In an unnerving sign of what may be to come when Universal Credit is introduced, hundreds of thousands of benefit claimants will this week be expected to sign up a shabby website full of broken links, mis-formatted information and pages that don’t load.
The DWP’s new Universal Jobmatch website went live over the weekend. As from today Jobcentres up and down the country will be bullying and harassing claimants into registering with the site which gives DWP busy-bodies unprecedented control over how unemployed people look for jobs.
Whilst the DWP say that signing up to the site is not mandatory (PDF), there are increasing reports of Jobcentres issuing information which suggests benefits may be affected for those who refuse. The best advice is still do not sign unless compelled to. Even if a Jobseekers Direction is issued threatening a sanction for failing to sign up, claimants can still refuse the sign the box which gives the DWP powers to spy on job seeking activity. You do not need to register with the site to access many of the vacancies.
Astonishingly the privacy conditions for the site inform claimants that: “We try to limit access to our searchable CV database only to those employers who have been given permission, but cannot guarantee that people or organisations without permission will not gain access to this database.”
Unfortunately accessing the vacancies may be harder than anticipated, as around half the pages time out before loading. Using this website may well be the first online experience for many claimants – and it doesn’t work.
Even for the lucky few who manage to get a page to load, the number of jobs available is miniscule. There are just 4522 jobs available within five miles of Central London, an area which covers Walthamstow to Greenwich. There are currently around 225,000 people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in the London area.
Many of these jobs are part time, some for just a couple of hours a week. A significant number are ‘self-employed’ such as ‘Nightclub Photographer Salesperson’ (must have own camera). A large amount appear to be for agencies, whilst many more are jobs which require highly specialised skills such as Architect.
Such is the DWP’s obsession with punishing and monitoring claimants that unemployed people could now be compelled to waste time job searching on a website with barely any vacancies, limited functionality and which may even bombard you with spam. Buried in the Terms and Conditions, the DWP state that:
“We cannot protect you from unwanted emails that you may receive that may advertise products or services for sale, although We can choose to restrict the number of emails which an employer may send to you.”
Already many claimants who have visited the site have complained it is worse than the old jobs direct site – a feat that would barely have been thought possible. It’s clear that any money that’s been spent on the new website has gone into the behind the scenes snooping powers it now gives Jobcentres. Spying on unemployed people, with the aim of sanctioning benefits, is far more important to the DWP than providing a website which works and actually contains a decent amount of genuine vacancies.
It’s hardly a surprise that the website is such a mess. The new service was built by Monster Jobs – an international online recruitment firm. The company already has an extensive online jobmatching website. They were hardly likely to develop a better one for the DWP.
Monster Jobs must have been laughing all the way to the bank as the DWP paid them huge some of tax payer’s cash to effectively knobble any competition to their business from the Jobcentre.
There are well founded fears that eventually this bodged website may be used to police the 35 hours a week jobseeking activity which will be demanded when Universal Credit is introduced. Hundreds of thousands of part time workers, as well as those on sickness or disability benefit will also be expected to look for work, quite possibly via Universal Jobmatch. Companies advertising jobs on the site which do not require specific skills or experience could find themselves swamped with tens of thousands of applications as claimants are mandated on mass to apply for vacancies.
The Government’s new benefit regime, Universal Credit, will depend on the largest and most complex IT database ever constructed in history. Over 20 million people are to be transferred onto the new benefit. If Universal Jobmatch is an early sign of the DWP’s ability to procure and manage IT services then it paints a chilling vision of the future when all benefits are to be digital by default.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
“Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2837288/posts
They are all at it!.
1,172 new “CVs so far 🙂
i checked 1 hour ago.. the site claims only 107 new vacancies posted so far today. 107 across the UK…
Good work, Spam Bot 🙂
For the unemployed or those on ESA WRAG going to the JC+ turn up with a dictaphone or other recording device that you can have a single earpiece and external Mic then record any thing they say, just ask them if it’s compulsory to sign up when they say no tell them you don’t whish to sign up att his time and keep repeating it every time they ask.
Almost all the phone numbers on the site are 11111 111111. I’d hate to be the person with that phone number right now 😉
And please don’t forget this:
A Jobcentre adviser CAN’T make you sign up to Universal Jobmatch with only a verbal instuction.
The adviser must give you this instruction via an official letter, by that I mean it must have some sort of code on it (for example: JCP/DWP/UJ/v 1.0) or somthing like that.
And it must state the legal regulations on it (such as: Jobseekers Allowance (Employment skills and Enterprise Scheme) Regulations 2011) or something like that.
And IT MUST SAY at the bottom of the letter (where the adviser signs it)
“on behalf of the secretary of state”
Remember a verbal instuction throws no weight whatsoever.
I received a letter yesterday saying that from 3/12/12 there is a change in the law that if you don’t do what your adviser says they can sanction you, I see this as the start of cutting benefits to those who may have been left alone after the first JCP adviser visit because they were effectively unemployable. Force them into visits and doing job searches or working for workfare employers, it will have nothing to do with if the person is capable of doing that work
This system seems open to abuse.
For instance, whats to stop some mischievous person having an Email in his job search account, planting a Trojan (whatever that is) just lying there waiting for some nosy Adviser for instance opening it up and creating allsorts of havoc in the jobcentre?
Just a thought.
Hyperthetically Speaking:
What you need is a T***** or V**** that will completely fry the mainframe harddrives, any backup systems and all subsiquent systems connected to it.
Isn’t there something called a Worm?
Maybe we need an Anaconda or Python at least.
Check the browse jobs section by region.. No north west, unless i am linked to yorkshire, or wales or scotland, or london. I phoned the job centre said it was crap..you have to type in your town and just a broad category say administration. at 8.04 am i phoned them got we are having problems with the phone lines.. try again.. then i explained what i thought.
Of course, forcing everyone to use one site is gonna make it next to impossible for any one individual to get a job through that site, because if every single claimant in your area is being forced to look at exactly the same job adverts under threat of sanctions, then it’s guaranteed that the employers for any given job are gonna be swamped with applications. I predict something like this is going to end up happening to a lot of people:
1) Jobcentre staff direct you to apply for a specific job.
2) Because that job’s advertised on a website that all claimants are being bullied into using, the advert gets a massive amounts of responses really quickly so the employer takes it offline shortly after it’s gone up, which means that
3) you don’t get a chance to apply for it, meaning that
4) you get sanctioned for not applying for a job you were directed to, even though you never had a chance to.
I’d like to be proved wrong, but I can imagine that happening a lot.
I can also see when employers get swamped they will get pretty pissed off and cancel their contracts, so even less jobs to apply for.
My DEA used to do this give me jbs to apply for that were not available to those using job points in JCP centres the first, and only time he accused me of not looking on the site at the job, or applying or the job he was hit with a stack of screen captures showing that it had been taken down, I think I had told him about 8 times that the jobs he had given me to apply for online were not there, the next time I said that he said nothing. All that will be needed is proof that the job the claimant is directed to is off-line when they visit the site.
These jobs they claim are available may have a code that you can search for on the site this is what they gave me along with the description of the job, I am only guessing that this is how they will work it, JOB SITE, SPECIFIC CODE, then the job application is or isn’t there.
Had a quick look at the site today, it’s slow, clunky, looks amateurish, almost like websites used to appear pre-Windows95. If that’s the best all the dosh thrown at it can come up with, then the DWP have more money than sense!
Yes, they have taxpayers money at their disposal, they see it as their personal business fund I think!
Geocities lives!
Seriously… the terms state the site:-
1) cannot be used by those under 16
and
2) those 16 or 17 years old need parental supervision!
Yes you can see the way it’s going. There is a pull down menu entitled ‘Why I didn’t apply for this job’, this surely means we will be forced to go for any job they deem fit, and if we don’t we will be sanctioned, there is no space to explain why you didn’t apply, just a list of fixed responses , most of which would get your benefit stopped if you were naive enough to be honest about your reasons.
That little pull down menu says much about the real intentions of universal jobsnatch. They want to further pauperize, humiliate and harass people.
We will all have to jobsearch for 35 hours a week and have our jobsearch activity spied on.
Petey you don’t have to select anything in that pull down menu. If you don’t want to apply for the job just hit the back button on your browser to go back to the job list.
YET, until they make it so they can track those people who do go back. BTW everyone clear your cookies every time you visit that site.
If you so much “enquire” about a vacancy in the jobcentre you are then obliged to apply under pain of sanctions. Same will go for this Universal Jobmatch site; if you look at a vacancy, you will either have to apply or should “good cause” for failing to do so, ticking any of those boxes in the “drop-down” menu wont cut it. This site will use the same tracking as on-line retailers employ to record all the products you have viewed, whether logged in or out, hitting the “back button” on your browser wont cut it!
Nice picture Johnny, I only wish screwing up Unversal Jobmatch could be that easy.
The worst thing you can do is create thousands of people with nothing to lose and this is the perfect tool for that job.
All this pressure is going to land on some unfortunate Advisers desk one day when someone cracks under the strain.
As long as its not IDS he doesn’t give a shit.
WELL ACCORDING TO THIS IDS IS SAYING IT WILL BECOME MANDATORY THIS YEAR.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/unemployed-to-be-forced-to-sign-up-to-universal-jobmatch-website-at-the-centre-of-security-concerns-8427546.html
Universal Jobmatch for Jobseekers
What is Universal Jobmatch?
We are improving how you can search and apply for jobs. Our new, free* and secure online service is called Universal Jobmatch and is available to
everyone looking for work.
Universal Jobmatch will be one of the largest jobsites in the UK and you can use it by visiting
wwwdotgovdotuk/jobsearch
Universal Jobmatch will make looking for jobs easier and quicker. It uses the latest technology to help you find jobs that are right for you, by matching your CV and skills to jobs posted on the service.
Universal Jobmatch is available in English and Welsh.
What does it mean for you?
When you register online for your Universal Jobmatch account you will be able to:
search and apply for jobs at a time to suit you,
24 hours a day, seven days a week
create a CV or upload a CV you already have
receive email alerts when new jobs that match your CV and skills
are posted
record all your jobsearch activity in one place making it easier to
discuss it with your Jobcentre Plus adviser
What you need to do now
To make sure you can use all of the features of the new service, simply
set up your Universal Jobmatch account.
To set up an account you need to:
get an email address if you don’t already have one (you cannot use an email address that you share with anyone else)
visit wwwdotgovdotuk/jobsearch
set up a Government Gateway account if you don’t already have one (when you visit wwwdotgovdotuk/jobsearch you can follow a link to set up this account)
keep a note of your Government Gateway User ID and password as you
will need them every time you log into Universal Jobmatch.
Start using Universal Jobmatch now to help you find the job you want.
* Your usual internet provider charges may apply
This jobcentre leaflet is pure bullshit – you don’t “need” to do fuck all!
All the usual shite about “find[ing] the job you want.” – what a crock!
“Melissa, from London, said: “I overheard two advisers talking about a man they had just seen and the staff member whose claimant he was said she was going to use his not signing up to the site as an excuse to suspend his money. She said this with relish and it made me sick.”
Me want CVs! Me eat CVs! Om nom nom nom!
Start the end.
6.1 Information you provide to Us may be passed to relevant service providers, including government departments[DWP], agencies or authorities, for example in order to respond to any query you have made with Us or process any application you may have made. Your information will be managed in accordance with the law, including the Data Protection Act 1998. For further information please read Our Privacy Policy.
6.2 We will comply with our legal obligations to keep your information safe and secure, but we cannot guarantee the absolute safety of any information that you send to us. This means that you send Us information at your own risk. We will not pay you any damages to cover any loss that has resulted from someone accessing the service without permission or making changes to information on the site, except for where Our employees or agents are at fault.
““Use of the site is not currently mandatory, and the feedback we’ve had so far from jobseekers is incredibly positive.”
Said A Fictional Person that they just made up…
Pauly:
Please put the website link on here for Universal Jobmatch – Terms and Conditions.
Thanks
Oh fer fuck’s sake…..
Just DON’T FUCKING SIGN UP FOR IT. Use it to look for jobs. If an Email is provided Email your CV and cover letter. You have the job title, the Email address and the JCP reference number. All of which can be used to fill in your ‘Nobajobalog’. I will ONLY sign up for it if I am given a JOBSEEKERS DIRECTION, and I want that in WRITING. And If possible I will NOT be giving the DWP permission to fucking spy on me. Under the Data Protection Act I DON’T FUCKING HAVE TO. NOBODY told me today when I went to scribble that I have to sign up for it. I am not discounting the possibility that I might be told to do so at some point in the future. But, as I say, I want to see that instruction in WRITING, and on OFFICIAL DWP stationary. Fellow Jobseekers, we need to stand our ground on this one. If we stand together we can fucking BEAT this piece of crap. What da fuq they gonna do – sanction EVERYBODY?
If jobseekers can’t stand their ground on this we may as well pack up and go home – Game Over! Grow a backbone, ffs!
I wouldn’t mind, but of all the fucking insecure fucking outfits to hand the job to….MONSTER.COM? What, did the cunts at the DWP just like the fucking name or something?
This alone should keep the snoops at the jobcentre at bay if they ask for log-in details.
Important information
Site security
You are responsible for making sure that your log-in details (your username and password) are kept secret.
There’s a tick box that gives them permission to access to all your account and that overrides any login details. That’s why they will try to force you to tick it.
They may take our giros.. but they will NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!!!!
I didnt notice this before id written my own take on the UJ bullshit…which you can read here.
http://pikasnaughtycorner.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/universal-jobmatch-day-one.html
I have just done a search on Google for Universal Jobmatch. This result is on page 8 of the Google search engine, click the link, you won’t find anything.
Looks like someone has closed consent.me.uk down – any guesses who?
DWP expunges Universal Jobmatch info to make it Mandatory by …
http://www.consent.me.uk/dwpexpungesinfo/
19 Sep 2012 – On 08 August 2012 the DWP announced the intention to launch Universal Jobmatch by late Autumn. A critical set of questions arose as …
What a coincidence, eh? How long before the “the site johnnyvoid.wordpress.com does not exist” message?
Might be a good idea for Johnny to host his material on his own domain. WordPress.com can shut anyone down.
Just stick a donate button on the site.
I can apply to jobs without registering to the site. Why do they want me to register?
I’m going to get all you usless shirkers sanctioned, that’s why. Hope you all enjoy having my minions sitting on your shoulders, watching your every move, just waiting for the chance to pounce. Hehehe. Right, who’s first for the three year sanction then?
To control you.
But remember to deny your consent giving them access if and when they force you to register.
Should you decide to be forced that is. For example, if you have no support and simply cannot take a sanction,
It really is time to just smash it all up. To bits. Don’t bother rebuilding it.
It didn’t work first time around, did it?
Try something new.
The main problem is that the Conservative’s believe in privatisation, but that alway’s causes problems for everyone because when you privatise anything, the Private Provider’s who win the government contracts have their own idea’s on how to run things to their own advantage to yeild them maximum profit.
THAT’S ALL IT’S ABOUT, making profit and were the sucker’s caught in the middle.
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I’ve said all I am gonna say. Mofo’s cannot make you sign something that is against the law.
Just been on the site, absolutely awful!! Inarrowed my search to 2 miles of Southport… Hmm ok when was Dawlish and Exeter near Southport..
Didn’t you know, they’ve changed the boundary?
Glasgow now comes under Greater London.
They are using Apple Maps
I’m going to resist signing up for Universal Jobmatch now after looking into data security, but I did try yesterday and whatever I do, it (Universal Jobmatch) won’t let me in. It keeps on telling me I need to accept cookies (which, I have done on numerous occasions) and says I need to verify my email address by clicking on the link in the email they sent when I signed up on the Government Gateway site. The only links in the received email are to the top level of the Government Gateway site to which I am already logged in. There aren’t any email verification links anywhere there either. When I find a link from there to take me to Universal Jobmatch, that site asks me to sign in but then won’t recognise me and takes me back to the Government Gateway site. I found a link to a technical help-desk but they say it has nothing to do with them. I got through to my local Jobcentre and they said they had no idea how to help as they couldn’t use the site either!!!!!! Argggggggghhhhhh!
Have you noticed on the page in large font the two options of opening an account or loggin in… At the top of the page in tiny writing it has browse jobs….. Initially I thought I had no option but to sign up but thought better of it and searched th page-good job I did!
Hi Betty. I did see that, but, laughably, my region (East) isn’t even on there.
It is an old marketing trick, just look at supermarkets the price is in big figures, but if you read the smaller print its not so good. Rick dont sign up, or they will be able to monitor everything you do. Clear your cache after every visit clear the cookies.
Too right Eric. I’m amazed that I signed up in the first place. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to have worked anyway and I’m going in to close my Government Gateway account. The main thing here is that: if this site becomes compulsory and claimants are made to apply for every job within their abilities, employers will quickly figure out that they never have to offer more than minimum wage. Most jobs are already either minimum wage or part-time (also minimum wage), it can only get worse. I was a highly paid manager in my previous job and was made redundant. Now I’m beginning to feel like a criminal. In fact, if you listen to the government or the Daily Mail, benefit claimants are somewhere below child molesters in social standing. How did we ever get to this. And the bankers that caused this crap are saying it’s time to move on and forget!!!
Hi Rick if they make JSA claiments use this site, it’s not exactly going to be fit for the purpose intended… However if the real purpose is to make the JSA claiment fail therefore sanction-well it has worked! Indeed or Trovit are far superior!
I just tried the jobsearch on the new site, (don’t worry, I haven’t been daft enough to sign up!) and according to the site there aren’t any jobs in Cardiff… tell me something I didn’t already know!
I first heard about this new scam last Friday when I went to sign on. My advisor advised me to not create an account until about mid-week. I listened patiently, as I’m wont to do, but decided fairly quickly that I had no intention of signing up unless I positively have to. Hopefully some super-nerdy geek will find a way of hacking the site until it crashes… or maybe we could all co-ordinate and all try and use it at the same time… that should make sure that it crashes.
Something tells me however, that there will be extensive problems with the site and that it will cost a huge amount of money. Our government is traditionally rubbish at implementing IT systems, especially cast systems such as this. The ID card proposals were scrapped largely due to the cost (and scale) of the IT system required, and this hair-brained idea is so much bigger.
Oh didnt you know, they are planning an ID card system for benefit claimants.
Online benefit claimants will from next year be asked to verify their identities by giving a password to one of a list of private organisations that includes a credit check company, an international telecoms giant and a global defence company.
The Government yesterday announced its first seven partners in its controversial national Identity Assurance scheme which will allow online access next year to the new Universal Credit programme. The system is designed to avoid users having to register through a Government website and creating a Big Brother-style National Identity card by the back door.
The initial partner organisations selected by the Department for Work & Pensions includes: Post Office; Experian, the credit reference company; Cassidian, the defence and security division of the pan-European aerospace giant EADS; and the American global telecommunications giant Verizon.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/arms-giant-and-credit-firm-sign-up-to-no-10-online-identity-scheme-8315960.html
Anyone (voluntarily) signing up to this Universal Jobmatch scam should be “sectioned” under the Mental Health Act for the safety of their finances.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/24/65000-hate-crimes-against-disabled-people-and-rising-this-has-to-stop/
I think they’ll look at my credit report, which has several CCJ’s etc and roll their eyes.. Why do they want to look at claiments credit history-to prove we actually have no money ???
It’s probably to see if you have any debts or direct debits you have defaulted on – The DWP will probably reduce your benefit to pay your credtiors off – actually, thats a really nasty idea isn’t it?
I already have an attachment on my money due to unpaid water rates! They can bog off!!!!
Welcome to the world of 2012
well, 2 days in and the old problems that plague just about all jobsearch webshites are becoming apparent. heres what happened to me this morning..
http://pikasnaughtycorner.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/universal-jobmatch-day-two-dem-agency.html
“Life at the end of the welfare state”
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/everyday-insecurity
As an advisor for a charity which helps unemployed people I thought I’d have a look at the site as we’re certain to get clients needing help with it. Good luck if anybody needs to register. I filled in the details woth my email address, was sent an easy to remember 12 digit number as a User ID, then when I went back and logged in with this, was asked to complete the registration, including entering my email address again, only to be informed I had already been registered with this email address.
As for the jobs advertised, is there anybody who looks at the frame on the left for the information they need when the description of the job is in the main frame. It took me about 10 jobs before I even noticed that the contact details were located there. Also, all the contact phone numbers are missing the leading 0.
Finally, I tried to click on Contact Us to provide feed back, but the link doesn’t work.
As an experienced IT user it drove me mad, imagine awhat it will do to people with no experience or confidence.
Hi Alf. You’re lucky you got that far and that it thinks you’ve already registered. When I enter my ID number (I know it’s right – I took a screen grab) and password, it doesn’t recognise me on the Jobmatch site and says I have to authenticate my email address first, even though I can’t find any links anywhere that let me do that. Basically, I can log in to the Government Gateway site every time, but not the jobmatch site.
According to a website called ‘Right To Work’, the Cookie Monster organisation describes itself as “the worldwide leader in successfully connecting people to job opportunities”.
But given that organisation’s abysmal record on protecting its users confidential information, a more accurate description of Monster’s business activities would be “the worldwide leader in successfully connecting people to hackers, spammers and identity thieves”.
we need the guardian to get on the case. Or any non biased journalist with a voice.
I used to work for The Guardian. I’ve emailed the ‘Guardian Work’ desk. Hopefully, they’ll take an interest.
Rick:
Good idea, I’ve done the same thing on a couple of The New Statesman’s comment sections as you don’t need to sign up and register to leave comment’s, but you have to keep it clean – no swearing or links to websites.
Well done rick as well.. This is the POWER we have, we have contacts, friends, family, who have contacts.
In the end, everyone will work in commission-based job placement agencies. Those who don’t reach their targets will become unemployed and their place filled by a jobseeker, who will then place more unemployed recruitment agency staff into ever decreasingly low paid work. Watch this space… It could happen!
HERE’S A VERY VERY IMPORTANT FACT EVERYONE IS MISSING:
If you apply for a job through the UJM system and get it, or an employer leaves you an invitation to attend an interview and you get the job, your Work Programme Private Provider WILL be able to claim a job outcome, therefore you will have just made your Private Provider a buttload of money for free – because once they know you have a job, they WILL have all the details via the UJM system and will make sure you stay in the job for at least 2 years so they can claim their money from the DWP.
It’s all a big scam!
:- )
They attempt that regardless. My mum had been scheduled to attend her first meeting on a Serco run W2W program, but a week before that was due, she started work. Cue 2 months of daily phone calls from a Serco rep trying to get details of her employer, her salary etc, when they had absolutely nothing to do with her getting the job in the first place. The same also happened to me when i was sent on an A4E “course” in 2009, resulting in daily phone calls to my employer attempting to collect a “finders fee” from them, my boss told them, in very clear terms, to go fuck themselves.
This is the effect the “payment by results” policy will have on all unemployment services. They are all engaged in a desperate scramble for money, and will resort to anything they can get away with. Fraud, deception, bullying, these will be inflicted on all of us as the system cranks on. The people who work for these providers are probably all on commission based salaries so are desperate to secure as many “sales” as possible, which explains the hard sell approach many of the advisors (I use the term loosely as do the providers…) employ when dealing with claimants. And all of this is backed up with the ever-present threat of sanctions for “non-compliance”.
But are the “sanctions” real or just wind and water? If you refuse to register can they really take your money away when push comes to shove?
Well, it differs depending on company. Generally (speaking from experience of actually working for a W2W provider here), the department as a whole will be set a monthly or weekly target, this will then be broken down by their incompetent middle management staff and disseminated amongst teams, which will then be further broken down into individual targets of some description, with threats of unemployment being bandied over the heads of those who are “poor performers”.
Targets that were set for me during my time included things like number of successful contacts with candidates, number of contacts converted into placements, and then number of placements which led to permanent work. One of the things i had to point out to my incompetent and telesales obsessed manager on a regular basis that the “conversion to permanent work” target could not be held against anyone being as the particular W2W program we were working on was not intended to generate that, as the company got paid on the basis of successful work placements/apprenticeships.
It was fun watching them rage impotently while i idly leafed through an ACAS booklet covering tribunals for unfair and constructive dismissal.
@scarecrow i said this ages ago..when i looked into the whole ‘payment by results’ information i came across..the warning that were gieven in 2011 by reps form voluntrary orgainsations where the contracts were awarded to 80% in favour of the private sector..and a thing called ‘bid candy’ was cited…all these warnings were gieven..and unheeded..
and now with regard to youth unemployment they want to try a new idea..its called ‘offering wages’ as an incentive…as if its a new idea..but dont worry becoause the employer will be given a claims form where whatver ‘wages’ are paid can be claimed back..you can bet what will happen to those claims…pretty excessive claims will be submitted..and paid,,i can see one big giant fiddle being worked there..
by the way there is this:
Has anybody that had the guts to refuse to register actually been mandated or received a written direction to force them to do so? If you say “no” can they really sanction you and if so for what? How can it be wrong to refuse to make all your personal details – name, address, telephone number, email address, and so on – publicly accessible by anybody posing as an “employer”?
The Jobcentre advisers have no lawful letters printed yet (as that attempted one from Tauton Jobcentre proves) that could give you a lawful written direction to regiser, but you can bet by mid December they will have.
What a lovely Christmas Present!
What about refusing to allow them to track you use of the site? Jobs are advertised all over the place, e.g., totaljobs.com, better than UJM. If you apply for enough jobs based on your Jobseeker’s Agreement why should you have to use UJM at all? And if you choose to use it why logon at all? If they can’t identify you they can’t track you!
The DWP “legal eagles” will be busy working on it; may have to draft some new “Regulations”:
“The Employment, Skills and Enterprise 2012 (Universal Jobmatch Amendment) Regulations
Section 1A
A “jobseeker” within the meaning of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Act (as amended by the Universal Credit Act) will be deemed to have given consent to the surrender of their personal data (as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998) for the purposes of the Universal Jobmatch Scheme.”
Yes I think that is exactly what might happen, and very quickly, although, if they anticipated that people would resist the system on a technicality of the DPA 1998, I am surprised that IDS hadnt already done this and amended the regulations so he could get his sanctions regime running at full steam from the word go on the 19th. I can imagine him sat in his office, slamming his fist down on the desk in a fit of anger that people are trying to defy him – the smoke coming out of his ears with sheer rage and hatred for the unemployed who are trying to get the better of him.
After all, sanctions is all its about now, and the DWP will just be focussed on this one area – to sanction as many claimants off JSA as possible.
Perhaps its not as easy to change the DPA regulations as we think and this is why it has not already been done.
I cant imagine IDS is very popular even in the DWP, and he may well have compliance problems even with his own staff conniving against him – after all, they are all public servants – the object of hatred in the Tories’ eyes, and many of them will be just ass worried about their futures as we are.
The Data Protection Act has stood us in good stead since 1998; the DPA 1998 is based on sound principles. Any attempt to tamper with and/or subvert those principles via “Regulations” would be both unlawful and illegal and put the DWP/Grayling/Duncan Smith firmly in the dock on criminal charges. What is suggesting above is utterly preposterous.
Hi Practicing Barrister
I need some advice. I work one day per week which covers my Job Seekers Allowance and I do not receive payment from JSA. I still sign on for my stamps as I only work 7 hours. I am hoping the hours will increase and it is the only job that I have for now.
When I signed on this week my Advisor informed me of the Univeral Jobmatch and I asked him if it was compulsory and he said no. He then produced a Jobseekers Agreement and I told him that I had already signed one of those a few weeks ago. He pressed me for a signature and he said it was basically the same as the previous one. Like an idiot I signed it and I noticed yesterday that it contains the following wording:
‘I will register on the Gov Gateway and Universal Jobmatch by 10 Dec 12.’ The Advisor was underhand and I believe when I attend the Jobcentre for my next appointment I will be Sanctioned. In view of this I registered on the site but when it came to the Privacy section I could not go any further as I would be giving up my rights.
It is not necessary to register on this site as you can still search for jobs and I apply for jobs on many other sites. I am worried about a sanction as they can last a long time and if I lose my job they would still apply it and the hardship fund is around £40 per week.
On the agreement in the section ‘ what I will do to identify and apply for jobs’ he has also included – check my Universal Jobmatch account for jobs.
I feel really trapped by the Advisor being so underhand. These people are supposed to help and I am on the receiving end of one that is most devious.
Am I within my rights to ask to be removed from registration on the site? It did state that by registering on the site that you are in agreement of the privacy statement. This is misleading as you cannot get to the privacy statement without registering. I sign on again on the 11 Dec and the deadline on the Agreement is 10 Dec 12.
An opinion would be very much appreciated.
Your bang on the money Darroch, when a jobcentre adviser gives you a ”Jobseekers Direction” that is in conflict with your legal rights you absolutely can not be forced to do it. They will dish these directions out to register with UJ purely to frighten the ignorant into complying – but it’s all a bluff!! I was given a JD to register with the previous job brokerage service that they had and was told with relish by my adviser that my benefits WOULD be stopped if i refused to follow a JD. Well i’m afraid i knew better. Joining ANY job brokerage service requires your freely given consent so i refused to do it. I then received a doubt on my claim for not following a direction, so i just explained to the Decision Maker in writing that i know i can’t be mandated to give up my legal rights – doubt was dismissed! They are merely trying to frighten people into giving up their legal rights – don’t let them bully you into doing this. Your consent must be freely given without the treat of penalty to be vaild lawful consent.
Good one! I also had a female ‘advisor’ in the Thetford jobshop who relished in the fact that it’s mandatory to register. She still couldn’t quote the directive/regs to back it up though 😉
They tried to get me to sign up today when I signed on. Looks like a pile of shit but happily for me the staff at my jobcentre just go through the motions and as long as you appear to make some kind of effort they leave you alone.
I registered yesterday with UJM, but never got a conformation email with a link to click, i’m still waiting for it, but i can still search and apply for jobs without logging in or joining up, as most employers either put an email address, phone number or url link in their job ad anyway.
I asked my adviser today, what’s the point of joining up with UJM, she said to make finding work better and you can log your jobs online rather than writing on a bit paper, as that will be getting phased out anyway, and with universal credit on the way, everything will done online including signing on.
“The Spirit of the People is far greater than Man’s Technology” –
Eldridge Cleaver
IDS is a psychopathic killer.
With a gang of ‘Empire Builders’ and right-wing jobsworths at his command.
Today.
Tomorrow he’l be the ünter-fuhrer with his very own ⚡⚡.
If Drunken Schmidt is planning to introduce new regulations that remove claimants and jobseekers from the safeguards contained in data protection legislation then such regulations could well be discriminatory against one group of the population.
So most people will be entitled to their full rights under The Data Protection Act and Articles 8 & 10 of The Human Rights Act (HRA). Conversely, those roped into Universal Jobmatch, claimants and jobseekers, will face discrimination and unequal treatment in that their rights to privacy (Article 8) and their freedom to receive and impart information (Article 10) will be restricted or curtailed altogether.
But if this scenario is deemed to be unjustified discrimination against certain individuals then Schmidit’s new regulations could be stuck out by the terms of Article 14 HRA.
I couldn’t eat my tea last night because I was so wound up by this UJ s#*#e.
Below vermin.The lot of them.
If IDS gets his way – soon you wont be able to afford any tea, as he’ll have sanctioned your benefits for failure to comply!
Oh and Petey – On Johnny Void – you can swear as much as you like – there is no political correctness here. If people are offended they can fuck off and read the Sun.
IDS can fuck off and rot in Hell, and perhaps he will sanction the devil when he gets there. Nasty, poisonous bastard he is. Truly hateful cold blooded fucking reptile!!
You’ve got my fucking vote!
I’m having trouble sleeping, cause this UJM is constently on my mind now, I want to see IDS challenged, live on TV with all this information that’s been uncovered by various contributers – that proves the DWP is trying to hide the original documents regarding UJM to make it seem mandatory.
I’ve just christened IDS, Ian Duncan Scissorhands The bastard!
Makes you wonder, if it wasn’t for the ‘collapse’ of the economy, they wouldn’t get away with any of these cutbacks.
Just a few more years and everything will be gone.
these cheekey fuckers are automatically registering your email address’s
today i recived 2 emails from these bastards. i did not sign up to the service
at precisely 15:07 i recived 2 emails in my .live.co.uk inbox. one with the subject Verify your email address with 2 url’s in its body
with the 1st message saying
You recently specified an email address to be verified against your Government Gateway account. In order to complete the email verification process, please click on the link below or paste the link into your browser address bar. The verification link will expire on 21/11/2012 15:07.
If you do not complete your email verification before the verification link expires, you will need to login to the Government Gateway, go to the Your account section and re-request verification of your email address.
il remove the url the put here to continue registration
and the other part of the message said
If you did not register for a new Government Gateway account or request verification of the email address associated with your existing Government Gateway account, please click on the link below or paste the link into your browser address bar. The verification removal link will expire on 21/11/2012 15:07.
with a link here to click to say i did not register.
the other email they sent shortly just after reciving the 1st said
Gateway Registration Notification
Thank you for registering for the Government Gateway.
The Government Gateway is the UK’s centralised registration service for e-Government services. To find out which Government Services are available on-line please go to http://www.gateway.gov.uk/. You may enrol for the on-line Services at any time; however, some services need to be activated before you can use them. For these services you will receive a letter confirming your Activation code and instructions on how to activate the service, within seven days of enrolling.
To return to the Government Gateway through which you were registered please visit http://www.gateway.gov.uk.
This is an automatically generated email. Please do not reply as the email address is not monitored for received mail.
======================================================
i tryed to click on the link to say i did not register but i got an error
Email removal failed
Removal of your email address has failed.
You may not have completed the verification removal process within the time specified in the verification email or you may have clicked the link in the verification email twice and the removal has already completed.
The verification link in the original email is only valid for a short period. If the verification link is not used before its expiry time, your email address will not be verified against the initiating Government Gateway account.
========================================================
there is no way to delete the account and i have tried calling them to
inform them of this monumental fuck up in a nice way of course.
so now i have an account that some bright spark thort would be a nice joke to sign my addres up to. i have now fond out who did it
and as you can guess iam not happy with them.
Sounds like you’ve been signed up to this by someone else as a bit of a ‘prank’. You’re right not to be happy about this as even though it may have been meant as a prank, it’s still basically identity theft.
How long is it going to be before this sort of thing becomes widespread? This system is way too open to abuse, and the government knows this, the sort of system they are planning that will be capable of administering so many people needs to have a lot of administrators, many of whom will no doubt be minimum waged drones slaving in some sort of data centre where no doubt sloppy security measures will become the norm, plus that less scrupulous staff or those so desperate for money will be tempted to sell on your data to gangs specialising in identity fraud.
Many IT experts warned the previous government that the madcap scheme to introduce ID cards was fraught with this kind of problem, and they hadn’t proposed using a mickey mouse US based company known for security leak issues to administer the data, even partially. Along with others I also suspect that this is ID cards by sleuth.
We can defeat this, we can swamp the system, refuse to comply when we don’t have to – for instance, they have said that they’ll retain the phone line service for the forecast 20% who for whatever reasons don’t sign up to UJ. The wording so far indicates that the system is voluntary, and that they expect that 80% will have signed up by August 2013. We just have to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and spread the word on legitimate ways of getting around the system.
The whole Data Protection Act 1998 makes making this system compulsory is problematic for the bastards as they can’t force you to sign away your rights. You just have to stand up to them and mean it. Even in the former East Germany a common form of resistance to attempts by the Stasi to get you to sign up to spy on your friends and family was simply to refuse, or be so crap at it by giving them duff info that eventually unwilling recruits would be left alone.
Having read a lot about the surveillance system of East Germany, all I can say is that I’m very concerned as what is being created here is much much more scary. Of course it’s all been brought in on the crest of a wave about ‘law & order’ and sorting out the ‘benefit cheat criminals’, that’s how it’s justified to the Daily Mail reading idiots and their ilk, (the trolls/judas goats you sometimes see on here) the ones who spout crap like ‘if you’ve done nothing wrong/complied with the system, you’ve got nothing to fear’. That’s total crap and we have a lot to fear. The Birmingham Six weren’t guilty of anything other than being Irish, and the Cardiff Three were just convenient Cardiff rouges that were easily fitted up by corrupt cops. This doesn’t even take into account the inevitable mistakes and security breaches that will occur with such a vast surveillance system, or the mining of our personal data by the private companies that will get fat contracts to administer the system, as well as being able to profit further by the sale of our data to all kinds of crooks and capitalists, (same difference!). We should rename UJ as the Organisation Todt Website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_Todt
There are some who will baulk at the use of analogies to Nazi predecessors, but I consider them an apt shorthand rather than as hyperbole. Whilst not strictly accurate in many ways, they do however illustrate the kind of society that all the mainstream political parties want to create. If you want a more up to date analogy/illustration of the kind of dystopia that is being attempted, go no further than the films of Paul Veerhoeven, Robocop, Starship Troopers etc. That’s more like the corporate state/fascism that we are facing today – much like the fascism that existed in Italy and Spain for many years. Not as notoriously evil as the Nazis, who have tended to overshadow both Italian and Spanish fascism, as well as the fascism once rife in South America, (backed by you know who, the US Government), but none the less an evil we can do without – how long before we start to have ‘disappeared’ in the UK? Or internment without trial that was once commonplace in one part of the British State?
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
The Lives of Others
Well, if you’ve done nothing wrong, are compling with the system and genuinely seeking work, you’ve got nothing to fear. Only the lazy, work-shy scroungers have something to fear 🙂
Idiot. I invite you to register on the site and let us peruse your personal details by posing as potential employers. This is not about refusing work or turning down positions, it’s about having intimate, personal data pasted to a cyber-wall like posters for everybody and anybody to see.
Your really are a dick, Goat.
And a small, limp, flaccid one at that!
no that would be giving him a complement,
the bacteria that live on pond scum are higher up on the evolutionary chain
than him.
Juda Goat:
Sounds like you have been propelry brainwash by Cameron and Co.
Back in the days if you were on street corner stood on your soap-box speaking about “setting up unions”, “workers rights” and the like a couple of coppers would come along, lift you up by both arms, drag you off and that was the last you were seen off.
Maybe, but still people risked that. The only reason we have anything to lose at all is because of the sacrifices of those who took a stand. All it takes for evil to succeed is that good people do nothing. Are you suggesting that we should all be lilly-livered cowards like you seem to be? We all know that the bastards are out to get us, that’s what this blog is all about, but instead of all of us running around like headless chickens and venting our frustrations here, we need to be creating an effective opposition. Of course one individual on a soapbox is vulnerable, and likely to be ‘carried off’, but if thousands act in that way it becomes very hard indeed to carry them off. What we don’t need is apparent defeatism like yours.
Phone the jobcentre plus up, tell them that someone signed you up. Dont do it online, if you phone you speak to a person and explain. Online you are just data.. on the phone you clog up their lines and the calls are monitored. so record it.. everyone should phone the job centre with the complaints
Report them to the ICO.
No mention of Universal Jobsmatch when I went to the interrogation centre yesterday, but there was a leaflet about it on the front of the advisors desk ( I decided not to take one).
My advisor spent most of my interrogation giving me chapter and verse on how he could tell his customers were benefit scroungers and how all they need is a kick up the bum and support. At that point I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Universal Jobmatch: Sign up now for a GUARANTEED* sanction! 🙂
* Up to 3 years
Terms and Conditions Apply
this government needs to be removed from power as soon as possible.
i think david camerion is nothing more than a modern day Hitler. but hey
thats just my view and may not be fact. while the world is in chaos he can hunker down in his underground bunker under number 10. sipping cups of tea with his toff chums while making cuts to public services but spending the saved money on hair brained schemes.
Ive just been on universal job match and there was (still is) a factory operative job advertised by GW trading in Scunthorpe (i assume this to be Golden wonder crisps) there is no other contact details to apply for the job other than clicking on the apply button which then redirects you to some dodgy Brazilian website where the page isnt even found says it all really lol.
you would think with all the money spent on this grand new job searching site they would have tested it properly. i guess that’s what you get when you employ public sector workers to do your bidding. they know its broken in so many ways but “they know better than you” and its not there problem
its a problem with your laptop/pc apparently when you cant use the site
its a total joke the website is nothing like monster.com which my interrogation centre advisor informed me about. i already have my CV registered with the likes of monster.com / cwjobs/totaljpobs/reed/hays/ and several other agency’s in the area i live.i also search sites like indeed.co.uk
fishforjobs. im also registered for any vacancy’s with my local counsels temporary staff register.
i contact agys twice a week and search the sites every day of the week twice a day
so the natzi’s at the I-C cant say i dont put effort into job searching
they want every one to use there new site so they can track every one. i guess my extended list of jobs that i apply for along with
detailed records of who and when i contacted enquireing for and applied for a job s not
good enough, there is just not enough room on that print out they give you to “record” your job search activity. they only give you 4 spaces to fill in for
“jobs you appealed for” the last two weeks i have had to add an extra 10
to each weeks list.
i can see a lot of new jobs not being advertised with the new site.
it wont be long before its under so much load it will not work.
I certainly hope hackers would never target the Universal jobsmatch site. and cause it to implode, I certainly wouldnt want anyone to think i am calling all hackers to go there and hack to their hearts content. Perish the thought that this new site who probably has a lot of security holes in would be hacked. I love this subtext skill 😉
You have to hand it to them and their ‘spin’. Cameron and his Bullingdon bullies have managed to take a World economic crisis caused by the rich and their banking cronies and swap the focus and blame on to the poor and needy of this country. They’re safe in their onslaught as such people are rarely Conservative voters, so they can lie and accuse with impunity. Everyone here should read this excellent Guardian article on how ministers and the press peddle lies and spurious statistics to impress the gullible conservative-voting public into believing whatever they’re told. It’s a good article: http://bit.ly/Quq7xC
The logical progression of Universal Jobmatch is that at sometime, not in all cases, but most people who are working now may or will lose their jobs, then they will have to sign up to UJM, sooner or later everyone of working age from 18 to 66 will be logged on to this UJM system and the DWP will have reached their inevitable goal of THE BIG BROTHER STATE – EVERYONE UNDER CONTROL – IF IT’S LEFT TO CONTINUE UNCHALLENGED.
To give you some idea of what we’re up against: in my last job, when I complained about the removal of legal aid to the poorest in society, I was told by one enlightened colleague that (and I quote) “Well, someone has to stop all those chavvies (sic) stealing my money”. Left me with a warm glow (sigh).
“The Labour Party rescues the unemployed
1922”
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redcly042.htm
It feels to me as if the people in charge (not the politicians) they’re just the mouth pieces, actually want people to riot.
All they need is an excuse, then they can bring their ultimate plan into action.
The system is under tremendous pressure and heading for disaster in the very near future. They need to be in control as much as possible.
Why do you think we have so many cameras on our streets?
So the people will be safer? Don’t make me laugh.
CHECK THIS OUT – THE DWP HAVE CHANGED THE 10.7 STATEMENT AND NOW YOU CAN’T COPY AND PASTE IT ANYMORE EITHER BUT IT’S ACCESSABLE THROUGH THE GOOGLE WEBVIEWER LINK BELOW.
Click to access viewer
What do you mean? You can find Schedule 2.1, and all the contract documents, here:
http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en¬iceid=610334&fs=true
Expand the Documents section then download and unzip TLMS_Zip 1 Schedule 2.zip. You can copy and paste from the Authority Requirements document you find there.
We need to establish two things, and then move forwards on the basis of the data provided to us by the establishment of these key facts; (1) does compelling a Job seeker to sign up for UJ contravene any laws pertaining to privacy, and DATA SECURITY? Well I feel that it does. I think we need some kind of clear indication from someone who understands chapter and verse about the Data Protection Act, to establish ONCE AND FOR ALL, that what the DWP is proposing to coerce Job seekers into doing is CLEARLY IN BREECH OF THAT ACT.
(2) We need to establish a CLEAR, CONCISE and LEGAL procedure for taking legal action against the DWP, on the basis of breeches of the Data Protection Act. This needs to be in place, and ready to be deployed on behalf of Job seekers as they WILL be threatened with sanctions should they fail to comply with the bullying of DWP robots.
Fellow Job seekers – I am not in a position to be sanctioned and to lose my only source of income – not even for a month. On the other hand, I am also not in a position to hand over personal freedoms to some jumped up prick of a civil servant. Please bear in mind, that in order for these scumbags to monitor you 24/7, you must ALLOW the installation of tracking cookies upon your computer. There is, as I type EU wide legislation which deals with tracking cookies and how they impact upon the privacy of an individual. We need to stand together on this one.
Purple Goon:
Good idea, everybody needs to send an email to loads of solicitors with your excellent questions included.
Surely if it’s a data protection issue the people to complain to are the ICO – that’s what they’re there for after all?
Universal Jobmatch gives the option of “uploading” your CV or “preferably” using its own template. You can rest assured that if you “upload” a CV it will be expected to at least include the * (mandatory) information required by the template “CV”. And who is say it doesn’t get more intrusive and intrusive.
Looks like history is repeating itself…
“The means test scandal : a scathing exposure
1929-1933″
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redcly069.htm
And what does Labour do when they get in…
We are finding out what our great grandparents lives were like. Tories/Labour/LibDems….All are the same, all in the same party, working hand in hand, they take it in turns, when in power, bad cop, when out of power, good cop.
The above link not working!, try this one…
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redcly069.htm
Latest update on Unversal Jobmatch:
I may be reading this wrong, but I think the DWP have backed down on Universal Jobmatch – If I’m correct I think we’ve won lads – give it a read.
Click to access viewer
Requiring Jobcentre Plus customers to use the services
10.7 When the Services are implemented, Jobcentre Plus customers (including potential jobseekers) will not be mandated to register and create a profile.
Discussions are ongoing with the Authority and Ministers, and requiring customers to use the services may be introduced at a later date. The Contractor shall ensure the design of the Services is such that they are scalable in the event of such a change in policy.
10.8 At implementation of the Services, Jobcentre Plus customers will be encouraged to use the Services, via their ongoing interactions with Jobcentre Plus staff.
10.9 For the avoidance of a doubt, there is no requirement to migrate any Jobcentre Plus customers information to the Services to create a profile/record.
From: DWP TLMS Schedule 2.1, Authority (Universal Jobmatch) Requirements
If anything it’s just a temporary reprieve from mandation. It still doesn’t mean they won’t try to mandate you by stealth – i.e. give you a jobseeker’s direction.
Lucozade:
10.9 – Means they can’t now give you a jobseekers direction.
Hmmm…I took that to mean there’s no requirement for the Jobcentre to migrate our information, not that we wouldn’t still have to ourselves. Hopefully I’m wrong.
By the way, those points now seem to be missing from the document you linked to – what’s that all about?
Please remember that this doesn’t just apply to the Jobcentre advisers, it also applies to your Work Programme Providers advisers also.
I know you’ll want to start a new comments section off for this one Johnny!
Annos – the above link is working, you have to scroll down the pages.
Obi Wan Kenobi,
Thanks, I having some trouble posting some posts!, I am not giving them enough time to appear seems to be the problem!.
Lucozade – you have to scroll down the page – on the left you’ll see a smaller version of a page, they are numbered and highlighted with a boader of blue – scroll down till it’s at number 33 then look at the main page displayed fully on the screen – you’ll be in the 10.somethings.
I’d say it’s a definite, but temporary, reprieve. 10.8 is actually more useful as it would be difficult for the jobcentre to interpret ‘encourage’ to mean mandate or jobseeker’s direction – mind you, the staff are notably dim witted, so who knows.
The problem, of course, is that the majority of the people they attempt to ‘encourage’ won’t know their rights and will still sign up.
All the Jobcentre staff can do now is suggest it or tell you about it.
There was no mention at all when I signed on earlier. I wonder how long the reprieve will last though.
Universal Credit should be delayed because changes crucial to the new system – in particular it being online by default – could be “baffling” for many people and put the most vulnerable at risk, according to the Work and Pensions Select Committee. Cameron, unsurprisingly, is determined to press on anyway…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/22/universal-credit-will-fail-vulnerable
I actually managed to apply for TWO jobs this morning…..WHOOP-EEE- FUCKING DOO!!!!
out of 6 of the jobs i applied for today 1 of them was on a job point
but surprise surprise it was not on-line the others were with other professional jobsites. but i have printed proof of applying and will attach it to my search report to hand into the newly employed drone that’s “in training” that should confuse it somewhat. haha suck on that JCP. im searching its not my fault if the jobs im skilled for arnt on your spy site.
I have just signed on this lunchtime, and there was no mention at all of Universal Jobmatch. No leaflets, nothing. I don’t know if this is just a temporary reprieve, but I wouldn’t dare assume the DWP have actually seen sense…
It is back to the drawing board for the DWP/Jobcentre.
They will be back!
The website is not working at all today. I hope the whole thing crashes completely.
It appears to be under attack 🙂 , hope you haven’t signed up to it 🙂
well that didnt take long 😉
I’ve not even visited it yet and have no intention of doing so.
just delete your cookies afer and add the site to your cookie block list
so they cant track what you are doing. personally i always use a VPN when visiting any government sites. i find it funny that they expect people to understand what the cookies do with the explanation they give when you click allow cookies.
there is no layman’s terms its all jargon the whole site is just flawed
its like they just threw it together in 5 minuets and said there you go guv now pay us for the sloppy buggy code that will need reworing by a 3rd party outsourced at the tax payers expense.
“To learn more about cookies, click on ‘Accept cookies?’.” LOL
To learn more about this gun, stand still while I shoot you.
If you don’t log on they can’t track you in any way. You can only get surveiled while logged on to the site using your personal account; cookies are irrelevant.
The Jobcentre managers will have had new instuctions from the DWP yesterday not to try and coherse people into signing up for UJM and will now have passed that instuction on to their advisers.
OK. The registration demand on Universal Jobmatch has disappeared. What the heck is going on? It’s no different now than the old site only even more crap, slow and shit to use!
So how many suckers have fallen for Jobcentre advisers telling them it’s manatory to sign up for Universal Jobmatch, and how many are now aware that it isn’t as of 21/11/12?
cant really call them “suckers” most of those people wont know about this blog but will have signed up and added a cv / job skills etc to the site becasue they were told by JCP to do so.
DWP know they have fucked up and now they are trying to cover there tracks, its not as easy to do that these days. but im sure they will come up with an excuese and no one will get fired or have criminal action taken against them, just like all those bankers and MPs who have avoided having a record or being imprisoned.
Of course you can call them suckers, they have created a profile/account on an unknown system call UJM, on the say-so of an adviser who can offer no information at all on UJM – something the average person had never heard of until Monday 19th Nov when they went to sign on at their respective Jobcentres which had no leaflets or any published information regarding UJM. They have basically signed up to something they knew nothing about.
I’d call that a sucker!
The Jobcentres should have been advertising this at least 3 months before it was introduced, that would have given people time to come to terms with it, but no Iain Duncan Smith tried to sneak it in through the back door at the last miniute/second – hence all the confusion for people on JSA and JCP staff alike.
Sounds just like this current government- the same thing as with the police commissioner elections- foist an ill-conceived and ill-publicised plan on the unknowing populous, and leave them bewildered and confused.
Ill-thought-out and botched radical new reforms are the Coalition’s speciality it seems. Petition for a no-confidence motion anyone?
They could try claiming compensation for maladministration aganst the DWP.
Went to sign today, have been on the WP for a year now. They did not ask me to sign up for the Universal jobmatch? Why not? Because I have a compliance interview coming up? Because I know the DPA (Data Protection Act) better than they do? Any ideas?
It’s been taken offline temporarily because it wasn’t working properly. If you go to the site the login and registration bits have been removed and the site looks much the same as the old DirectGov site. But it will be back. Universal Credit and Universal Jobmatch are different heads of the same monster.
I’ve not signed up yet or tried it properly, but I’ve had no direction yet to try and do so. What I can say is that the search function is terrible compared to the old one, and doesn’t allow the user to refine the search in anywhere near the way I’d prefer.
I don’t like the spying aspect but at the same time it might encourage me in forming better habits, as ’twere. If what people have been saying here about the data security and vetting processes are true, tho’…
I’m waiting until I can discuss this properly with the Work Programme adviser and maybe someone else.
I’ve just returned from my local jobcentre where I met with my advisor, who I met last week. She mentioned UJ last week and after checking my jobsearch booklet today said she had some “homework” for me and started talking about UJ again. When I asked if it was mandatory she looked quite sheepish and said that they’d start issuing Jobseeker Directions to mandate people to sign up for the service. Surely this can’t be right and flies in the face of what the DWP have said so far regarding it being compulsory?
Anyway, I have no intention of signing up to this unless they give me no choice. I haven’t been issued with a directive and it’s not on my Jobseeker’s agreement, and it says on there – dated and signed 15/11/2012 – that I am expected to use the direct.gov site 0 times per week as part of my jobsearch
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http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/dwp-it-system-causes-benefit-data-backlog/6524754.article
Worried councils are reporting huge backlogs in their benefits departments due to problems with a new IT system vital to the government’s flagship benefit reforms.
Councils have seen backlogs of thousands of files, in some cases upwards of 10,000, build up under the automated transfers to local authority systems project, or ATLAS.
The system launched in phases from mid-2011 and sends councils daily information about everything from changes of address and phone numbers to tax credits.
Councils have reported that the backlogs mean they may be overpaying housing benefit and some blame increased rent arrears on the system.
Just read that article – all I can say is OMG – Universal Credit is already well into crash and burn mode and it’s not even been rolled out yet nationally.
If their Universal Credit IT system goes down, I can foresee them blaming a scapegoat as usual, releasing a statement saying: “Our Universal Credit IT system has been hacked and destroyed by Marxist cyber terrorists opposed to our welfare reforms because they will get the unemployed back into work and off benefits. Therefore we will be unable to pay people their benefits for an indefinite period of time, until we can get the system back up and running again. So welfare claimants will have to go to foodbanks, Churches, charities and homeless shelters for help until we can resolve the situation.” They may then decide to use the system going down, as an opportunity to eliminate the benefit system for good, by never fixing the IT system.
Last time my computer was registered with a Council site it got a virus that literally blew my computer up! It changed the voltage settings on any computer that received it! Cost Councils thousands – as well as me!!! So they can forget any of our computers being used to access this site.
Easy way to avoid viruses and other nasties, don’t use Microsoft Windows, use a Linux operating system, they’re immune to all Windows viruses, and best of all, are free and various versions of it will run on quite old computers… I have a couple of computers that I installed it on that I quite literally found in the street with things like Windows 98 or 95 on them! Don’t expect blindingly fast operation, but they will actually work and do the job. I won’t say that there aren’t any viruses for Linux, as there are two that are known in captivity, but in order to infect a Linux system with a virus you have to actually install it! The viruses that exist for Linux won’t even survive a reboot, unless you’re stupid enough to install them, and you couldn’t possibly do that inadvertantly like you can in Windows.
Free half-decent software too. I use Mint and Ubuntu. Free as air.
Annos
One of your links took us to the right wing Free Republic site and comments regarding the loony left and quotes by hitler, hardly the place where people from this site would like to find themselves.
So here’s what you do if you’re forced to register.
(1) Don’t under any circumstances upload your CV or create a profile. This surely cannot be demanded because of the protections afforded under the Data Protection Act 1998.
(If you do post personal information on the site you could theoretically be bot-matched to apply for ANY vacancy that you could possibly apply for with 90 minutes travel from your home! Be careful!)
(2) If you have registered with the saute do NOT under any circumstances browse jobs while logged on to the Universal Jobmatch site. If you do your every action will be tracked. Browse the jobs advertised on the UJ site anonymously noting down which ones you want to apply for, if any, and only then at that point log on, view, and only apply for jobs that you really are interested in and have listed from the site beforehand when logged off.
(If you browse jobs while logged off and only log on to apply for the positions you really are interested in you avoid having to give any reason why you didn’t apply for some random job you quickly took a look at on the site.)
Thus:
Golden rule: AVOID REGISTERING WITH THE SITE IF YOU CAN.
Silver rule: DO NOT BROWSE JOBS ON THE SITE WHEN LOGGED ON.
Bronze rule: ONLY LOG ON TO THE SITE TO APPLY FOR JOBS YOU HAVE ALREADY LISTED AND ARE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN, OR TO UPDATE YOUR ACCOUNT FOR OTHER REASONS NOT CONNECTED WITH MAKING JOB APPLICATIONS.
In reality the surveillance will turn people off the site like the plague whether they are working and looking for other jobs or unemployed.
Actually according to the FOI request it seems they have managed to get around the data protection issue.
I cannot log on to UJ at all – not had anything back to verifiy my government gateway account.
Yesterday I attended my WP Provider Ingeus. The have set up a website ingeusworks.com, it funnels all jobs from various websites, I have to apply via this. How on earth will I be able to satisfy both Ingeus and the DWP at the same time when UJM becomes mandated??? I can’t be on both sites at once.! If I spend more hours on one site the other will raise a sanction doubt for not putting enough hours on theirs-catch 22! Oh and the advisor said I don’t need to use the UJM ,my searches will be all through their site-who’s telling the truth!?
I believe that once you’re on the WP activities on that take precedence over the Jobcentre.
im not on the WP andi hope to god they dont send me on it,
as there is no need for me to learn how to conduct my self at interview or learn how to write a CV. cover letter / spec letters etc… it would jsut be a waste of my time and theres, im also registered with several jobsearch websites which do not advertise there clients jobs with the JCP.
as long as you are satisfying the providers requirements the JCP can not issue sanctions , if they did you would get it over turned at the tribunal
i dont know why they bother issueing sanctions as they know it will get over turned and they know it
this whole WP UJM is a FARCE and is failing hard. its been all over the BBC news today.
IMO the current govt are wasteing money and they jump up and down in the house of commons like school boys pointing the finger at labour for doing the same. pot lettel black , god i love this country.
CAMERION and your toff chums GET out of town because WE dont want you and your slave-labour programs that take hours an paid jobs away from those that want to contribute to the world.
vendetta
Is this so that Ingeus can spy, track your applications and report you to the jobcentre. Why do you have to use the pimps “portal”?
does anyone know how much this shambles cost to set up? be interesting to know. leak it to papers.
im sure a request under the freedom of information act will do the trick
as this is tax payers money thats been used to setup and as a taxpayer
im not happy with the way they have gone about things with the shambles of a website they have produced. its worse than the old jobseakersdirect site. just flood them with calls and emails via the “contact us” form
in protest saying you are unhappy with the debacle they have come up with.
I saw a adviser on the 22-11-2012 they said do i know about the uj. I said i have heard of it, they said that i will have to sign up for uj. I told them that it is to do with monster and that they have been hacked into before and that i dont want my personel information stolen.Also you can get viruses and that. They couldnt understand still why i wouldnt register. I asked them what would happen if i didnt register.They said that they could get a jobseekers direction for me to sign. So i said to them that are blackmailing us into signing when it is against the law under the data protection act.She plainly denyed that we was being blackmailed. She said that i should strongly think about registering and i said i would think about it.I have no intention of signing up for this shit.Just before i finshed with the advisor i said to her that when is it going to be conpulsery to sign up to it.All she said was that i will let you know.Then that was the end of the advisor appointment. Can someone please tell me something. A few days ago i went onto uj i didnt sign up to it but stupid me i clicked on accept cookies i did browse jobs.but after i finished i went into control panel and internet options and deleted my cookies and internet history.I was just wondering even though i have deleted my cookies and that can jcp still look up what i am doing on this site and other sites Any help on this i would be very gratfull.THANKS
As long as you’re not logged in the Jobcentre can’t track you. Once you’re logged in to the system, from that point on, your actions are recorded otherwise not.
jim. Thanks for that i appreciate that. I have got to sign on tomorrow i will let you know what happens.
Signed on today and got the leaflet for UJM given to me, along with a letter for an adviser interview. I was told by the person behind the desk I had to register for UJM before I saw my adviser. I explained that I had signed up but had no intention of using the site any more due to data protection concerns and would continue to use Reed.co.uk and local agencies. When she told me that it was mandatory, I really enjoyed reading out the UJM terms and conditions that clearly state it isn’t compulsory at all, and gave her a print-out of the appropriate paragraph. She just looked at me and said ‘oh!’ Her face was a picture. She didn’t argue though and just said I’d have to take it up with my adviser in 2 weeks. Got a feeling this is going to be a long battle. I’ve been out of work for eight months now and they’re already starting to talk about W2W.
As somebody said above only browse adverts on Universal Jobmatch when you’re logged out of the system (so the software can’t track you) and write down or simply remember any that you fancy and want to apply for. Once you’ve picked out the ones that are available that really interest you, you can log on and only scope these pre-selected adverts: this is important because it stops you from having to give any reasons as per why you didn’t apply for some random job that you checked on but didn’t like. I’m willing to bet that loads of people are going to end up getting in the neck because they reject jobs because “Job is too far from my home” (supposed to be willing to travel for 90 minutes to and from work) or “Job is below my salary requirements” (supposed to accept minimum wage) or whatever. If you want you can also pad out your Work Search, to make yourself look more active, by checking out a series of posts that you know you can’t do giving the reason “Job doesn’t match my skills”.
Try not to give the “powers that be” a chance to find fault with you.
I don’t intend to use Universal Jobmatch unless I’m forced less because it monitors what you’re up to than because it really, honestly and truly is a phenomenally shit site!
Not all jobseekers are IT-literate though; I’ve been sat in a provider’s office and and had to show the same person over and over again how to get on the jobcentre site (they can’t even open the browser): “I’m OK when I get on, it’s the getting on”) These jobseekers are lambs to the slaughter: staff at a providers will log them on and tell them to “self-sanction”: “If you don’t like the job just click you are not interested in it” (or click these sanction-generating boxes for them).
And another thing is when the sanctions come flying in (3 years at the 3 click) they wont even know why!
Even with help from people like you, they are sitting ducks (I don’t entirely exclude myself from this description. Even after having worked in offices/using IT for quite a number of years I haven’t spent that much time trying to understand the technicalities but starting to wish I had now though … The awful irony is that this is set up with the stated aim of ‘getting everyone online’ & ‘teaching’ everyone who is less IT-literate how to job seek. It’s not a tiny minority who will be having their first lessons in IT from the DWP/WP. So “lambs to the slaughter” is right because if you’re so new to something it’s likely you’ll believe that what you’re being shown is ‘the best & maybe the only way’ and won’t know what alternatives may exist. This group are going to be the easiest to ‘entrap’/set up for a fail. I’m sure someone has thought of this – it’s too perfect.
Truly creepy scenario – (& a massive understatement; descriptions ever-harder to find for this horror story).
The cookies (and any other tracking methods) will match your logged-in activity to your logged-out activity; this is how on-line retailers etc. operate so they know what products you are viewing etc, when you are not logged into your account.
they cant do shit all when da c00ki3z are deleted at browser shutdown.
they can track all they want when you are loged in. its not lke iam searching for ET while jobsearching right?
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Out of interest several days ago I tried to register with a dummy email address and false name; I received a email from the system thanking me and saying that I would be sent a letter within a week. Currently I haven’t received any activation instructions or identification number or whatever and so can even log on to the system and have a look around using my alias. Anybody else had this happen to them? How come some people have id numbers doled out immediately while other don’t?
some asshole signed upmy email address and it was automaticaly activated
and i was unable to do anything about it, currently have a dispute going on with them and told them about the automatic activaton was a data protection act breach . and legal action against the fucktard who thort it woudl be funny to submit my personal email address, its not even the one i use for my cv and other jobsites. if they do make me sign up i will have no choice, but i allways print out the jobs i apply for along with any communications relating to the outcome of applying. it doess piss the starzi’s at the interrogation centre 😀
JOHNNY VOID YOUR SITE HAS BEEN HACKED ASKING PEOPLE TO LEAVE A COMMENT WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO SEE OTHER’S COMMENTS AND SOME OF YOUR POSTINGS ARE MISSING.
Supposing you can be forced to register, do you have to upload your CV or create a profile? As long as you don’t post all of your personal details on the site and forbid the DWP from looking at your activities you remain anonymous. I really can’t see, because of the Data Protection Act 1998, how anybody could be forced to store personal details like name, address, phone number, email address, educational and work history, names and addresses of referees, along with a three month history of their job applications, notes, feedback from employers and so on, on the system.
So what about this for a plan: If you get a direction to register for the site do so but don’t create an account or post any of your personal data, deny the DWP access, and refuse DWP emails.
You’re in the clear then as far as I can see.
the jobmatch site took down the only job I would have applied for, Elimination specialist LOL
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It’s a complete joke and utter nonsense.
Thanks for highlighting a silly mistake I made in capital letters, not be au fait with forum formats yet.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/360348/3m-starving-in-the-UK
MY OH MY……WHATS THIS IS THE DAILY EXPRESS? STARVING FAMILIES…OH DEAR..YOU DONT THINK THAT THE FAILY EXPRESS CONTRIBUTED TO IT DO YOU?
OH WAIT HELP IS AT HAND..
“To help the food bank please send cheques made payable to The Trussell Trust, Unit 9, Ashfield Trading Estate, Asfield Road, Salisbury SP2 7HL or visit www. Trusselltrust.org/donate ”
THAT WOULD BE THE TORY GET RICH QUICK ORGANISATION WOULDNT IT…SO ALL IS WELL THEN AND THANK YOU EXPRESS FOR HELPING THE TRUST PROFIT..
CUNTS..
I’ve found it can’t upload my CV. I’ve created 3 accounts so far and same problem each time. As a protest I will be creating a fresh account everytime I do a job search. If they want to track me they will need to access each account.
It occures to me that soon we will need to ask permission before we pick our noses or scratch our arses, perhaps if some nice person out there could design a form for it we could spam IDS with applications. As a protest.
did any of the email address’s you registered for use with the gateway
happen to get automatically registered with out clicking on the varifacation
link in the 2nd email they send you?
it would be nice if we could spam the crap out of IDS snail mail address
but none of it would reach him, it would just get held at the delivery depo.
we could just flood out there support request with 1000’s of “quearies”
they are alrady overwhelemed with requests and cant respond with in the time they specify. it takes them about 7 working days and then they send it onto “another department”
that modern day Nazi and his gang of poshboys have to go at the next election,do not let them win.
.
Another excellent Guardian article on the lies this vicious government spreads about benefits: http://bit.ly/Wiyyue
IDS (That well-known bowel disease/Benefits Nazi) commented thus “Life expectancy on some estates, where often three generations of the same family have never worked, is lower than the Gaza Strip”. This lying bastard should be taken to account on his lies and slander against benefits seekers. The article goes on to say that the Joseph Rowntree foundation, during their research, couldn’t find one single instance where three generations of any family had never worked. Indeed: they could find only less than 1% of benefits seekers where 2 generations had never worked.- and this in 2 of the most deprived areas of the country.
We need these stories to get out into the public arena and someone to start showing the lies these evil posh-boys use on a daily basis; to further their own nasty ambitions and fill the bank accounts of their buddies in crime: the out-sourcers, bankers and multi nationals that bleed this country dry by providing non-services at huge cost to the taxpayers of this country.
Makes me sick.
So, that’s it then: “Unemployed to be forced to use government job website”
On The Guardian website today… http://bit.ly/UJMLz3
IDS… You’re a Cnut! And a stupid, fawning, incompetent one at that!
How can they force you to sign up to the Universal Jobsite if it goes against the Data Protection Act?
I dont think people will take this for a moment.Your right! it totally removes their rights by turning a blind eye to the data protection act 1998. This is the mentality of the tory party, the ico however may have a completely different view as may a court of law.
Yes , they live in a bubble where posh boys and spoilt brats live happily together. The way things are progressing at donkey speed with duncan smiths workprogramme its only a matter of time before that goes bust when the asleep ministers realize that providers aren’t finding work for anyone but just collecting a payment per head of all who they place on a totally useless course.Maybe the tax payers should be made more aware of these games mr smith rather than constantly slagging and blaming the unemployed for this countries economic disaster.
Another LIz with one L posted earlier with her tale of accidentally signing up for uj and afraid her benefit may be affected in the future should she be sanctioned for a long time and have to live on £40pw.hardship allowance. She only works 7 hours now and only signs for her stamp not benefit so what does she live on at present or does she have savings?
Guy Fawkes I received a letter from the Jobcentreplus Manager in which he apologised if I felt intimidated with regard to the signed Job Seekers agreement and that he appreciated I had concerns about the security of the site. It also states that my Advisor will remove the statements from the Agreement, however that was dated 14 Decemember. IDS statement 20 December reverses all of that. For my 7 hours I earn over £100 so I am not entitled to any Jobseekers Allowance or Hardship fund. I am not sure how long the work will continue so if I did receive a sanction it could still affect me as I could need Jobseekers Allowance in the near future. Signing on for National Insurance contributions I still have to go through the same as others applying for jobs and in January when I see my Personal Advisor they are referring me to the Work Programme. Deep Joy!
Is it against the law to be forced to join the website despite the statement from IDS?
hi liz.i just wondered why you are still signing on to be hastled by these nasty people.i asked jobcentre people last time i signed how much is a n i stamp they said it was £7.80P a week.dont take my word for it, it is just what they said to me.im not telling you to do this,but this is what i would do.if i was working 7 hours a week and earning 100 pound a week and i knew i couldnt get jsa or hardship payment i would sign off.because they arnt giving you any money only for a stamp.the stamp costs nearly 8 pounds, by the time you have payed travel to get to job centre it wouldnt be worth claiming for stamp.plus if it was me and i signed off i wouldnt have these bafoons hassling me.meaning more time to actually find a real job instaed of scam jobs on there website.
Pingback: 2012: A Year of Lies and Blunders at the DWP Part 2 | the void
“as Himmler said…’when a govts. actions’ are something, so repugnant & vile, they will refuse to believe that it is true, let alone being carried out’ & by the time they realise that they were wrong, far too late to do anything about it…indeed it becomes the ‘accepted norm’!”
AND NOW EVERYONE A FEW JOKES FROM MR HOBAN….
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/this-weeks-public-bill-general-committee-debates/read/?date=2012-11-06&itemId=166
“From October 2013, the benefit cap will form a key part of our plans for universal credit, and we will shortly bring forward regulations to support its introduction. However, we do not believe it is right to wait until all existing claimants have migrated to universal credit before taking action, so the regulations under discussion will enable us to introduce the benefit cap from April 2013 by working with local authorities to reduce the amount of housing benefit in payment. Such timely action will strike the right balance between supporting families and providing incentives to work, ending the current situation that allows some out-of-work households to enjoy an income from benefits that cannot be matched by those in employment.”
ANY ONE SEE THE PROBLEM THERE? BENFITS CAP BEFORE UNIVERSAL CREDIT KICKS IN…oh well thought out..NOT
“What are the systems by which the DWP will gather the details of the various benefits that will go into the benefit equation? How will it keep those up to date and how will it notify local authorities of any changes? Will that be done monthly or quarterly, and how will that transfer of information take place? What happens if there is some clawback of a welfare benefit that either reduces or eliminates the operation of the cap? Is it then the responsibility of the local authority to reimburse the claimant with additional housing benefit? What happens if a local authority has not been notified of the application of the cap by the DWP, and has information that might indicate that the cap should be implemented, but fails to take any action until formally notified by the DWP? What happens to the benefits of the individual claimant who, through no fault of their own, has continued to receive money to which, under the cap regulations we are discussing, they would not be entitled? If the claimant is subject to a benefit sanction, will the net amount go into the calculation—the benefit to which they are entitled minus the sanction—or the original benefit entitlement?
What happens when backdating or successful appeal leads to a potential application of the cap? Will there be a clawback on the basis of the benefit paid and what will happen if the housing benefit is being paid directly to a landlord? The mirror image of that question is: what would happen if the cap was applied to claimants during the assessment phase of ESA who are then put into the support group?
What is local government’s state of readiness in respect of implementing the policy? Does the Minister have enough information to reassure the Committee that the basic ground work has been done? Has he received confirmation from all local authorities and local Jobcentre Plus offices, particularly those identified as having the most households affected by the cap, that they are ready for implementation in 2013? Have the guidelines yet been produced and provided to local authorities and local Jobcentre Plus offices to assist them in their planning and in putting in place the necessary procedures and training for staff?
What discussions has the Minister had with local authority organisations about their capacity to deal with all the changes effectively, albeit with a declining housing benefit case load, when local authorities are suffering severe budget cuts and also having to deal with the implementation of localised council tax?
Let me turn to discretionary housing payments, about which the Minister and his predecessor have made great play, not just in Committee but in other forums. In its report, published this month, on the impact of housing benefit changes, the National Audit Office said that
“it is not clear how the current level of funding for Discretionary Housing Payments has been determined or whether it is likely to be sufficient for local authorities in tackling the impacts of reform.”
QUESTIONS ASKED OF THE MINISTER…
Of course UJM doesn’t work. Monster designed it that way. Ujm would be a rival. Then again the monster one is shit too.
what did orwell say?
well my adviser said I HAVE to use it or I will loose my benefits. I forgot my userID and password… and now am completley fucked. god damn retarded british govt. (p.s. this was today 18/02/2013)
Ross
Your Advisor is trying it on – try the link below for more up to date information
https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/tag/universal-jobmatch/
Thank you… I will keep watching this… I have since registered 2 new accounts and allowed access to dwp, I will bend over and play by there rules because it’s just easier and I can’t really live without JSA.. but I’ll be following this blog closley and I hope anonymous invents some sort of permanent DDoS to take the shite jobmatch site off the internet.
on top of that I emaild my PM and think I have an interesting response, do you know who would be interested in wanting a copy?
DO NOT TICK THE BOX allowing access to DWP. This will allow them to sanction you on a whim. Go back on the website and untick the box. THEY CANNOT Sanction you for not signing up to the website. It is not mandatory because of the Data Protection Act 1998. Your Advisor was trying to intimidate you. Did you read the articles from Universal Jobmatch 9Jan, 20 Jan and 3 Feb? Nobody can afford to lose their JSA but you will if you leave that box ticked allowing access to DWP. Get as much information as you can and know your rights.
Thank you for the advice, they have the account ID that I lost the details to and I can’t get back easily (7 day, have to email/phone who-knows where) then created a new account yesterday, saved the image with the userid foolishly didn’t check it… it didn’t save that ID either (when trying to recover the ID the site said it didn’t recognize the email & pass which were definitely correct), so today created a 3rd account triple checked everything and saved everywhere, emailed to self, evernote, notepad file on desktop and usb stick… so will have to give them my new ID.
At the end of the day, I’m going to follow what they want and do what they say, whilst on JSA. They can sanction on a whim anyway, nothing new there. I have no rights I’m their slave and I just need my benefit… yea it’s probably wrong and bad thinking but that’s how it goes.
on top of that I have the RBLI natzi’s I have to see every week who are even more Orwellian… just a case of bending over and taking it until I get a job.
This is still of interest of me and something needs to change, that website needs to get shut down or something, I don’t have the answers, I’m no-one but I’ll do what I can (whilst not jeopardizing my benefit) he probably was intimidating me, it worked, and I think they would sanction me for not complying anyway. I can’t risk not letting them have access to it.
What is the RBLI?
royal british legion industries, if you have been on JSA too long they force you to go there rather than the monthly advisor meetings, there under immense pressure to force people to get a job because their a charity and each person they get a job the govt give them money. apparently it has something to do with some soldier village, but no idea there, means nothing to me… they basically do the same as JSA just on a more regular basis with more pressure, fill out forms, apply for jobs in their building on their comps, they double check everything and monitor you, you have to sign something to say you will be sanctioned for not complying (like all the other bs non-existant courses before ie. new deal, work program etc…)
gotta say most intense “course” type thing I’ve been forced on to so far.
Ross the only 2 things you have to sign is a Jobseekers Agreement and sign on once a fortnight. I have never heard of Royal British Legion Industries but I guess it must be something like the Work Programme or Workfare. In fact due to the Court Case recently they are probably illegal.
You do not have to sign any agreement with them and can withdraw your consent.
I wish you all the best and hope you find a job soon.
@liz i keep coming acroos more and more obscure and possibly undocumented workfare schemes..
Bob, it is all very sinister. Ross appears to be going every week to Royal British Legion Industries. If they are a charity then they are not very charitable. Intimidation is rife and the threat of losing your only source of incoome is their power over people and boy do they weild it.
#Liz this is whst I.mean the hidden. workfare ..bring it out in the open and take it apart
wow ok that’s very interesting. is there any more information about this around or somewhere I can find out more… I was under the impression it was mandatory.
Thank you also, I hope I find one soon also, plenty of interviews and shortlisting, just not a job yet, I guess just a case of plugging away and carrying on…
Google Jonny Void and you will see the latest blogs where you will find information. Some of it may be mandatory like the Work Programme or Workfare (but recently it is illegal) but you do not have to sign any of their paperwork. For instance state that you do not sign anything without taking it home overnight to make sure you agree with it etc. If you read some of the replies it will give you more confidence. The WP/WF use tactics to try to make you sign your rights away but you can revoke it. Spend some time reading the blog and there are hyperlinks to information. I realise it is all a bit scary to stand up to these people especially when the result be you have no income but it also feels more rewardingly good when they realise that they cannot shit on you because you have them by the bollocks.
@jOHNNY VOID AN ALL..i was amused ny the last paragraph in the sue ryder PDF doc..where it says this:
“To ensure we offer the highest quality experiences as possible Sue Ryder is
continually reviewing and developing its volunteer recruitment and retention
processes. This includes gaining feedback from our volunteers, including those on
Workfare placements, on their experience of volunteering at Sue Ryder to provide
insight on how we can strengthen and develop practises.
-ends”
“ENDS” EXACTLY !!!!!
well this is just great… what I saw when logging in today!
no link or anything. ffs!
this website is SHIT!
So I click accept terms and submit… I get sent here… now srysly guys are you fucking with me?! o.O
Is anyone else having problems with logging in. I create an account, but then a week later, it refuses to accept my password. So annoying, the previous directgov website was so much better. Typical tories and politicians, they screw up everything they touch.
Yes. Me too. Registered but login in details now not recognised!!! Raised a helpdesk ticket. No reply. This was 3 weeks ago!!!!!
i was made to open an account now 7 accounts later , it just will not accept my gateway login number or recognise my username ,it sits on pages and just is completely useless i have been sanctioned 3 times now due to “non compliance” …even after taking my laptop into the J/C with me and showing them that i just cannot access it, i think its just ridiculous that i was sanctioned even with them seeing the proff in front of thier eyes !!!!
@will thompson UJM doesnt work ..when will they ever see that?
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Pingback: Universal Jobmatch – a taste of things to come… | The Thurrock Heckler
Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one
and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments?
If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can advise?
I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.
When I originally commented I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now
whenever a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment.
Is there a way you can remove me from that service?
Thanks!
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same
comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Appreciate it!
I own a brand new holistic health studio in the South.
Believe that or not, I do not have a webpage at this point.
The problem is I am not certain whether to choose Blogger or Hubpages.
I discover that I want much more of a blog feel than a
web site feel, if that makes any sense. I want to be capable of update my website with
blog posts. Would you be capable of give a few positives and negatives for going
with either Blogger or Hubpages? I really need to come
to a decision fairly swiftly on this , cause does not make sense for me to own this business without
a internet site. It would be kind if you can provide me some
assistance. Please write to: sol_baughman@gmail.
com if you have some spare time. Thx, and btw wonderful site, i want my blog
to be like yours one day!
Hey there! I know this is kind of off-topic however I had to
ask. Does managing a well-established blog such as yours require a large
amount of work? I’m brand new to running a blog but I do write in my journal every day. I’d like to start
a blog so I will be able to share my personal experience and views online.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or tips for
new aspiring bloggers. Thankyou!
First of all I want to say superb blog! I had a quick question which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind.
I was curious to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing.
I’ve had a hard time clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out there. I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints? Thanks!
Hello, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog site in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some
overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up!
Other then that, very good blog!
I have just be conned by bully JSP adviser to register UJ…So i registered 3 in my name..I put the most sh*t CV on..i wouldn’t employ me if i was free..Also if you do get an interview.for a job you have been forced into applying for..Do what i did..turn up smelling of beer..and tell the interviewer..you,ve just had acouple of tins..even if its 9.00am..When he/she asks you to fill the application form in..Have you any health issues?..put YES..(mENTIL pROBLAMS)..Have you got a criminal Records?..put YES (ARSEN..& ROBBERY)..Then ask a friend to ring you half way through the interview..Say to the interviewer..Hang on pal…Answer your phone and hold a ten minute conversation..You won’t get the job you never wanted anyway..
My friend is extremely ill. Undergone multiple major surgeries – She has a damaged bowel & stomach. Another 8 hour op due soon. She is in EAS- WRAG- and gets harassing phone (land-line) Pathways To Work (or similar company) interviews as she is too sick to attend in person. She rarely leaves the house (due to her conditions and powerful morphine medication) except for hospital/doctor/dental apps.
My friend cannot afford the internet (or a mobile phone) and she has not got a PC or Lap-Top. Her JA (who never sees her now since he passed her on to the ‘work company’) never harasses her as he knows how sick she is. The local library charges to use the internet and she could not afford that.
Would she be forced to attend the JC and use a computer (which she knows nothing about)??? Not only that, but with the morphine (for pain) and gabapentin (for nerve damage) she would be so dizzy, she would not know what day it is. I have seen how the medication effects her. She can barely focus – and would not be able to type for sure.
She’s worried sick and asked me to find out about this for her as she had read an article. She is in her late 40’s.
Hey there wonderful little site you got right here I utilize the same exact web theme on my own yet somehow for whatever odd cause it appears to stream earlier on your site although your own seems to have alot more content. ? cellulite factor review.
I thought I should probably say thanks for posting this piece (and all your others)
DWP JobcentrePlus is not “THEE” Jobcentre of old or “labour centre”. The JobcentrePlus is a brand name and not a department hence the Plus part; note it is not a quango. It is a scam.
The JobcentrePlus is a private company not a Government dept of the DWP. Currently in 2013 I found out their was more than 31 of these puesdo deptartments at the DWP. Challanging the DWP on this I have found out that they are NOT Civil servants paid by the Paymaster. In fact JobcentrePlus is SEIMANS UK WORKFORCE LIMITED at Liverpool. Hence the issues. The BDC is another private company and as it transpires in to more under the carpet mombo jumbo. Ask your JobscentrePlus staff this eventually they will tell you their employer is Seimans, and that why they can not help you nor deal with complaints. If you look really closely at the building you will find that it infact you are NOT in a Government building or Public building you are in fact in a private building hence they can vacate you as you are no longer invited in to that building and you have no rights, and Public Order under PACE now takes hold and the Police take over. The secuirtity guards are G4S another scam and their ID cards are from Serco.
All of this is a giant scam. A private company has to have Data Protection licences etc. They can not provide them to you. The DWP know all about this if you ask the right questions.
The gateway contract states they will not give details to a third party, well in these cases they are hence they are breaking their own contract which you agreed to and they did when you applied for a Government Gateway ID. Hence on the JobcentrePlus match you have to agree that they can see you data (access) it. Thus you are giving up your rights to protection in your gateway t/cs as a additional (addm) not applies.
The JobcentrePlus will ask you, do you have a universal Job match Id. Yes or no it is none of there busines as it is not in the DWP contract t/cs to sign on. (Ask for a copy of DWP t/cs on the law on signing on and claiming beneifits) guidance and regulaltions / white papers are not legal in a Court of Law and do not apply). If you say yes they then will check and say they can not see the data, and you say well that is not in the t/cs agreed terms for third parties to see or access my data. They will say what good is that if we can not see you universal job match searches, well say to them well ask the DWP that as you are Seimans and as such no contract applies here to you as a private company. They will get shirty, just let them, ask to see their verbal in writing so you can take it to TRH IDS, get the JobCentrePlus Branch manager to speak to you and get that in writing. They will not, they will back down, as they know they have no rights for many things that they say.
Know you rights and complain, get all verbal threats in writing, tell them not in writing then you can not see their request. Say well if such I will take your comments to a Judge of a Court of Law, and see what they say about if it is lawful; most things they say are not lawful but are guidance, guidance is not contract nor is lawful.
In all to this about Universal Government Gateway, the JobcentrePlus and BDC has no rights to ask or request politely or request by force for you to agree to them access to your Gateway account for universal job match. Ask the JobcentrePlus for their guidance notes and terms and conditions for this is writing and their details on this with a DWP and Jobcentreplus/BDC wet signiture to make a legal contract between all parties berfore you sign any wet signiture. The DWP (JobcentrePlus and BDC) can not a will not do this as I have asked many times verbally and in writting.
Hence they do not try this on with me any more.
Know your rights.
Do not sign anything without seeing and having a written copy of the terms and contitions and their wet signiture upon it too.
Legally both parties have to agree to to make a legal contract, also both parties have to show the conditions of contract before hand not after. Eqaul considerations has to be made to make a contract lawful. CPR applies.
Speak to the ICO if you have any concerns.
Write directly to TRH I.D.Smith at the DWP, and keep a copy. Any queries by JobcentrePlus staff then show them your letter and say as you the JobcentrePlus can not deal/give info etc. I have asked IDS and if and when he repies I can answer or take further the request by the JobcentrePlus.
Ask the JobcentrePlus staff who they are.
And have fun….
The jobsearch website jobsearch.direct.gov.uk ie universal job match website is currently being run and operated by a third party private limited company monster worldwide limited 01881381 who all of you will know as Monster jobs. Therefore you are giving you infomation to a third party (3rd party private for profit with limited liabities company) and not the DWP who are a Government body. The universal job direct gov, user account terms and conditions which clearly states the Government will not give you data to third parties, well they are…….
So when being pulled up by the JobcentrePlus “TradeMarked” ask to speak to a actual DWP employee which under the agreement to claim benefits states you can as you can not speak to third parties about you claim or disclose or discuss any concerns or personal information to any third parties about your claim as any such claims you have are classed as Governmental personal data and the agreement is between you and the Government in this case HM TRH SIR I.D.Smith.
Its a total disgrace to see how human beings are being treated here in the U.K. Where are the jobs? The government should create more jobs so that people are not wasting their time looking for something that does not exist. The way poor and vulnerable people are being treated in the U.K its disgusting.
What I can’t understand all these cuts hitting the poor and vulnerable.
A lot of poor people in this country’s human rights are being totally neglected with all the sanctions that are being DELIBERATELY imposed on people receiving benefits.
Its sickening to see people who have been sanctioned so much, and now lost their home and now living on the streets begging or better still been pushed outside London.
Even the food banks are filled with one and two parent families begging for their daily bread. Some of the two parent families both working on the minimum wage, but cannot afford to feed their children or even put their heating on now winter is coming and very cold
This government has NO conscience at all for the poor or vulnerable in this country. How can they when 75% of MPs are rich. How can only 25% stand for the poor?