Vital Information Your JobCentre Doesn’t Want You To Know
Spotted on Justice4JobSeekers Facebook page. Please share widely.
If you have been sanctioned for not applying for enough jobs heres what you do, . as long as you have have applied for at least 3 jobs per week you will be okay, heres why as written in law… In section 7 (1), which provides; “A person is actively seeking work if he takes in that week such steps as he could reasonably be expected to have to take in order to have the best prospects of securing employment.”
More detail is set out in regulation 18 of the regulations. Regulation 18 (1) provides that;
A person shall be expected to have to take more than two steps in any given week unless taking one or two steps is all that is reasonable for that person to do in that week.
So what does this mean? it means the law says that the minimum steps to take in any given week when applying for jobs is two steps, so if you apply for at least three jobs per week that exceeds the minimum required by law. so if your advisor tells you that you must apply for 15 or 25 jobs per week or even more!!! you can refuse as if you apply for 3 jobs a week the law is your on your side.
Now appeal the sanction by asking for a mandatory reconsideration, mention the above infomation,
Regarding your Jobseekers agreement.
“Further, there is nothing in the act or the Regulations requiring that a claiment must comply with everything in the agreement. The reverse is the case. THE AGREEMENT MUST COMPLY WITH THE LAW. To be valid, a jobseekers agreement must comply with the test of actively seeking work in sections 1(2)(c) and 7 of the act and regulation 18 of the regulations and not the other way round.
Same Difference 
does this apply to the laws with universal credit? and if so how long are these laws to remain valid? My guess is it won’t be long before they change this too and not leave us with any leg to stand on.
LikeLike
This is obviously not the case in reality.
The Guardian ran an article today about how not having an internet connection and landline phone affects you when you need to be applying for – according to the claimant they interviewed – 24 jobs per week. If he applied for 1 less he was sanctioned.
More people need to challenge these ‘agreements’.
LikeLike
Challenging what they say at my Jobcentre can result in being threatened with removal for not cooperating.
LikeLike
Simple answer to that …. if they threaten you with removal for not cooperating, threaten to report them to their manager for failing to execute their proper duties (ie not doing their job) in accordance with the terms of their employment contract! Look at it this way – they are employed to do such things as assess your claim for JSA, monitor the steps you are taking to maintain your eligibility for receiving JSA (eg how many jobs you are applying for in any given week) etc. These are their standard duties. If you are removed for not cooperating, then they cannot do any of these things (since they cannot question you about these matters if you are no longer there) – ie they cannot execute the duties they are employed by DWP/JCP to execute…which puts them in breach of their employment contract, a situation which should, all other things being equal, result in their behaviour being recorded at the very least as a disciplinary offence…which could, of course, lead to them being dismissed from their employment for failing to perform their duties to the required standard. So, in a nutshell, if they want to keep their job and not be sacked for failing to perform their duties to the required standard, they need to stop removing you from their office. See how that goes down…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Never mind that if they do not comply with he law, then they are breaking the law, which is an arrestable offense and they can be charged with it.
LikeLike
Get them arrested?! Even better…
LikeLike
I would love to arrest one of them, just don’t have the nerve to actually do it.
Complaining to Police is a waste of time, they don’t want to know.
LikeLike
In 2009 I applied for 6 jobs to be told they had been filled when I enquired as to when the job was filled as it wasn’t on the site yesterday over half of them (5) said they filled it internally and only advertised it to comply with the law. The one that didn’t just said the jobs gone and put the phone down.
LikeLike
I used this in an appeal 2 years ago, it was still refused.
LikeLike
Absolutely invaluable heads-up.Thanks for spotting that one.I’ve shred and reposted as much as I can.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got them to put in my Job Seekers Agreement that I am mentally ill (Depression, Stress, Anxiety) and they were fine with that. Then I asked them to put into it that I can’t job search on a Sunday because I’m a practising Catholic. She looked at me gone out thinking I was trying to pull a fast one. Then she asked me if I would work on a Sunday. I said I’d try not to, but sometimes, needs must. Then she asked me why I couldn’t look for work on a Sunday. Very distasteful in my opinion.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
LikeLike
If all the money wasted on this bureaucratic nightmare was turned into the government employing people instead of all the massive austerity job cuts, then people would be receiving a wage from the taxpayer, who in turn would be buying stuff and tax on buying stuff would in turn be going back to the taxpayer, because the worker would be paying the bulk of taxes that come from buying stuff.
Shut all the 750 Jobcentres, sack all the DWP sanction decision makers, and save huge forests of paperwork, electric bills and maintenance costs, selling the buildings for luxury flats, instead of the social housing estates.
For those who cannot work for one reason or another, universal unconditional benefit would save hundreds of billions on welfare admin both state and private, and pour money into the economy.
A fanciful idea.
The Greens had the Citizen Income, universal and automatic, instead of the benefits regime.
And the Citizen State Pension, same for everybody, irregardless of SERPs opt out or National Insurance history, so not leaving huge numbers of women especially with NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE
see why at end of my petition, in my WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT section, at:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
But The Greens kicked into the long grass the TUC suggested minimum wage of £10 per hour and the Citizen Income and the Citizen State Pension, proving they care not in the least for the hungry of all ages.
OTHER PARTIES NOT TOLD YOU BY THE MEDIA
The poor are the bulk of all voters today.
No big party won in 2010. Most people did not vote where MPs won.
Labour has already lost.
250 odd only Labour MPs left in 2010. Tories got 300.
326 MPs minimum requried to rule a UK parliament.
190 odd only Labour MPs will be left in 2015 from the SNP surge.
SNP will win in Scotland as SNP paying the council tax support lost to poor elswhere in UK and the Bedroom Tax, so saving their own Scottish people.
Plaid Cymru should win in all of Wales as want to train 1000 more doctors in Wales as this is the biggest reason hospitals reduce or close. Insufficient staff.
400 MPs for sole way to form a majority UK government by voting for different parties on Thursday 7 May.
100 odd MPs from a group of parties the media will not tell you about.
See who they are on:
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
LikeLike