you apply for a job on indeed you will get an email acknowledgement. I cant remember the last time I applied for a job online. My work coaches have been happy as long as I have recorded in my journal daily and listed the websites I have been searching on.

    They also said that they do not expect someone to show a complete breakdown of a 35 hour a week search as that is unrealistic, just that you are making a decent effort (but some people are more pedantic and will expect that).
    Personally i would choose to show a break down and say i spent 2 hrs on this, 1hr on that. This is because if you just state what you did with no timings it leaves it open to negative interpretation by an unscrupulous advisor. Of course i am speaking as someone who has not experienced uc yet.
  • donnajunkie
    donnajunkie Posts: 32,412
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    I have a question about uc.
    With the online journal do you have to be seen to put something in it everyday or can you do it weekly or even monthly so long as it is upto date by the day your payment is issued.
    I am just thinking you could be ill one day and make up the hours on another day. Or your internet could go down.
  • Donnajunkie basically I just post on my journal everyday. And I think they wouldn’t mind that at all, for example if you did one journal entry that had 2 days worth of work search on it.

    And as for breaking the hours down, I started off doing that but then it becomes too annoying. So I tend to just say how many hours I spent searching and applying for jobs and then if I was updating a cover letter or something like that I would say underneath how long I took to do that.

    I have another question; obviously I have to do 35 hours a week which is 7 days. Anyways on Thursday which would be the last day of my job search hours for that week. I have an appointment, so would the advisor expect me to have my 35 hours complete by the morning appointment? Or by the end of That day?
  • annandale
    annandale Posts: 1,469 Forumite
    Personally i would choose to show a break down and say i spent 2 hrs on this, 1hr on that. This is because if you just state what you did with no timings it leaves it open to negative interpretation by an unscrupulous advisor. Of course i am speaking as someone who has not experienced uc yet.

    I have been told I do not have to do this and I have been on UC since last January. I record searches for jobs and jobs applied for. If a work coach wanted me to do it another way, I would do it another way.

    My work coach said its fine as long as I show that I am applying for a decent number of jobs and that he does not expect every minute of the 35 hour a week search to be accounted for. That that is unrealistic.
    With the online journal do you have to be seen to put something in it everyday or can you do it weekly or even monthly so long as it is upto date by the day your payment is issued.

    My work coach expects 5/7, they would be concerned about a large gap, say 4-5 days or so. They aren't interested if your internet goes down, they would expect you use a friends PC or go to the library or use the job centre computers if you are near enough to use them.
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