Having my benefits taken off me and my partner for reasons I can't understand?

[henryJSB]

Hi, myself and my partner have both been claiming income based JSA for a short while now.

We've always had the same person in our 'signing on sessions' and have never had any issues until today when we went to sign on.

 

We had a different person from before, and when examining our job search asked my partner if she had been using Universal Job Match.

She told them she hadn't as she had better luck finding more appropriate jobs elsewhere. Her job search sheet reflected this,

 

she has always applied for at least 3 jobs every week and had managed about 3 or 4 interviews with different employers over a 5 month period.

She told her that she would unfortunately have to refer our case and possibly have our benefits docked, just because she hadn't used Universal Job Match?

Is this right?

 

I can't for the life of me understand how this is fair.

We both apply for a combination of about 12 jobs in total every two weeks, and always check job sites daily

(such as Indeed, Reed etc. ones with better functionality than Job Match)

we put our reference numbers down and everything can be very easily traced and backed up if calls were made etc.

 

So why just because my partner hasn't used the Universal Job Match site would we have our money taken off us?

 

As long as we are applying for jobs and writing down the steps we are taking in detail to find work,

surely there shouldn't be an issue?

 

Or am I totally off the mark here?

 

Any help or advice is very much appreciated.

 

Henry.

[fightingback99]

What steps does your Job Seekers Agreement say you've agreed to do each week? Does it mention looking or using Universal Job Match? I think if it's mentioned in your JSA then you have to comply and show you've looked at it. Despite the fact everyone says UJM's not much use.for finding real jobs.

 

Better and more expert advice will follow when other posters are online. Good luck.

[Mr.P]

Agree with fightingback99 - Check the JSAg for mention of UJM. If it does and you have also been going above and beyond the minimum requirements of your JSAg (i.e. it says apply for 10 jobs and you apply for 15), a Decision Maker may well reject the referral for a sanction.

 

If you or your partner have been mandated to set up a UJM account, then I'm afraid you should do this or risk a sanction. However, you are under no obligation to tick the "allow DWP access" boxes, nor is there any legal basis for an adviser to mandate the ticking of the boxes - I'd advise against ticking the boxes for a number of reasons.

An adviser can notify you of a totally inappropriate vacancy and you would then have to apply for it.

Your search and application history can be monitored and sanctions would be easier to apply based on UJM data. If there is a failure in the technology (internet goes down, or the UJM servers crash), there would be gaps in the UJM activity logs.

[henryJSB]

We have definitely been going above and beyond. I use UJM myself, but my partner never has done as she's put off by the functionality of it. It had never previously been a problem. We both have UJM accounts, she just has never used hers. With our advisor before it was never seen as an issue as we were coming every fornight with a lot of jobs applied for plus a lot of steps taken to find work, way above the minimum amount.

[Gay_guy1986]

Dear op,

 

As others have stated, check your JSA agreement, however I would advice you not to let your Jobcentre access to your Universal Jobmatch account as Jobmatch was created for easy sanctions. (that's Iain Duncan Smith for you)

 

If you gave them permission then you can easly untick them 2 boxers, I would advice you to do this! I haven't give my advisor permission and I am not going to do as I hear horrible stories about people have been sanctioned quite easy due to climants giving they advisors permission.