UPDATE 27/2/13: Registering an account with Universal Jobmatch will become mandatory from the beginning of March 2013. There should still be no requirement to tick the box giving DWP access to your account. For the latest details and what this means for claimants keep an eye on: http://consent.me.uk/universaljobmatch/
In a major blow for Iain Duncan Smith’s snooping plans, around half of unemployed claimants have refused to allow Jobcentre staff to monitor their online job seeking accounts.
A recent Freedom of Information has revealed that there are currently 1,267,245 job seeking accounts* registered with the Government website Universal Jobmatch. Of these just 765,054, around 40%, have not ticked the box allowing DWP access to their account.
For three months now Jobcentres have been using every trick in the book to sign claimants up to the new website which is intended to monitor jobseeking activity. Many claimants are believed to have been wrongly threatened with benefit sanctions should they refuse to sign up to the website which has been plagued by attempts at identity fraud, spam, scams, spoof jobs and even sex work.
Despite relentless pressure from Jobcentre advisors, of the 1.56 million people currently claiming Jobseekers Allowance in the UK, only around half have granted the DWP access to monitor their accounts.
Whilst Iain Duncan Smith has muttered that eventually signing up to the site might be mandatory for some claimants, it is not the current DWP policy. Signing up to the website is not mandatory. Claimants cannot be issued with a Jobseeker’s Direction forcing them to use the site and cannot be forced to tick the box granting DWP access to the account.
For information from the PCS Union on the current position visit: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/department_for_work_and_pensions_group/dwp-news.cfm/id/78E359C6-7B09-4FC6-98EBD4696432C199
For those who have been tricked or bullied into signing up to the site against their will a recent FOI explains how consent can be revoked:
“You do not need to explain the reasons why you have chosen not to continue with your UJ account, but your adviser will need to know that you are no longer using this service. This is so that they can review and agree a new Jobseeker’s Agreement with you, to reflect what other steps you will be taking instead of using Universal Jobmatch to help improve your chances of finding work.
(d) How do I go about revoking my consent on a existing UJ account?
Firstly, if you wish to continue using UJ but no longer want to let DWP have access to your account then you need to un-check the box in your profile which states ‘I authorise DWP to view my accounts, including job search activity, feedback and notes’.
If you wish to completely close down your UJ account you will need to use the Contact Us facility within the service and ask for your account to be terminated.
DWP Central FoI Team”
For all the latest Universal Jobmatch details (and much more including your rights on the Work Programme) visit: http://consent.me.uk/
* Of the 1,267,245 Universal Jobmatch accounts it is unclear how many of these are Jobseekers Allowance claimants. Registration to the site is open to anyone so it is likely many of those accounts do not belong to current claimants.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
I know, I’m one of them 😉
Me too 🙂
And me 🙂
I don’t even understand how they intended for it to be ‘snooped’ as 75% of jobs on there have an external link – very few need to be applied to through the actual site.
That’s correct, and those that take you to an external link are not recorded as being applied for in your application history- useless.
You’re supposed to log offsite activity in the notes section of your account.
I am already aware of this, yet you’d think the site would have been designed so that when you hit that apply button, regardless where it goes, it should make a record of it automatically. I used to deign web sites and that’s the way I would have made it work. I guess a £16+ million website doesn’t have the capacity for this kind of simplicity.
I don’t even bother with the notes section, as I have my own record keeping process.
As I understand it, if you are a registered user all pages visited are logged to your account and can be accessed by your adviser if you have ticked the relevant box during registration. As others have stated registration is not mandatory nor is ticking the box allowing your adviser to monitor your account should you decide to register.
It assumes everyone has a PC, an internet connection and IT skills…which isnt true! even local libraries do not allow more than an hour access and many are closing down and cutting their hours.
what a shame that the 40% who signed up was not aware of your,s & consentme,s coverage of this fucking UJM, fucking hell ids would off had to buy a wig so he could pull his hair out with rage
Some of those who signed up are bullied. I personally heard an advisor say, It will become mandatory so you might as well sign up now to get used to it.
I’ve heard the same thing myself. “It will be mandatory soon so what’s the point in refusing to sign up now?” Yea. Well death is mandatory too so why doesn’t that prick Iain Duncan Smith and his minion David Freud sign up for that rather than wait another twenty or thirty years? What a waste of skin these people are.
to delete Universal Jobmatch.
To delete your account please go to your profile, from here there is a link for “Government Gateway.” On the right hand side you have the option to delete your account. You will have to follow the steps.
I hope this has answered your query if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards,
Universal Jobmatch helpdesk
Hello there,
I dont want to give permisshion for job centre to serch my uj match, they said if i didnt i would have to report to the job centre every day? can they do this? i can prove a writtern record of my job applications. am i being bullied to comply with ther request for axcess. please advise.
kind regards
tracy
IDS is a crack addict💉…..the sound of that whip excites him no end.
Crack crack crack as he whips himself whilst driving his victims to their deaths.
He’s the cretinous type who would’ve shovelled people alive into the ovens in the nazi death camps.
He’s that kind of guy.
He really is.
I hope he dies screaming.😍
The Working Time Directive etc.,.
The Data Protection Act etc.,.
These are the kind of things Cameron the cunt & his cronies want us out of Europe for.
They don’t give a fuck about immigrants; the more slave labour they can import to drive down wages to serf level, all the better for those cunts.
It’s total social control the bastards are after.
Nazi cocksuckers.
I could not agree with you more. The EU is not just an expensive club which tells us to do this and that – as it’s made out to be. It’s rules protect us from the worst extremes of the likes of Cameron and Smith and their pathological hatred of anyone not born with a silver spoon in their arse and whose life hasn’t run exactly to plan – resulting in them having a whale of a time on less than £70 quid a week.
No doubt they take the equivalent of a JSA payment out of their pockets and leave it on the dressing table every night. Try living on it you savage sods!
Remember people and their parents have paid in to this, it’s not a favour it’s an insurance.
The British people and their needs are simply an inconvenient impediment to Cameron and his international philanthropy and plans to cram in as many wars as he can before the electorate chuck him out to get his earldom in a couple of years time.Lets make it sooner rather than later
If the D.W.P would have listened to us ,the claiments in the first place then this site should never have been used. what happens to the job seekers who refused to use it and in doing so had no income for weeks? How much misery has this site caused and why have the hard working taxpayer paid so much money for a dud website done by a private sector company.
And it just goes to show if we all stick together.
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If Universal Jobmatch is an example of how bad Universal Credit in its “digital by default” form might end up being God help us all! There is no poorer Job Board anywhere on the internet than Universal Jobmatch. It really is the pits!
I agree it is appalling. The previous one wasn’t too bad but I really struggle to find any REAL jobs on this site. Maybe that is the intention.
Pity these tories weren’t as principled over benefit cuts – http://news.sky.com/story/1046883/gay-marriage-tories-call-for-delay-to-vote
The “notes”” section of Universal Jobmatch cannot be deleted or amended either!
Oops! I filled the ‘notes’ section on my account with lots of venomous abuse 🙂
Why do they want to snoop ? If they are then they are snooping on jobseekers who are not benefits too. Why would they Want to do that ?
You are not being alarmist are you ?
Maybe better if i post this in this section regarding Universal Jobmatch has anybody actualy ever seen it working at the jobcentre?, has anybody ever seen a jobcentre advisor access there account?, does the monitor aspect even exsist(lets hope its not like the detector vans lol).
I only ask because i have been to the jobcentre 5 times now and they always make an excuse when the time comes to access it i back up all my job search to a job diary and they would rather just read that then go on UJ.
It’s another psychological tool to make JSA claimants think they can be successfully ‘monitored’. It gets more like communist Russia here every day
My adviser logs in to my universal job match everytime i’m there. She leaves jobs for me to apply to and notes about our next meeting. Problem is I lost the little bit of paper with the 12 digit log in on it and I can’t find anywhere to get it back. Site just tells me to go to the helpdesk, help desk won’t load.
I went to my local job centre ON TUESDAY THIS WEEK TO SEEE MY ADVISOR AND GOT TOLD OF FOR NOT TICKING THE BOX SO THAT DWP COULD CHECK ON MY JOB APPLICATIONS.
I am so sick of UJ. The site, even if you don’t sign up (and i will resist that the way the NRA resists sanity), is terrible. It’s disorganised. The adverts are crummy and lack basic information and that doesn’t address the quality of work on offer. Why are we not helping people build meaningful careers instead of forcing them, threatening them, to trawl around a swamp of recruitment agency spam websites for jobs that are frankly pointless and shit?
“Why are we not helping people build meaningful careers instead of forcing them, threatening them, to trawl around a swamp of recruitment agency spam websites for jobs that are frankly pointless and shit” because that costs money, costs more money than the UJM site cost to make, thats the reason, they would rather bully people as thats cheaper that actually doing any work to create jobs
I couldn’t agree more. This UJ site is simply annoying and demoralizing to use. I had been advised previously by an adviser to use Indeed, which is better but also full of agency spam. Now it is this site I am directed to use and I struggle to locate anything that is a real job. I have even seen jobs that have clearly been “invented” by the jobcentre advisers. Pitiful!
I hate to be a killjoy, but 765 is not 40% of 1267 its nigh 60%.
If we are going to celebrate small victories at least let us
quote realistic figures. I guess the number of people not
claiming jsa who create an account to access vacancies they
otherwise couldnt would be less than 1 % because the site is torture.
However Small apples are sweet and change is in the wind.
My advisor is much more respectful recently. This re organisation
may cost a few advisors jobs and they dont want to be
“That Nazi bastad who worked in the job centre”. .
when applying for work at the local turkey factory,as
they may end up being offered the semen extraction
post for min wage.
(yes, its a real job-turkey wanker)
sorry typo, should have said 40% have not ticked, which still represents only half of total JSA claimants having ticked (if they are all jsa claimants) so far
They may be snubbing UJ but they are being shunted into “self employment” and could face fraud charges. A woman who told her WP adviser that she could bake was advised to become self-employed and to bake eight cakes a day. When she said she had no cake tins he suggested she visit charity shops and buy some!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qdx83
“Let them bake cakes …”
I would worry about such a route. If they introduce an assumed minimum income under Universal Credit. That could cause all sorts of headaches if your business doesn’t take off from day one, i.e…being made homeless.
Does the DWP have two heads ?
I wonder because they contradict themselves quite a lot.
When Atos put in their bid for PIP assessments they claimed they had support from organizations like DPAC which turned out to be a lie. When challenged DWP said these orgianisations had no bearing or influence over decision making .
Er wait a minute because on DWP site it cites quite a number of disability rights organisations involved in consultation exercise on the PIP assessments. So who should we believe ? The DWP or the DWP ?
IDS was threatening mandation to use UJM .. but its stated that any one seeking a job can use it even ppl in work looking for another job. But that would mean even those ppl would be ‘snooped’ on if that’s what’s going on. Why would they do that ? And why so much fuss and have so many ppl being told they have to use it.
What the fuck is going on ..is it sinister goings on or omnishambular activities ?
Things are not quite adding up.
Reblogged this on kickingthecat.
If you look at the end of recent statements from guv.mt.
you will see the idea was to bully claiments into fully using the site then
sanction them for failing to keep it up or tick not want job because boxes. A trap.
They have backed down on the mandatory join up because quite simply its illegal to demand someone to give up their rights.
The class action lawsuit from 1/2 million people would bankrupt the coffers and the guv. would fall.
Keep an eye on this re legal challenge
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/universal_jobmatch_legal_challen
There is no end to the snooping.
Dont even give em your main mobile phone number.
They have the authority to demand its location at any time from
your supplier.Give em one you can leave at home.
There cookies will also tell them where you are logging in from.
Your not supposed to go on holiday!
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Take printouts if you can, I use fireshot it’s a free plugin for screen captures and then print my job applications, 4 to a page hard to read but that’s their problem! I used the original letter posted on here and they have never asked me again about joining the waste of space UJM
LOVING 4 to a page, but I have to use the cyber cafe for printoffs. Technically, you should be able to forward your guff to the advisor’s addy, but if we all did this it would be chaos. (ANY TAKERS?)
My advisor has not sent one job or anything(not that there is anything much suitable on the joke shop system but the point is he hasnt tried) since I signed on weeks ago.They ignore you until sign day. Always comes the Q what is the most positive thing you have? Nothing? Oh well I will send you on the next waste of money trick to tick some boxes.
American style C.V.?
I live in England.I shake hands, not bump fists.
Mwa?
Just done it.
Ah, so its 2 yrs with a job provider then.
They will call you in a day or 2.
Enjoy wasting 400 quid we could give you for college courses
on A4e to send you for entirely unsuitable temp jobs.
I PRAY these tossers end up signing, I REALLY DO!
FOI request on UJM employers and sources of such
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/universal_jobmatch_employers
@lure I don’t doubt what you say but what doesn’t make sense is to snoop on non claimants . Since as I posted here that anyone including non claimants can use UJM .
Other question I ask is where the hell does DWP IDS get their crazy ideas from apart from idiot policy exchange wonk tanks and where do they get their ideas from?
One book so far I came across was POLICING THE WORKSHY . BENEFIT CONTROLS and the LABOUR MARKET. By avebury business school. Written by Alex Bryson. anyone know this place and author?
Wonder if FOI request might enlighten us..
” Universal Jobmatch is a secure and easy way to search for work and is available to all 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service has an average of more than 5 million daily job searches taking place.”
A spokesman from the DWP joke department said today that the UJM has been a success and said ‘ its fantastic’
Perhaps he meant ‘fantasy’
Want to waste your own time and someone else’s? Here’s how:
How you can help
Digital skills are becoming more vital in daily life but particularly for job search. As part of the DWP’s Digitalisation Programme we need to ensure that jobseekers have the required knowledge and, if not, they know where to get help and support to get online.
You can help by actively encouraging jobseekers to get online, set up an email account in preparation to use the new service, or signpost them to help and support in using the internet where appropriate.
What amazes me about this, or should I say piss me off, is that those who don’t know how to use a computer, like on the work programme are being told to get help from the work programme staff. Yet, on my work programme these folk are left to it and people like me are left to help them out. Now I don’t mind helping out anyone, what I have objection with, and I have pointed this out, is these providers are getting handouts from the state and should be their duty to help and sit with those that are not tech savvy to use the UJ site. The whole thing is total BS!
Often the WP staff can’t use the computer either…
If you took this thing literately and it was mandatory and that it is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week it would mean you would be on it all the time . So no going out to buy food or sleeping or going to jcp.
Or..anything else.
Shurely shome mishtake?
No-one would expect that!! (just 35 hours/week will do … ).
No I think they mean 35 hours a DAY!
As for it clashing: Not only have I been told to go to JCP and WPP when I have medical treatment; I have also been told to go to JCP when I’m meant to be at WPP and to go to WPP when I’m meant to be at JCP. Both blocked me from going to local jobs fairs including several during the last 2 weeks. When I go to a national recruitment fair in London (annual), at my own expense, with the agreement in advance from JCP: I get in trouble. This year (2012) in autumn I went, then got blamed for it! I said I tried to go to local ones as well, but all of them clashed with JCP and WPP so I couldn’t go. I added that they had also kept me from attending job interviews because they’d made me go to JCP and WPP.
According to several people my JCP ‘adviser’ is “A nasty bitch”, “A horrible bitch”, “A nasty piece of work”, and “A real bitch”.
Other users say they had the same treatment: she sets some nearly impossible task, you struggle to do it, then she says ‘you should not have done that’, and sets an even more impossible task. She has no problems ordering non-drivers to apply for jobs as drivers.
you’re not from around long eaton are you,we got a “nasty blond bitch”(no disrespect to all the ladies of that lovely colour).Or “that blond thing in the corner”
Or “5*worst then nina”(prev.asian lady who thought /acted like she paid out of her pocket)
But remember boys and girls its her job to screw you and make you feel like that 6yr old kid in primary school who got the ruler whacked across his hands for 4 years because he WAS THE ONLY LEFT HANDED kid in the school.
ohh suspended for 1 week ?? i wrote OMFG in my notes when pc/site was crashing what oh my fathers good? i said .ill be unticking box later cheers
Shelter report on rent rises..
http://m.england.shelter.org.uk/news/january_2013/rising_rents_leave_a_generation_in_the_rent_trap
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Jimmy Saville blamed for council tax rise.
A govt spokesman said today that council tax increases had nothing to do with govt austerity measures at all and it was all the fault of that nonce and friend of ex prime minister Margaret ” where there is hope we will bring despair” thatcher.
We asked a typical man in the street what he thought on the matter.” Damn waste of tax payers money on all this paedophile nonsense..its obviously a communist plot cooked up by the last labour govt ” said Lord Kidd-Buggerer.
“Fortunately I don’t have to pay taxes as my accountants Delloite see to that ” he went on to say before he went to his local badger gassing party.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2272358/Council-tax-rise-blamed-Jimmy-Savile-sex-probe-police-demand-resources-deal-abuse-investigations.html
On the DWP website about the universal job match website it has a section called ‘case studies’ where we find a Ms Emma Wilson recruitment manager for premier inn camberley who gushes on about the UJM and how brilliant it all is.in fact she says “its fantastic”
Which is strange as I went to premier inn camberley website and clicked on ‘careers’ which took me to another site called whitbread co UK , another hospitality site who has as one of its top clients premier inn.
Now either ms Wilson has changed jobs or ??? Ok give DWP benefit of the doubt and say she has changed jobs did she use the UJM . I’ve heard its pretty good in fact its ‘fantastic’.
Even if you wanted to work there: have you noticed these hotels are often in the middle of nowhere, at some soulless motorway roundabout, often devoid of bus stops? If you don’t drive/have no car, how are you supposed to get there?
Just a little heads up Whitbread co UK actually own the Premier Inn, Costa Coffee and i think Yates or one of the other major wine bar/pubchains in the UK, they are the parent company if you will
@the antagonist if these external links are not recorded then it would create the impression that you hadn’t looked and if so would they sanction you?
If so then that stinks …and tells me that site is rigged .
That’s exactly the impression I got
My WPP actually blocks you from saving any searches, so you can’t be recorded as having applied for any jobs. That is probably why JCP/DWP are trying to sanction me.
I can’t get into my own account on UJM anyway, and the Apply button doesn’t seem to be working. The DWP morons changed many of my personal details on my profile, to things that are downright lies. That’s despite never having checked a box to ‘consent’ to give them access.
The jobs it sends are useless, impossible, hundreds of miles away, totally unsuitable.
1.56 million people signing on and looking for 10 jobs a fortnight ( 1 a day ) is what is expected . That’s 1.56 million jobs a day being chased down. I don’t think the government has created that many vacancies, or done anything to enable companies to grow, but the onus is on us produce a job out of thin air….or else! This government and the last, couldn’t run a corner shop, let alone a country. Society is going backwards in this country, Maggie Thatcher said she wanted to get back to Victorian values, this government want go back further than that! The majority of us will be peasants again. Civil war is on the horizon.
watched the daily politics and a city economist said this country has £1.4 trillion of mortgage debt, no wonder they are keeping interest rates low they would have no-one to vote for them if the property portfolio mob were to struggle. As i’ve said before they are in a win win situation, low interest rates on loans and rent increases on their properties to tenants to help keep them bouyant. Again it’s the poor who have to rent that is getting it in the neck. Sorry off topic.
The Government is buying its own gilts through the BOE printing money. There plan would be completely bust by now if other major countries weren’t doing the same things, or so they argue. The poorer off sectors of society are effectively paying for the wealthier sectors. Nothing particularly new in that but the popular media is following the party line (they don’t want their mortages or taxes to increase) so the general public is basically ignorant of what is going on. If interests rates do go up then there would be a huge backlash against the present government so they have to try everything to avert this.
Hey
I was wondering if anyone could help me? I have a meeting on Thur with a personal adviser and wondering what my best defence is for not signing up to UJ? I met her 6-7 weeks ago and she was pushing on about it and it ”will soon be mandatory”.
I am trying for a job, I apply every day for positions, but so far no luck. I do not want to sign up to this UJ program and also 90% of their jobs you can apply for outwith the UJ website or register with the agency that posted the ad on the UJ site.
If I say I am unhappy about the privacy details and the issues that Channel 4, this brilliant blog and other sites have brought out. How do I get round them asking ”Well if you register with any agency/job site you accept cookies?”
Sorry for droning on, but if anyone has any tips/advice on how to stay cool and reject this terrible basically spying mission then I’d love to know.
I’ve so far resisted signing up to it by saying I prefer to do my own job search and the issues with security, but I seem to get a different adviser every month and they continue to ask about it.
Many thanks, keep up the good fight. This scheme is disgusting and seems intent on a way to trip up people. I know people in other EU countries who think we are treated like dogs regards jobseekers allowance. You have to explain near on every action to them or you are treated with complete contempt by some members of staff.
Thank you.
Simple solution, tell you you dont have a computer at home and FFS dont tell them you have a mobile either.
If you really want to piss them off, also tell them you are computer illiterate, act stupid when you see a computer and pretend you have never used one.
Works for me.
If however, you have already told them you have a computer, just tell them you have got rid of it as JSA doesn`t stretch to paying a broadband bill.
Jimmer said:
“I was wondering if anyone could help me? I have a meeting on Thur with a personal adviser and wondering what my best defence is for not signing up to UJ?”
It’s not mandatory so don’t sign up if you don’t want to. Read the link to the PCS website in the above article then save and print-off the PDF doc at the bottom of the PCS page.
Also, visit ‘whatdotheyknow.com’ to search for ‘Universal Jobmatch’. You’ll find plenty of related FOI requests to aid you.
Johnny. You mention sex work being on UJM. Thing is there may be women looking for that kind of work. Surely it should be avaliable to them on the website.
yeah but people’s point, I think, is that women (and men!) can be ordered to apply for it and have their benefits stopped if they click on the button for ‘I don’t want this job’. (Our JCP is sending men to apply for jobs for women only, just to meet their quota.)
Another issue is that a lot of the sex work posted on UJM was totally illegal. Another is re. working conditions. Another is that any faker/rapist can post ads as an ’employer’, they could force people into (unpaid) prostitution or just be a pervert luring out young women to rape. No checks are done on the ’employers’. (and it makes JCP/DWP/UJM/WPP a pimp, and pimping is meant to be illegal)
Even if there is legality, people don’t want to be forced into sex work. Ads should make it clear, that it is sex work. (Does not specify health requirements on ad! So you could catch and spread diseases) Jobpoint machines allow you to refuse this work, it says you are not forced to apply. UJM does not let you refuse. If you are partnered, monogamous, celibate, lesbian, a gay man (or straight person ordered to do gay porn), etc. then you could have a reason, so could asexual people. So could anyone shy or with body issues. Or you simply don’t want to. Also if you are very religious, eg. Christian/Muslim. Or several of the above. The same is true for any job that requires total, partial or occasional nudity, or the wearing of things that are very revealing such as swimwear etc. They may be non sex work but they are still involving nudity or revealing clothes.
For example if you hire a waiter and waitress, then decide later you want them to be topless or naked, they have the right to refuse.
If you force people to do sex related work or nudity, that is rape or sexual assault. It makes JCP/DWP/UJM/WPP rapists, and the people who ordered these ‘reforms’ are enablers/accomplices of rapists and guilty of ordering others to be raped or sexually assaulted.
Probably UJM might eventually notice if people put in their CV or profile that they are a ‘Prostitute’ or ‘Sex Worker’. I don’t know if those are valid as key words for your profile, under ‘Skills’. <>
Another thing: If you were ever formerly a sex worker, that should not be a reason they can use to force you back into the industry. It should be remembered that it is high risk work. Only a FEW soldiers get killed or wounded serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you are a sex worker, rape at some point (and robbings and beatings, torture, humiliation) pretty much comes with the territory. Authorities are generally unsympathetic if you are badly beaten and raped (even when not on duty!). Hundreds of sex workers get murdered (possibly thousands?) and most just disappear. ‘Nobody cares about them’. Pimps and clients don’t care, people on the street who notice prostitutes don’t care. You’re seen as a bad person, nobody talks about the morality of those who are clients. The job (apart from assault and theft) is a major health risk, as you can get STI’s including HIV. Despite antiretroviral drugs (if you can get them), AIDS is still a death sentence. Sex work also takes its toll on the body. As Moira, a lesbian feminist forced to be a prostitute (in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood), says: “After four years your snatch wears out”, and you are sent to be a labourer outdoors in places where you will die of radiation poisoning. A sex worker can transmit HIV to partners, children, clients, the partners and unborn children of clients… The pay is not high in line with the risk, it is usually low, and most goes to pimps. (In the film ‘I Am Slave’, the heroine Malia is a Sudanese woman kidnapped aged 12 and sold to Arab slave owners, then sent to their relatives in London. In one scene, when she is aged 18, a man in the family sexually assaults her. The perception is that slaves are the sexual property of all males in the household, and that refugee women are prostitutes.)
This government is responsible for anything that happens to the people sent on sex work or related work, or on other compulsory work.
Imagine you are innocent and get sent to jail; and that while in jail (if male) you get raped, or (if female) are forcibly injected with drugs in a contaminated needle. Then you get HIV. Is the government guilty?
(Or if you are killed in jail or police custody? If you die from being tasered?)
If we get sick/injured/assaulted on workfare etc. we should charge the government too, for sending us.
The other year when the government wanted the unemployed in ‘punishment gangs’ sweeping the street and picking up dogshit and litter, cleaning graffiti etc: I said that, what if someone hating the ‘dole scum’ comes up and attacks or kills us? Or ambushes us on the way to and from ‘work’? (Like Misfits, but all the characters in that did a crime first)
My forced work (2009) [hole digging] was just ending when they brought in real community punishment gangs, of convicted criminals. They had community punishment clothing and were made to work alongside us. to the locals we were all the same, and were (the forced work unemployed part) subjected to spitting and verbal abuse, and the buses often refused to let us on though they were the only way out. (All the punishment crew went home in a van) Often we had to walk 9 or 10 miles home, to be ready for the same the next day. What never got covered was the abuse and bullying WITHIN the workfare group. It was really bad. The worst consequence of bad behaviour was that one person was removed and had his benefits stopped, but for verbally abusing a superior. (oh and for taking illegal drugs and drinking) In a paid job they could have been sacked, or possibly prosecuted. I told supervisors/overseers but they did nothing, neither did the WPP do anything.
‘Pimping’ the unemployed to any employer that might take them, regardless of the employer or job or location, the suitability of the job or person, their desire/ability to do it… is like advertising that you have a faceless prostitute that will do anything for anyone. No matter how degrading, revolting or dangerous.
Universal JobMatch is a crime. It is a scandal. It should be stopped.
This cut out of my post. From the paragraph about UJM ending ‘Under Skills’:
“(hacking IDS’s account on UJM… typing in ‘Rent boy, feminine, bottom. Likes drinking yellow, giving head, double anal. Loves the taste of brown. Happy to be your slave and to be beaten. Extreme BDSM submissive.’)”
cv library ????? Whats the story there, my area is spammed by them providing the job details on ujm
Probably identity theft scammers or agencies that’ll bombard you with spam.
They are an online jobsite (that bombard you with spam). Can’t say (for definite) how good they are at what they do (haven’t found a job via them – or any other job site as yet. Even though been (sort of ‘using’) this and various other sites, the more I learn about how they work, I think it’s about as likely as finding a needle in a haystack even though signed up to this one and several others.
Almost all of my past jobs were found via agencies though – signing up with them after walking in off the street. They’ve found me temporary work and temporary/long-term and some work that ended up becoming permanent. (Those were the days). I’m more & more wary of trying this again just now – even if not ruled it out yet – for lots of different reasons – not a small one being the involvement of companies I’ve used before (Reed/Pertemps – other agencies are available) being involved in you-know-what-fare. So now they are a lot less ‘someone with jobs that could be ‘real’ in the window’ and a more similar to the way charity shops used to be an ‘fair enough’ place to be seen …
(Almost all?) ‘temp’ agencies have been controversial in the area of workers’ rights since I’ve known about, even when I was using them (and they were exploiting me) regularly to get work: rates of pay/sick pay (?!) and holiday pay/ expectations on workers – just general terms & conditions etc. etc. Now they’re online though – there’s no way to make a first impression and the amounts of cv’s they receive and have to (electronically) sort through (via matching key words from the cv (apparently) make it a bit soul-destroying. It feels like just another part of the march towards making people as ‘faceless’ and interchangeable as possible …. (or is this a massive, sweeping generalisation?!)
When I registered with Reed I didn’t get a job but did get my email box spammed with advertisements about expensive training courses and such like. Personally I prefer to pick and choose from properly listed job vacancies than have jobs sent to me, often inappropriately, by people or IT systems.
I’ve noticed a lot of jobs on there from CV Library. Who are they?
no idea but its been hell applying when all you see is those from there. for the last two weeks on wednesday its the same jobs advertised over 250 pushing all other jobs off
One wonders if the site has been purposely designed for the purpose of sanctioning. It is extremely difficult to locate any real jobs on it.
in my nightmares, it’s getting less likely that I will go to any of the bigger agencies like Reed/Manpower any time soon (unless they head hunt me for vast sums of money – unlikely). ‘Real-life’ agencies were a default ‘method’ for a while around ten years ago; and then around 3 years ago when registered with one that’s more local, less nationwide. One problem for me has been increased use of fixed-term contracts – one year /and even 11 months (NHS) .. when there have been contracts.
Just wondering where “properly listed” jobs are – having lost my previous ability to easily find work that’s both badly paid and insecure. You’d think things could only get better with that track record, but this time everything’s different (life seemed so much simpler then, the sun was always shining, children played outside and there was hardly any traffic) Where was I? Oh – was wondering if you meant, as in, specialist publications/specific websites for organisations, and/or newspaper ads/noticeboards? I’ve sometimes been lucky to get jobs from those places (it’s sounding like I’ve had 300 jobs/been working-age for around 80 years). All of the ones so far suggested by person/computer via job sites unsuitable for various reasons – not surprising really. A few have sent “You’re not quite right – please try again” emails – which is some kind of backhanded electronic compliment.
It’s getting more difficult to recall why I still (and ever did agree to) tell JC and myself that the best thing I could do to increase household income would be to spend all day every day clicking on these sites. Quite often have done this (I have reservations about the health & safety risks) and the novelty has worn off. Plan B will have to be put into action soon – whatever it is – before career oblivion beckons. Maybe need to visit the nearest charity shop for cheap cake tins … bake 8 cakes a day .. then claim tax credits for every waking moment. Job centre could happily write ‘fraudulent career suicide’ on my signing off papers.
This is a nuisance. Am due to sign on very soon and am wary of what to expect. Wish me luck!
If women are looking for sex work they should do what others do and advertise themselves, there should not be such work for women to be forced into by dwp, no wonder they call them pimps.
I am due to sign soon and as far as I can make out, it’s one great Orwellian sanctioning monster. In theory, the DWP could have access to the on-line activity of anyone else who may use your PC. I shall not be allowing them access and shall continue to print off my e-mail applications and take screen shots to print off and wave in their faces
I’ve lost my UJM password and ID coz my computer has broke. I’ve emailed them because that’s the only way to get a new id and password. No reply as of yet.
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.
Who knows if the Jobcentre ‘job advisors’ are the competent persons at all?
There’s little trace of intelligence in the letters from Jobcentre I have read.
They are barely competent to count their own feet
According to this site, UJM will be in play for all on 18th of Feb.
I’ve read through most of this post and it’s comments, the theme is rebelling against the system.
Perhaps some of you are looking at this from the wrong angle, especially where you have mentioned you are being forced to apply for work you do not want to do, or know nothing about.
Applying for work you don’t want to do, it’s reasonably easier to avoid this work providing you follow some simple rules.
Forced to apply does not mean you’ll get an interview, if you do get an interview you can work your knowledge of the job/position to your favour, i.e., if you know nothing about what the job entails, there is little chance you’ll be offered the job.
If you understand some parts of the health and safety code, these are very good, when you apply for work make it known you adhere to all H&S codes, this often puts employers off, especially small firms.
Health, make sure all health issues are known, most manual jobs require you to move weights upto 25-30kg, however in the H&S manual you can find information requiring companies to purchase equipment to avoid excessive man handling of heavy items.
At the interview explain you are looking for work within a certain field of interest this immediately explains to the interviewer you are not a long-term employee and that you will be actively job hunting whilst in their employment and thus attending interviews instead of being at work companies cannot stop you attending interviews
Use bad punctuation when filling in forms, see above paragraph.
Is UJM currently down ? For a week I’ve been getting error 404 after log-in. When I signed on on Monday 4th, my advisor couldn’t get in either.
I haven’t been able to log into my account since the 4th February 2013. I have emailed them 4 times for help with this issue and have no reply from them. It is a joke!!!! The only pages that register on your history are the recommended jobs and even them jobs are useless as they are trying to get me to apply gor jobs in Wales — I live in blackpool !! They need to re-think this website as it just crap and for me very frustrating !!!
My friend went to sign on today at stockton-on-tees JC, said he didn’t want to share his info on ujm, his advisor was awful to him about it, said if he didn’t she would sanction him. He produced the pcs info, she said everything has changed now and it is now mandatory to both sign up and share info, produced some letter confirming this with a dwp official stamp on it. He came away feeling completely demoralised (he is putting in a complaint about her as soon as). So is it mandatory all of a sudden? Or is she just being a little jobsworth Hitler for kicks? Anyone know?
“Registration with the Universal Jobmatch is not currently mandatory however, we intend to introduce mandatory use of the service for some Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants in 2013.”
Source: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/universal_jobmatch_mandation_and#incoming-357959
Dated 7th february 2013
I won’t give advice on what you or anyone else should do but I would call her bluff. I sign on this week and I will not be registering if ‘asked’ (again).
ps My work programme provider stears well clear of this, with me anyway.
I’ve had to make a new account, and my initial email took 3 months to be replied to, and all the reply I got was a Password Reset FAQs
i registered on it 2 month ago but not tick box saying dwp can (basically spy on u ) !! then told my adviser this week will look at UJ but will not be logging on because of threat of people hacking my account !! no sanction yet !!! but what happens next week!!!!
I messaged DWP today via the Universal Jobmatch “Contact us” link, and requested that my account be deleted, this is the response I received:
“We understand that you would like to delete your Universal Jobmatch account. We are currently investigating your request and will come back to you soon with a more definite answer.
In the meantime, you can edit your Saved Searches and change the email frequency to ‘none’. And via the Profile page, you can choose to stop email messages from DWP.
We will email you again in the near future about deleting your account.”
Does that mean they are not going to delete it??
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I was recently told by a member of at my jobcentre that my jsa would be sanctioned if I did not use universal jobmatch can the jobcentre do this.
The site is very poorly thought out as it does not allow you to attach a covering letter or statement along with your cv. It is purely devised for snooping purposes by the dwp nothing more. They are looking to stop claimants benefits for not conforming to its rules. I use several different sites for job searches and applications and on a weekly basis apply for more jobs than my jobseekers agreement says I have to. Any employment advisor at a jobcentre can post jobs on to your account without permission from the claimant, beware as I have been warned that if I do not apply for these jobs the chances are my benefits will be stopped. Do not sign up to uj, use different sites.
my job seekers allowance has been stopped i have only been unemployed 2 months im a time served painter and decorator and because i wouldnt look for something out with painting they have stopped it iam looking for work not a complete bum who has no intrested in work iv worked since iv left school the systems all wrong junkies alcholics get everything but the people who want to work get haslled shocking!
I was told on Wednesday DWP consent is mandatory and I can be forced to comply. I’m sure it’s not, and a call to the Jobseekers phoneline confirmed this. I’d like some kind of proof I can print out tho. . .
Hi all its all just knee jerk because Mrs Mays and IDS spy bill was fine toothed by the lib dems and the dwp was removed.how can a man so involved with our oil wars.(I mean foreign policy) be able to control all of the dwp. Well Libya not worked out for you has it Ian !!!!
Maybe the unemployed figures are linked to UJM so all those that no longer allow the job centre to snoop are now classed as employed on the governments figures? maybe a crafty way of saying more people are in work than actually are.
To say that I have TPS on my telephone, you wouldn’t notice as the marketing calls have increased and all because of UJM, i’m up and down like a yoyo answering these calls thinking they are important when all they are are pension, accident and other such junk calls.
UJM is a total joke and should be withdrawn, your safety, security and personal details are not safe using this JOKE! government website.
Advisors use your e-mail address to access your account on UJM. not sure if they have other means tho.
I just got a letter through saying I won’t receive benefits for two months because I failed to apply for 1 out of the 6 saved jobs I was directed to apply for through UJM. It expired within 4 days and the saved jobs do not list job expiration date (even though this should clearly be listed if you are to apply within a set time). None the less, despite following the required actions and applying for more than enough jobs, I now have no way of eating for two months. -_-
I have pre-emptively signed up due to unrelenting pressure from my advisors although I am not certain whether it is mandatory or not. Can’t see how/why it should be so long as you are applying for jobs, but this new Nazi state seems all powerful so might as well start digging..
You need to avoid ticking those two boxes at the bottom when/if you register. One states something along the lines – I allow access to my advisor… and the other is I allow the DWP to email me. Make sure you don’t tick either. They cannot then snoop OR contact you through your account (supposedly) – all designed to trip you up ready for sanctions.
If it was mandatory to allow them access they wouldn’t have given the option to tick those boxes.
A horrid site though. I personally use different sites to fulfilll my quota.
I can so empathize with you Chris….I was just 30minutes late to sign on, as a consequence I was sanctioned for four weeks the rotters..Just remember to appeal, then claim hardships payments via a JSA10 form, also apply for a food parcel, I did so, great if your a meat eater which I am not, however, I am not complaining the three tins of baked beans kept me alive! Good luck!
Chris this is the exact reason for not falling into the trap of allowing access. Too late for you now but others be warned. If you hadn’t allowed access they couldn’t have sanctioned you (this way anyway). Karma will get the heartless bastards responsible for leaving you without food for certain.
Just one thing, if you are on the WP and they sign you up, they will automatically allow access (deny you your privacy) so best to register privately, elsewhere.
Good luck folks – we’ll need it (for the next 2 years anyway)!
JD
I signed on last week, I was asked why I had not yet registered on the UJM after giving my reasons I was informed come October it WILL be compulsory to register…..I am seriously hope NOT to be signing on by then, but we shall wait and see what happens when they bring this in…..
This is a poorly thought out mess (in fact they are making it up as they go). Sign up, just avoid ticking those boxes and use other sites to find jobs keeping records and they have no leg to stand on. Forcing anyone to use UJM rather than other sites would be unfair on private business creating a monopoly for this UJM/ Monster crap!
There was leaflets at job centre well piece of A4 paper saying you are required to be looking for work 35 hours per week and show evidence of 50 – 100 job searches or applications per week.
This service not only making us job seekers suffer from threat of sanction, from some common job centre worker, that loves power and control, but also its very annoying as a claimant. The site is crap, can’t trust anyone research about site. Every time I go on it sometimes has new jobs in sectors I am looking for, other than that there the same old jobs. I was told if I didn’t allow them access I would have to come in around two days a week, I said on my next signing I am not allowing access still so what do I need to do, he said you need to show much more than the jsa job search paper we get to record job searches. I will be using my phone, next time I go in and show them my job applications from sent emails. I hope I don’t have problems, printing out all the time is not an option as I struggle on jsa in general.
Stand your ground don’t be bullied. It’s up to you how you show them and your phone is fine even photos. Be prepared for trouble and ‘when’ they sanction you stay calm and put in the appeal, all the way if necessary. Make the sods work for your sanction – they’ve made your life hell – denied you food for 4 weeks! It will also cost them a lot more than the sanctions worth in admin costs – it takes the DWP five people (minimum) to do the job of one person!.
sorry meant email conformations not sent emails
if they want you to use universal job match ,everyone ask to use jobcentre computers and only do jobsearch on their machines so the browser attachment stays with them not anyones home pc.plus if they are demanding everyone to use universal job match,then everyone turn up at jobcentres to use there machines .the impute would be too much for them to handle.and they cant refuse your request to use computers.bring them into chaos give them some of there own medicine the sneaky forgien lovers that rob the poor to give away to other countrys and then have the cheek to call people outa work scrounging scum.
Making use of the UJM service mandatory is something they can’t really get away with, as there is still a good portion of the population who aren’t proficient with computers or the internet. It’s safe to assume everybody should be able to learn, but to make this a mandatory service would most definitely bring on complaints and coverage on how the DWP is forcing, say, the mentally ill to use the service or be subject to sanctioning and hardship, until a loophole is discovered and the mandatory status is dropped.
I claim to be unable to use the internet efficiently despite being a Software Engineering graduate just to wind them up from time to time. There’s nothing they can really say to prove otherwise.
If all the agencys were removed then there would be about 10 jobs on there.
Do I need to let them access UJ please can someone get back ASAP as I’m getting problems with the advisors and UJ
nope you can untick the box – access is NOT mandatory – as long as you have signed up, fill in your diary & print email confirmations / screenshots etc you are complying
well i get my pension credits next year ill be leaving a nice wee letter on my universal jobsearch activity not sure what ill say yet but ill make sure what ever i put their eyes will bleed
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I unchecked box fu(k em never got anything from it anyway waste of data
sanction me then you mother fu(kers starve me do I give a fu(k ? do I? ill go shoot ducks and gather wild food you really think im going to play ball? suck me