Universal Jobmatch Shows This Government’s True Attitude To Online Safety

Universal-Jobmatch-dancerDavid Cameron’s bungled back-to-basics porn proposals show once again  that the Prime Minister – who famously thought lol meant lots of love –  is clueless when it comes to computers.  Meanwhile the Government’s flagship Universal Jobmatch website is littered with spoof, scam and sex work vacancies which could place vulnerable jobseekers at horrific risk.

His proposal of a porn opt in for all internet users may look good on paper, but it reveals a shocking lack of understanding of how the internet actually works.  This type of internet filtering is already used by mobile phone companies and has led to many websites – including this one on some networks – being blocked for containing swearing, information on sexual health or LGBT content.  Any attempt at a further block would have a chilling effect across the net. Websites funded by advertising would be hesitant to publish posts on sexual health, sexual abuse, rape, or countless other important issues which may use words which trigger the porn filter.

Yet somehow Cameron promises his crooked friends at News International that The Sun’s page 3 will not be affected, because soft porn published by right wing newspapers barons is simply spiffing.  The truth is that without legislation, and a British Board of Censors classifying every website, then it will be down to Internet Service Providers, and the quality of their filters, to decide what people can or cannot see online.

And this is why the policy has already descended into shambles as Cameron is confronted with technology that seems to be beyond his understanding.

Unfortunately it is not just the Prime Minister who is computer illiterate.  One of the biggest risks to the safety of young internet users is the Universal Jobmatch website.  This is the job hunting site devised by Iain Duncan Smith and which many people on benefits are currently being compelled to sign up to.*  The website is not just aimed at those on benefits, but everyone looking for work.  With many of the jobs part time, or weekend only, it is likely that those under 18 also use the site to find jobs.

This website has suffered from a deluge of spoof job vacancies, but also obvious scams and dubious self-employment opportunities which often require unemployed people to pay money up front.  Jobs which don’t pay minimum wage  have also been a consistent feature of the site.

Despite Government guidelines, the website still has vacancies for what appears to be sex work, such as this one: “recruiting Dancers for a leading gentleman’s entertainment venue situated in the heart of Birmingham on Broad street.”

The only information given about this employer is an email address, meaning this vacancy could have been placed by almost anyone.  Other vacancies on the site provide no information on the employer other than a mobile phone number.  Astonishingly there is no safety information on the website, despite the very real risk to unemployed people who may be compelled to contact these alleged employers or face benefits being sanctioned.

So whilst Cameron is running round trying to protect us all from internet porn his own Government is responsible for a rogue website that places young internet users at very real risk of harm from sexual offenders, scammers or unscrupulous employers.  This is not scare-mongering.  Three men were recently murdered in the US after responding to job vacancies advertised online.

The reason for this appalling negligence is down to Iain Duncan Smith’s breath-taking arrogance.  Time and time again the DWP have been warned about vacancies that are illegal or downright dangerous being advertised on the site, yet nothing seems to have changed.  The Secretary of State would rather a jobseeker ends up abused, exploited or worse than admit he is wrong about the wonders of Universal Jobmatch.

*Whilst a  Jobseeker’s Direction can be issued forcing claimants to sign up to the site, there is still no requirement to tick the box giving the Jobcentre  access to your account.  Claimants can only be forced to use Universal Jobmatch on Jobcentre computers – you can refuse to look for work on the site on your home computer, or in libraries and internet cafes.

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

124 responses to “Universal Jobmatch Shows This Government’s True Attitude To Online Safety

  1. fuckthetories

    In 2011 there was a job advertised on the Jobcentre machine for a ‘self-employed phone operator’. I printed it off. On closer inspection it went on to say that applicants must be over 18 and not offended by ‘sexually explicit content’. After many complaints the job advertisement was eventually taken down but with the benefit of hindsight I wish I’d kept it.

  2. Wirral In It Together

    I thought LOL meant ‘left over lolly’ as in the money left from Tory donations which can be squandered on whoring and ‘gentlemen’s nightclubs’

  3. hmmm… when i worked at a hospital from 2000 to 2007, in IT – we had one guy whose job it was to full time update the firewall, as many of the medical terms were blocked. never mind any dubious ones which could be used in porn etc.
    that was just one hospital with about 400 pc’s. and interestingly enough, we had a few doctors who got caught browsing some of the more exotic fetish sites, despite the constant surveillance.
    this was arguably a less complex and less accessed internet than today by a country mile. pre facebook, twitter and myspace, tumblr etc.
    the thought of how any provider would try and manage in any way without causing chaos for all users, or simply be unable to comply seems obvious to me.
    no – its another publicity stunt to cover up an increase in internet blocking and control for the corporate purpose of these criminal slime, the very least among us with no moral fibre.
    along with all the other current allegedly socially responsible policies, it will do nothing to deal with the problem of internet porn, if indeed there is any intention there at all.
    another load of lies to throw down to the slavering fearful hypnotised and blinkered.
    has the woman having a baby frenzy of mindlessness gone away yet? probably not.

  4. Hi Johnny.

    I looked into this and the vacancy is at The Rocket Club in Broad Street, Birmingham – it’s part-time, less then 16 hours, and pays £15/Hour.

    It’s lapdancing.

    I have written to the email address supplied and asked whether they would take sick and disabled people mandated to work.

    I have yet to receive a response…….

    • Ephemerid….that’s just an amazing response (to the ‘ad’)….I take my hat off to you. I would bloody laugh out loud if the matter wasn’t so serious!
      Still smiling about it though to be honest….it really is one of the very best I’ve ever seen!

    • no details on minimum age given either, young teenagers could apply for this not knowing what it entails.

    • Like Max, I had a giggle at your post Ephemerid. Despite the seriousness I too applaud your wit. What a brilliant response.

      • something survived...

        So if a ‘very ugly’ 59 year old woman with a double mastectomy and a colostomy bag, is forced to do this job….

        And if they can force lesbians (including butch ones) to do it, or very Christian women like nuns, or very devout Muslim women… married women… women with boyfriends, feminists, flatchested women, very fat women, very old/er women… anti-gay ones who hapen to have a female recipient of the lapdance…. rape/abuse victims… or for that matter women who had a boob job (plus or minus) and have a very bad infected open wound leaking pus…
        …then as UJM does not notice the sex of the applicant/jobseeker it sends ‘must apply for this’ job vacancies to, presumably MALE jobseekers are going to be sent to be female lapdancers.

        IDS and his bunch should show us pictures of their testicles so we can all laugh, and they should have to dance around naked and shove them in men’s faces. See how they like it. National Union of Sex Workers (NUSW) is against all forced sex work.

        Universal PervCrotch.

        • Peter Carey wrote about this, in a short story – where (in a technologically advanced future) people could choose to reincarnate a loved one they had recently lost, (don’t ask) but without any guarantee of what bodily form the person might be in when they were returned. (So a big gamble). Could be a different sex/completely different age – they would still be the same person on the inside (might see themselves as a lap dancer-type but now be a 59 year old, overweight, with dark circles under their eyes) – whereas before they were a slim 28 year-old, fragrant and otherwise ‘gorgeous’. On delivery, the ‘recipient/their ex’ wouldn’t want to offend them by telling them to “get away from me!”…

          A fantasy, of course – had forgotten about this story although on first reading it is quite shocking – but maybe Mr Carey wasn’t way off with his ‘what if one day it became ‘normal’ for people to be placed in disorienting situations, in roles they might not usually have tried to fulfil/where they might be (very) far from the usually-preferred ideal …?’
          (story is from ‘The Fat Man in History’).
          (Has P. Stringfellow ever read it, I wonder?).

  5. I hate using u. j. all jobs offered are duplicated several times, even on the same page regularly. If you can call them job opportunities that is!
    A plethera of no use to anyone, part-time minimum wage and sometimes less, poultry jobs.

    • Pheonix, you’re absolutely right…UJ is fucking useless! I am lucky enough to be offered a job (which I’ve accepted btw!) I applied for it (more than once, as it was relisted several times) via UJ and my applications were never even viewed! Did a LOT of delving to find out who I thought the employer might be….applied directly to them…..and I start work next Monday!

      • …..and beware like the plague the ‘kitchen designer’ jobs which are always around, and believe me I’ve been there, done it! What a total con of both the customer and the ’employee’ (‘self employed, of course!). That one cost me a lot of money!!!

    • Sorry Phoenix, I kind missed the point of you post in all my excitement! Yes, what a pile of shit ‘jobs’ they have on there! Every week the ‘Avon Representative’ thing is posted within a five mile radius of where I live about twenty times a week!…and then you’ll get a three hour a week job listed at ‘B & M discounts’ or whatever the places are called. Worst of all is the fucking thousands of catalogue distributor jobs!!!!

      • Haha! No worries Max!
        When Mr Cameron says, ” We’re all in it together ” does he refer to jobseekers having to trawl through piles of shit on that god awful DWP jobsite?
        Btw, anyone jobseekers in Leeds? I have just completed a four week course to gain my SIA licence, the course and the licence is funded and the jobcentre gave me the money up front for bus fares, all in all a great deal. There may even be courses in other cities, the company delivering the training is called, ” Talented Training ” ask your advisor at your Jobcentre.

  6. Some blogsites reporting on child sex abuse crimes are blocked y phone providers

  7. I just joined the UJM rather reluctantly, they were going to give me a direction, but I just made an account to prevent that.
    The reason being the letter was going to say about creating a profile and uploading a CV. I just made the account. So far so good. He checked and saw i did this.

    Currently got my money stopped for 4 weeks, but the slimy polite by the book type drone ‘infers’ that he might have “referred” me for a 13 week jobbie! This was nothing to do with UJM! All recorded, of course! One simply has to these days.

    This was because I hadn’t applied for any vacancies in a recent fortnight.

    I have sent my from off with my reasoning. I don’t think it is actually a sanctionable offence. But this is the DWP, they do what they like anyway.

    Gave a good speech to the drone, he was listening. Did he have any humanity? Hmmm? It was hard to tell. He was friendly, but he might have a heart of stone.

    If I don’t provide screenshots next time of my searches then I may be sanctioned further. Had to fill in a form too, should have taken a copy, but I am getting past caring these days. Phew!

    Stay strong people.

    • Stay strong also Mr. No….never, ever trust the bastards…..and always take a copy!
      PS always apply for any job whatsoever via UJM…..it keeps the bastards quiet….and your application won’t be viewed by anyone anyway…..which is a bit of a shit if you actually wanted the job!!!

      • Eric Greenwood (4727)

        Dont let your adviser have access to your account, You do not have to give your adviser your email address, or phone number. If they want me to use their iads they will have to pay my trips to town at £5 a day if every could do it we would cost them far more. Apply for any job on the UJM, to keep the bastards off your back. print out copies of all emails you send redacting your email address

        • Why make life even more difficult for yourself than it already is? Just go along with them and play their game….they already have your number etc. Just put in a load of bollocks in your UJM account and make life easier for yourself…it really is a piece of piss! But do EXACTLY what it says on your JS, if not a little more, and then fuckers can’t come after you can they?….and if they tried, you can take them to the fucking cleaners!

          • Eric Greenwood (4727)

            I think thats part of the problem, people accept things they forget about function creep. If we cost the DWP money for each time they force someone to go then maybe they will leave others alone. In addition if my appointments are in the morning and i get a day ticket i can travel anywhere in the northwest paid for by the dwp

          • (There are still some people who haven’t yet decided to give in to the pressure to use UJM and are continuing to argue a case for not using it (to JCP) – stating that their preference is to use various other means to look for work (maybe websites) and taking proof of what they do – so it’s not entirely “inevitable”).

            There are FOI requests regularly being sent and receiving latest version of ‘the rules’ – UJM Toolkit/rules given to advisers – that seem to say the only absolute requirement is to “maintain an online presence” – which I think means ‘use websites to search for work’. Will try to find copy of a letter someone drafted for themselves but has shared on the WTDK website – it states the relevant para. and legislation to back up this approach.

            This isn’t the line of least resistance though, I agree.

    • “If I don’t provide screenshots next time of my searches then I may be sanctioned further. Had to fill in a form too, should have taken a copy, but I am getting past caring these days. Phew!”

      The Toolkit Guidance has been amended recently with some interesting language re-writes surrounding the supply of IAD, screen and print-out evidence:

      http://unemploymentmovement.com/forum/unemployment-and-job-centre-plus/6475-ujm-foi-response#19354

      What you show the advisor they will have to argue is “insufficient” before issuing a sanction.

      • That’s really interesting (not sure I understand difference in intent to the part relating to referral to decision maker means – updated version).

        This is from WTDK website (in public domain already – I hope it’s okay to post it here) – it’s an annotation left by ‘consent.me’ & includes the brief letter that someone (else) says they’ve used & it’s seemed to work for them (to now). Comments before and after the letter are v.v. IMPORTANT – not suggesting to use the same/similar letter but it may be worth knowing about/user has said happy to share it.

        “[] … the risk is not loss of annotations that don’t belong on WDTK, but conflicting and contradictory opinion that is not substantiated with recorded information or via links to concrete evidence that can be acted upon. No problem understanding that a letter like:

        To whom it may concern
        With regard to signing up for Universal Jobmatch I wish to make my position clear.

        I maintain an online profile with another provider in line with the Welfare Reform Act 2012. The Welfare Reform Act 2012, chapter2, section 17(3)(c) states:

        “creating and maintaining an online profile”

        That is the only legislation regarding setting up an online presence and there is no mention of Universal Jobmatch.

        I trust this makes my position clear and as I am in full compliance with UK Law I ask you to kindly update your records so I don’t have to answer the same question every time I attend.

        … may work, the FOI test is to find a way for the DWP to acknowledge [disclose recorded information] whether this approach can be used by anyone threatened with mandatory Jobmatch registration and uploading a Public CV.

        With regards this letter being shown to a jobcentre adviser, was a copy retained and transcribed into the computer LMs record? Otherwise the Jobcentre will have retained no record, as if it was never shown, even if the outcome stifled Jobmatch registration with this specific adviser.

        [] … there is a significant difference between being told “you need to sign up for universal jobmatch” which is framed as a voluntary request, as opposed to being issued a Jobseeker’s Direction (JD) to register with Jobmatch and upload a Public CV. That said can see how a template letter could prevent a JD, the issue for WDTK is to obtain recorded information to substantiate such. In this context, alternative sources of information besides FOI disclosures, are the likes of the publishing of complaints or personal data held by the DWP obtained through the Data Protection Act, Subject Access Requests, using redaction to maintain privacy.”

        • “That’s really interesting (not sure I understand difference in intent to the part relating to referral to decision maker means – updated version).”

          My reading of point 89 + 90 (below) is that it confirms what Mary Sanderson has said – and referenced in her links to DM guidance – often on WDTK, which is that sources of evidence cannot be specified, yet simultaneously, here (point 90) the advisor is given the wriggle room to make a claim on the evidence as being “insufficient”. In conjunction with the re-writes (“must tell they have to” -> “advise”; “may ask” -> “may suggest that they show you”) this is very telling because why not stick with the original lanaguge? (Answer: because the DWP isn’t allowed access without consent is why)

          In practical terms it still leaves a jobseeker having to argue with their advisor about what they may as present evidence, and what is “sufficient”, but for those wanting to challenge on having show IAD, print-outs, or screen evidence – where they can *corroborate* that same evidence in another way – the language rewrite is helpful. So the struggle still exists, but there is a new point of challenge.

          The thing to remark about Carl’s letter is that it WORKED (for the time being), and may for others. There will be no definitive blanket confirmation from the DWP that this very specific letter will work from the DWP through FOI: the risk is there until somebody takes up Judicial Review (tough without recourse to legal aid!) and the issue of registration via jd is challenged. I agree in what consentme says about getting something on record though.

          • Thanks Stuart, I just didn’t want to sound like I was saying to anyone who might just glance on here that “here is a letter you should use”. I’m definitely going to keep a copy of the letter and it’s great that it did work.
            (Thought the comments from consent.me were worth thinking about too – that it’s possible for one ‘adviser’ to completely agree that paper is made from trees one week, then another might completely deny the sky is (ever) blue or that trees have ever been mentioned and anyway paper is irrelevant now (since UJ) …

            I handed a letter to adviser (she said would show it to her manager) back in November explaining my ‘don’t prefer to use UJ’ reasons, but probably it’s not anywhere on record now, come to think of it? Things have moved on since then from both sides anyway. I’m rubbish at filing, but about to become very good at after a (short) career as a filing clerk in a previous life.

          • These were the changes I was having problems ‘decoding’:

            This: Referral to a Decision Maker required
            79. If the claimant has not carried out the direction by the date they were
            required to do so the case must be referred to a Decision Maker.
            Action required by Decision Maker
            80. The Decision Maker will make their decision in the usual way.

            Becomes: Referral to a Decision Maker required
            79. If the claimant has not carried out the direction by the date they were
            required to do so the case must be referred to a Decision Maker selecting
            the ‘Refuse/Fail Jobseeker Direction (UJ)’ option from the drop down
            menu in LMS for AR Code JSA/718UJ.
            Action required by Decision Maker
            80. The Decision Maker will make their decision in the usual way using DMAS AR Code JSA/718UJ.

            ?Whether the ‘drop down menu’ part means an automatic ‘flag’ to a DM that there’s active ‘refusal’ – it’s all gone a bit technical on me at this point. [89 and 90 – think I understand changed wording & sounds more positive/hopeful – definitely, maybe.

        • None of the Above

          Shirley, your advice again is fantastic, if I get elected I’ll definitely be in touch with you

          • None of the above, copied/pasted the letter info directly from FOI site (What Do They Know) – which is tantamount to being a lifeline – and can also be full of black humour (dwp replies) – but not meant to give advice. Every time a fortnight goes past & i haven’t been sanctioned i go slightly mad on here – maybe a reaction/relief setting in until the next time. Past several months I’ve read/thought more about the Universal Job Swindle than is probably good for anyone – considering UJ/monster site only began wreaking its havoc about 9 months ago. (Those golden, UJ-free days, now maybe gone forever).

            It would be good to get on with other things – it’s been such a shock to my system signing on this time around (like nothing previously encountered) it’s taken me at least 9 months to be able to be even sightly ‘off-guard’ – probably not a very good idea all things considered – to be able to try to focus on what I really want to be able to (rather than looking over my shoulder all the time; fighting the ridiculous fight). I could have had a baby in that time – Kate did).

            (This blog has probably saved me from falling foul of various ‘traps’ quite a few times/offered (some) sanity & real solidarity and ideas/moral support). If you do get elected, it would have to be far preferable to being sent on the ‘work’ programme. There’s a good Alice Cooper song @’Elected’.

  8. My recent experience returning to the jobcentre after completing two years on the work programme. My new personal advisor said she would refuse paper copies and would refer me to a decision maker if I didn’t give access to my ujm account.She said this and a woman sitting in on the appointment agreed with her. I was aware she was just trying to bully me but it’s a nasty way to behave. I was going to apply for a job today on ujm. I didn’t as I noticed the email address for contacting was a jumble of letters and numbers to a blueyonder account. They had requested that people email their name, address and phone number to them.

    • I’ve never been able to get a consistent/lasting answer from JC+ advisors as to whether your Jobsearch record should be in writing or on your UJM account. Last time I was told both (but she hadn’t a bloody clue) which is was I was doing anyway….but told (three times) that I didn’t have to do that, and I noted this advice in my UJM notes (always do that, folks!). They are fucking clueless, or at least they pretend to be as some sort of ruse to trip you up and acheive their off-flow targets (which allegedly don’t exist…..bollockcks

      • It’s entirely up to you how you inform the DWP of your jobsearch. I’m still providing a paper list of all my jobsearch activities every fortnight, initially it was handwritten, but now I print out a list on a form I devised using LibreOffice.

        There is no requirement to provide screen prints, so that too is entirely your choice. Basically if you provide evidence, (e.g. a list of what you’ve done that fortnight) it will be very difficult for them to justify sanctioning you as it has to be ‘reasonable’ and the onus is on them to prove that you are not doing enough – refer to your Jobseeker’s Agreement, so long as you stick to that you will be fine.

        Be prepared though to field questions about the jobs you’ve applied for, i.e. actually know something about the vacancies you’ve applied for. So long as you can tell them something about that vacancy you’ve applied for it will make if extremely difficult for them to dispute that.

        Beware believing all the hearsay stuff that’s about, whether it’s half comprehended bullshit that your mate’s got hold of the wrong end of the stick on, or the officially sanctioned, (pun not intended) misinformation spouted by the less savoury JCP advisors.

        For instance, it’s now widely believed that signing up to UJM is ‘mandatory’ for everyone, the truth is that it’s only mandatory if you’re given a Jobseeker’s Direction to sign up to it, and that in itself has to be ‘reasonable’. If you are fulfilling your Jobseeker’s Agreement and providing the evidence, then unless they can prove that you are faking it, (which would be extremely difficult) it would be unreasonable to issue a direction to sign up. Even if you’re mandated to sign up to UJM there is no compulsion to use it, (though there might be pressure to use it at Jobcentre computers) and as we all should know by now, DO NOT give your advisor access to your account. I’m not sure what would happen if once you had created a UJM account once directed to do so, you then deleted it, as that action would not negate the very fact that you had created an account. But maybe it would be better to create an account if you have to and then just not use it,

        By and large if you can inform yourself of what exactly your rights are, and exactly what they can and can’t do you will make your life so much easier. It won’t stop them giving you a load of bullshit, but at least you will know that is is bullshit and can be ignored. They may even give trying to bully you and search for easier targets.

        • Like you, sibrydionmawr, I’ve been keen on the hand-written record. However, my Jobcentre has just introduced a new system of recording that basically gives me 6 boxes per fortnight to fill in. Useless. I will continue to add all the additional info on other sheets firmly attached to this pitiful excuse for data collection while maintaining my own copies. Can you be sanctioned, I wonder, for being too diligent?

        • Just bombard them with a load of stuff, both via your UJM account (which you really should get on with and accept as a rather unfortunate inevitability) and a printed copy of the same. They can’t argue with that, can they?…..so you’ll be OK if you are really looking for work. If you’re not looking for work, then you are involved in a different scenario entirely.

  9. I have my first after WP interview at the jobcenter and the lady I saw was just great about it all. Roughly the same as I did before with job searches via websites and send out spec letters.

    Asked about if had to phone or even visit companies and was told no need as wont get much that way these days.
    She didn’t mind at all that I didn’t give them permission to my account as was told print outs of any jobs I apply for to be printed and all would be great.

    • Stevie R, you are quite a lucky man (thus far) and it would be great if all JC+ advisors took the approach which the lady in your case seems to have done. ‘Good on her’….and to you also! How did the WP go btw?

      • The WP was ok but did seem like a waste of time 90% of it.

        * Doing multiple mandatory sessions getting CV’s done from different people seems very counter productive.
        * The PC’s we had access too were not the greatest (very large resolution so pages looked very wrong and old software)
        * LIke nearly all government backed agencies the only jobs you heard from them was security, warehouse or construction; very little choice.

        • Spending two years doing that must have been a real bummer. I went for my initial WP session in mid May this year, and ruffled the feathers of my job coach through declining to sign their ‘agreement’. I also threw a further spanner in the works by sending a letter, recorded delivery, withdrawing consent to share my information to both the main contractor and the sub contractor. For a couple of weeks I got the appointment letters with the various silly tasks you get asked to do, and then e-mail them in – I merely e-mailed my advisor a message using an anonymous e-mail application informing him that I wouldn’t be e-mailing the tasks to him, but that I’d bring paper copies when I attended the appointment – which I did; CV with a copyright notice at the bottom, plus an overprinted copyright ‘watermark’ diagonally in red. Appointment letters from then on contained only the time and date of the appointment, and no tasks, though a few were given verbally, (and therefore not sanctionable if I didn’t do them – though I did do them). A couple of sessions were spent allegedly improving my CV, but increasingly I could see that my job coach was losing heart, and this week’s appointment was done and dusted inside ten minutes. Basically he’d covered the CV and covering/spec letters, and my jobsearch was good, (it always is, I apply for things, but so do plenty of others, I’m 56, and many of the others are younger, go figure) so he didn’t feel there was much more he could do for me – so now my appointments are monthly.

          Basically I’ve been ‘parked’ 🙂

          (It’s not that I don’t want to work, I do, but like most of us, I don’t need the ‘help’ of some scam company to help me get a job. I need, as does the most of the rest of us an economy that actually works in the interests of the people and creates jobs for us)

          • overburdenddonkey

            sib..good for you..love it…

          • sibrydionmawr, can i ask how long did the x2-weekly appointments go on for & why is a recorded delivery letter needed as well as withholding consent at initial appointment? (I am in a half-relieved/half still-trying-not-to-feel-overly-paranoid-about the WP due to adviser seems halfway human & having ‘not consented to share information’ which has supposedly “tied his hands” … ).

            • just re-read your post – x2 weeks for about 3 months, then monthly. I will keep my fingers crossed … I really don’t want this person phoning me/any future employer (if/when) at work for next 2 years …

        • Stevie R, how long were you on the WP?…and for how many hours per week? I’ve managed to avoid it myself (by the skin of my teeth!) three times now, in the last five years. It sounds horrendous!

          • How can you avoid it?

            • Shirleynott, I avoided it by eventually being offered a job…..a week before I was due to be ‘Work Programmed’!

          • Was on it for the full 2 years and very surprised you managed to avoid (mandatory written all over the WP).
            As for times I saw my adviser from 1 week to usually every 2 weeks (sometimes longer due to amount of people on the books)
            Could go there anytime to use PCs (if you didn’t have access to one yourself) but when I went I stayed for about 1-2hrs job searching (a lot longer than some there)

  10. been forced to apply for jobs your not even remotely matched for will piss employers off…..not that they’res many left !

    • You’re absolutely right PTS…but just do it…..it shuts the DWP Job Search police bastards up, and it means you won’t get sanctioned. Just fire off a few applications via UJM (one’s that appear in your application history, preferably) and they can’t fucking argue with that! Your application won’t be viewed in the vast majority of cases, which is a pisser if you actually want the job! Whether you do want the job or not is up to you….I’m not at all concerned on that front.

  11. Pingback: Universal Jobmatch Shows This Government's True...

  12. A4e telling people how to apply r porn jobs….The NOT WORKING porn programme http://youtu.be/tiU8PAAZeLg

  13. Reblogged this on Grannie's Last Mix and commented:
    A must read from johnny void. He says Cameron is clueless about computers. I say Cameron and his elitist cabinets are clueless about real life. And from reading this IDS is a pimp!

  14. I have contacted the company name, and the job was a scam. Then contacted the police who could not give a shit and the JCP who could not give a shit. This is the reply i got from a job on the universal job match site….
    Dear Tony,
    Thank you for your application
    for the role warehouse
    operation coordinator,
    We have had a significant
    number of applications. I am
    delighted to say we would like
    to hold an interview with you.
    I will confirm all details for a
    date and time for your
    interview by Friday. Could you
    inform us about your availability
    and your earliest start date.
    We are required by law to
    check your eligibility to work in
    the UK.
    In order to make these checks
    please email scanned or
    photocopied for the following:
    (PLEASE NOTE: pictures from a
    camera/camera phone will not
    be accepted/validated)
    Proof of identification: this must
    be a passport
    Proof of residency: This must be
    either a bank statements or
    utility bill showing your current
    address
    Proof of National insurance
    Number: this can be your NI
    card, payslip or P60.
    I would be grateful if you could
    confirm receipt of this message.
    I look forward to your reply,
    Kind Regards,
    Alex Dean

    WTF! It’s good to know my details are on this website!

  15. And, given that I am somewhere near Boston on the East coast of Lincolnshire (the arsehole in the cultural topology of the UK), I looked on the governments JobSearch site (which is a remarkably cheap aggregating piece of junk) for a software job in Boston, Lincolnshire. Funny – there are loads of software jobs! But they are all for Boston Massachusetts (in the USA). This JobSearch site is an appalling joke.

    • That’s ironic, the last made a IP check of this shite site it was hosted in Cambridge Massachusetts
      https://www.gov.uk/jobsearch

      IP Information for 23.6.164.23
      IP Location: United States Cambridge Akamai Technologies Inc.
      ASN: AS16625 AKAMAI-ASN1 Akamai Technologies European AS (registered May 30, 2000)
      Resolve Host: a23-6-164-23.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com
      IP Address: 23.6.164.23
      Whois Server whois.arin.net
      NetRange: 23.0.0.0 – 23.15.255.255
      Address: 8 Cambridge Center
      City: Cambridge
      StateProv: MA
      PostalCode: 02142
      Country: US
      RegDate: 1999-01-21
      Updated: 2011-09-24
      Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/AKAMAI

    • Yeh, we get loads of UJM recommended jobs posted for ‘Mid-Dudley’ and the jobs are actually in Swindon, Wiltshire. The CV Library crap and UJM always screws it up with a little village out in the sticks about five miles west of Dudley. It’s fucking crap!!!! (UJM that is……Swindon village is rather lovely…….and it would be really fucking great if all of these were available there!)

      • something survived...

        My local jobs are in Liverpool and further afield, hundreds of miles away.
        CRAP-ARSING SITE!

  16. Off Topic i was just wondering what happens if your on ESA and fail the Atos medical which i understand most people do as your more or less set up to fail it and the DWP say your fit to work but your doctor still says your not what happens? do you lose your esa? but what happens when you try to claim JSA yet you have a sick note saying youre not fit for work?.

  17. Even when it comes to printouts of that piece of shit site as job search evidence it’s all bluff and bluster.

    82. We cannot specify to a JSA claimant how they provide us with records of
    their jobsearch activity and Universal Jobmatch will not change this – it is
    not therefore possible to require JSA claimants to give DWP access to
    their Universal Jobmatch account
    89. The onus is on the claimant to provide evidence of their
    jobsearch activity (by whatever means they choose).

    Click to access UJ%20Toolkit%20Chp%203%20v37.0%2011.07.13.pdf

  18. It took me 5 minutes to sign up as an employer on Universal Job Match. Now I can post jobs to my hearts content! Hmmmm

    • Go on then…..post a job for me….I would like to be a Formula 1 racing driver, living in a 100 yard radius of St. Annes Church, Bewdley, Worcs.
      I am disabled, don’t have a driving licence and can’t work weekends due to child care commitments!

      • I was joking about the disabled (sorry if that caused any offence!), driving licence, and child care nonsense!

    • Peter, you’re a very naughty boy!

  19. Landless Peasant

    The Tories are full of wind and piss, all bollocks and bluster. What a shower of shite. They’re completely deluded half-baked plans are doomed to fail the minute they come dribbling out of the hole in Cameron/IDS/Fraud/Osborne/Pickles’ faces and jotted down (“Clegg, pass us your fag packet. Write this down…blah, blah”) Incompetent nincompoops. Total inept loons. If any of them had a brain they might be dangerous. They just don’t think things through, like how much things cost to implement and function, and how many staff are needed to efficiently run things, yet they give the impression they don’t want to spend money. It’s all fucking bullshit. Their website and dole regulations are a pile of wank. fuck the lot of ’em. Know your rights, do what you have to to keep your Benefits as long as possible, claim whatever you can, and do whatever else you can to survive, as I am forced to do. Peace out 😉

  20. “His proposal of a porn opt in for all internet users may look good on paper, but it reveals a shocking lack of understanding of how the internet actually works.”

    No it doesn’t!!!, the real idea behind it is to block sites like this, there is ALWAYS an ulterior motive behind anything government does.

    http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/05/the_vicious_cyn/

    Its the way it works folks…

  21. “ZERO-HOUR CONTRACTS!”

    ZERO-HOUR CONTRACTS!

  22. The problem with default filters is this; because I share my Android with my 14-year-old cousin, I didn’t get Content Lock removed when I first bought it, thinking, “I can live without mobile access to AO3.” However, a few months ago, I walked into her parents’ lounge after getting a drink, only to see her trying to hide the phone. So I grabbed it off her only to see that she’d found a proxy website that allowed her to route around the filters, so I immediately downloaded a parental filter app and rang T-Mobile the next day to get them to remove the Content Lock. The moral of my story is: default filtering is useless and puts porn into the hands of those deemed too young to view it, despite the overblocking.

  23. Eric Greenwood (4727)

    The only jobs i see on universal jobsmatch matching section are Apprenticeships.. I am 40 years old.. I will not let my adviser see and force me to apply for jobs I want the choice. If they want me to go to use their IAD’s they will have to pay for my travel. They want this they are taking my time from me where i could be job searching (takes an hour plus to just get to the jobcentre one way). so they have to pay for my time. In addition it will cost the dwp even more money so their savings will be non existent. We need to fight this system not blindly accept what the bullying DWP are doing to people. So in my own little way i am fighting making it more expensive and complicated for the DWP. Fight them Dont just accept it

    • @Eric, It’s not a lot to ask really is it – deciding for yourself which job/s to apply for? Or at least, it didn’t used to be …. they prefer us infantilised – that way it fits the model of “we are in authority and we will push more and more ‘requirements’ on to you” (in the guise of ‘doing everything possible to find work) I quite agree with your earlier comment.. It’s partly a point of principle and partly that everything they want to introduce is a further potential ‘trip-wire’ (haven’t they said this already?)

      The point about time spent going in and out (to JCP/WP) is important – it’s time that could be more constructively/productively spent almost all of the time, and issue of cost (in all senses) is significant.

      • overburdenddonkey

        sn..
        the very essence of the argument….teacher, leave us kids alone..only cheese can mature beyond it’s years, human beings can never ever reach full maturity..yet these bossy fools believe that this is possible and remain frozen in time, and expect others to remain in that bygone era, of victorian renaissance…top hat and tails and a hackney carriage carrying a bale of hay for the horse!…
        free will choice, in an era stripped of choice, curtailed by the limited and limiting, minds of others, there can never be industrial scale employment ever again..we need a new economic model that grows with the people and feeds the people…the politics of global domination is finished parliament/government/governance, needs radical modernisation that reflects the reality of the era we now live in, they need to stop meddling in things that they do not understand, and let the people get on with it…embrace perma-culture work share, sustainable housing..work share, a citizens income..government stop doing what has no future…

    • Im with you on that, at 38, I do not qualify for the apprenticeships nor courses available for the under 25`s,, dont get me wrong, i do not grudge the young getting assistance but, anyone over 25 is further in a catch 22.

      • something survived...

        I’m 36 and get blamed by WPP and JCP for having been forced by them to apply for jobs that clearly say ‘apprenticeship for 16-19 year olds only’, then not getting the ‘job’. A fulltime apprenticeship pays less than dole and less than living costs. (Never mind that I can’t work fulltime and often/usually can’t work part-time.) So they actually say to fake my age!
        Fuckwit who is my new ‘advisor’ at JCP said I must apply for this job of cleaner of toilets and changing rooms. I said I can’t do longterm standing, bending, twisting and am allergic to most products, etc. He then showed me the ad and went on about how brilliantly it paid. No it didn’t. It’d pay about half of JSA plus no WTC, no time off allowed, no HB, charged full house’s council tax, lose NHS dental entitlement (though I have no DENTIST), lose college and house. A 5 year old could tell you it was shite. The most salient point of the ad, proving aforementioned fuckwit did not read the job ad, was that the job is for female applicants only. Duhhhhhhh!

  24. Eric

    I have read that they are to increase the number of IADs from around 2,000 to 8,000, so will some claimants who choose only to use IADs be broken on the wheel, so to speak, by being forced to attend jobcentres for up to 35 hours a week!

    shirleynott

    I agree with you “tripwire” view. As was pointed out many, many moons ago on this fine blog Universal Jobmatch is Universal Sanctioning Machine! A person who lives by a train station is on a sticky wicket if he is offered a job by some welfare to work parasite that is 90 minutes away.

    • It’s just not good for people, in general, to be ‘mandated’ to do things … it’s soul destroying to be put in a position of being ‘checked up on’ because it carries the presumption of guilt/infers we are dishonest (as children know).

      Most of us lived our lives up to the point where JCP system went in this direction (?@post-1991-6?) believing we had one or two freedoms at least – even if only in relation to the kinds of work we thought we could/would try to get – in turn based on whatever had gone before in our lives, whatever we might have been trying to achieve or just to learn about our skills/abilities or dislikes/lack of abilities. The last time we might have experienced the sorts of ‘supervision’ and ‘ways of being treated’ (outside of parentally) that are now entrenched/commonplace (from strangers who feel justified in asking for personal information if it suits their purposes) was at school – or maybe up until the age of 16 even if still at school if we were lucky. So it rankles. (I feel) it’s wrong from more than one perspective – but just superficially – wrong at the very least – because it’s several steps too far infringing/intruding into an area where there’s no need for unemployment benefit office to be (inside our brains and by extension, everywhere we go between one signing and the next .. DWP is with us).

      It fits in perfectly with every other policy that’s being developed/espoused. All controlling, stifling of freedoms/individual creativity/etc. ‘Q’ magazine have recently published an article about how bands like The Clash and people like Billy Bragg (& even Oasis) would not have been able to develop their music and find a way to reach a wide audience today – as the welfare state ‘funded’ their time to rehearse as long as they signed on regularly. They weren’t ‘living it large’ – & were (relatively) poor & struggling but at least were not forced to do unpaid work/take work in a call centre or run around fulfilling ‘conditions’ to receive their dole money – so could find/develop what they were good at without necessarily being stigmatised at the same time (although Billy says his mum often mentioned the time he wasn’t working even once there were several awards & etc. on the mantelpiece).

      • overburdenddonkey

        sn..
        so it can only be that these fools resist personal growth and expect everyone else to follow suit..they lie in the bed of the establishment and are afraid to come out…

        • Eric Greenwood (4727)

          Osteoarthritis of both ankles in constant pain, but my doctor doesnt believe in people being off sick..So am stuck..If they want me to go to the job centre for 35 hours a week I will they have to pay my travel expenses, It will give me chance to talk to other people and point them at the right sites. And i will take up one of their Iad’s so that no one else will use it. I am a big person, i would be recognisable and i would tell anyone who asked why i was there.. 98 was the time when dwp competitions first came in (i worked there), they could win a car or a holiday if they got a person off the dole.. the way they phrased it could read get them a job but started the sanction people..

          I am very patient I spent 15 months doing microfiches every 7 seconds the roller would move and take an image of a piece of paper.. then replace paper and repeat.. for 15 months.. not just a couple of hundred times a day but 3,700 pages a day for 15 months.. I survived an thrived so 35 hours at the job centre.. piece of cake..

      • Exactly, Shirley! There’s two main reasons this country’s music scene has been admired all over the world and made us billions of pounds: Art Schools and the dole, the unofficial artists’ stipend that they could get by on whilst working on their craft. So it seems particularly odd that the Tories would want to go to war on all that. Then again they know in their hearts there aren’t that many Tories in any half-decent bands, which is why now we have bands like Mumford & Sons actually making it big and decent bands are getting fewer and fewer. Rock’n’Roll will be effectively dead in 10 years, at this rate!

        • Actually, it’s pretty much dead now. 90% of it is all about nostalgia, as if the industry knows it’s future’s fucked, but will keep on trying to screw money out of the illustrious past for as long as possible. For my money, the best new proper band of recent times is Savages. Recommended for old Banshees and Joy Division fans! Oh, John Peel, how we’re missing you now! RIP…

  25. It`s draining the hell out of me, I refused to sign up to the UJM site on the specifics of I was given the choice (on the sign up page) to not tick the box that allows JCP to follow my search.
    I was given a bollocking by my `advisor` (aka jobsworth bastard) as he claimed I was, and I quote, `putting a deliberate block on my search` and I `maybe penalised as a result`. I went straight home and emailed my MP. explained I had conformed to all JSA contract demand (ie: applied and recorded for six jobs per fortnight) 3 weeks later I received a copy letter and note from my MP with the DWP stating I had misinterpreted the conversation.

    Apparently, I was told nothing about being penalised and I was merely advised, `joining up and having my advisor `assist` me would reap a greater chance of finding a work placement`
    Silly me eh, misheard the entire conversation.

    Back to topic though, the scary truth of internet filtering will indeed screw up advice sites of all kinds and, as already stated, all abuse help will be removed from the web, for some it`s the only way to anonymously obtain advice and help. Its not the old days where phone numbers were in phone boxes (even childline is no longer publicised in a public phone booth).
    This Government is deliberating a total mental breakdown of the working class. I honestly do not believe Cameron (The Un-elected) is at all naive to not know what he is doing. His advisors likewise….. call me a conspiracist if you will but, I feel in my bones that Its further deliberation to crush the little people by taking away what little else we have that keeps us afloat.

    • overburdenddonkey

      elohimette…funny they always bias, words to suit there goals, and the customer is always, wrong, a bit thick, or mutton and jeff…blogs such as these are invaluable for comparing notes…so out of the darkness i grow, their version is always believed….so, record the conversation , more expense!
      oh, i get it “work placement”…not a job, but a work placement….for, let me guess, £71/wk…be lucky enough to get a work placement, and not a job, a job might come latter although we can’t promise anything, it’s up to you, if you have the right attitude etc….right they say, that does not work, so lets do more of it..

    • Use of semantics – and threats. The whole process is demoralising & that’s what there’s no concept of (at JCP end) – it’s off-putting and detracts time and energy away from looking for work/trying to have a life/trying not to get ill. If not ill before going in there it might only be a matter of time for some before they become poorly in one way or another. It’s completely brutal – designed by automatons (& sadists) – not for real people.

      (But good on you for contacting your MP/challenging it).

    • You don’t need to be a conspiricist to believe what you do, just perceptive. It’s the people who think people like us are weird I feel sorry for…!

  26. Frank Psychosis

    I am on the (No)Work Programme, just the A4E attending shit, rather than the mandated work for fuck all bit of it, and I now have to sign on at an A4E office, where previously I went to the Jobcentre. Their current spiel is that from October, all job searches will have to be presented electronically through the UJM website, and that the jobs must be entered on the day you apply for them, rather than entering all the details in in one go. If you enter them in one go it will appear that you applied for all the jobs on the same day, which could raise a few eyebrows, so they must be entered as you go along. Seems like more conditionality crap to allow for the issuing of more sanctions. The whole tone is that we’re all scrounging scum.

  27. How can they mandate the unemployed onto ujm in October when it is against the data protection act? Perhaps they are planning to do a deal with Europe and repatriate our human rights laws?

  28. Pingback: Universal Jobmatch Makes A Mockery of Minimum Wage Clampdown | the void

  29. PS it seems like they are trying to shut down every avenue whereby the downtrodden can get advice, camaraderie and an outlet for their frustrations against these criminals that are running the country, with a little help from their corrupt friends.

  30. That’s another element of choosing what to do, how & when taken away & not everyone will be able to stay ‘within the rules’ all of the time (for whatever reasons) – so more setting people up to fail/stopping them from thinking their own thoughts & keeping them on treadmill.

    I think they’re trying to ‘train’ as many as possible of us for the time when they (legislate) to require every unemployed person (or as many as humanly possible) to be part of a group, in one/two large building per town, all applying for (the same) jobs – together – a bit like in an exam – every day, for five days a week. It’s like they’ve got mixed up with some sort of ‘young offenders detention scheme’ & adapted the most dislikeable ideas from an imagined/heard about punishment centre – & introducing them gradually.

    (Have read hardly any science fiction; don’t really need to now).

    • overburdenddonkey

      sn..still some the goody goodies, might be let off of the hook of endless, janet and john lessons and be selected for a workcamp..i mean work placement…

  31. Just been for my first post Work Programme interview and the pressure they put on you to give them access to your account is incredible. Essentially I was given a choice between letting them look or having to produce printouts of every single thing I do online. Gits. Still, on the bright side at least I know each and every dreadful minimum wage job they make me apply to through the useless UJM won’t even be looked at by the employers.

  32. I am intending to simply provide a screenshot of an application or email sent to a job advertised, but not my UJM account.
    I may even continue with my written record. As the UJM toolkit states they cannot specify how we keep records.

    And I have been sanctioned this time for not having any applications in a fortnightly period. This isn’t sanctionable in my opinion. It’s just ‘how it looks’ to them psychopaths.

    I might just let them sanction me further, then state how screenshots of my UJM is allowing them access by proxy. And as it’s my right not to let them have access then screenshots count as access! See what the decision makers say about it. It appears it’s find no jobs and we will ‘refer’ you to the DM. Threats. threats, threats.

    I’m prepared to go on hardship and take this to tribunal too. Can they sanction hardship payments? Lol. Although I probably wont even get them either. What a mess. But I’m surprisingly calm about ti all. i hate having nothing, but i have friends and family so that makes me luckier than some.

    And I’m still fighting about my 7 and a half month sanction. My appeal has been frozen, or ‘stayed’ in legal parlance.
    When the dwp court of appeal case is passed then i can proceed with my tribunal appeal. That’s whether the dwp win or lose!

    Of course i don’t expect the dee w pee to lose, because if they do it appears that a lot of reimbursement will be happening. The corruption will not allow those judges to be impartial and rule sanctions illegal again.

    Hmmm?

    • Indeed, just like when Cait Reilly (spelling?) and her case against Poundland. The judges supported her in principle, but not to the extent of obliging the DWP to pay out compensation, if memory serves. The DWP said something smug about not paying up in order to “protect the national economy”, or some such horseshit.
      I’d definately keep your jobsearch on paper if I were you. As you correctly say, they can’t dictate the medium via which you keep your jobsearch record and they can’t refuse to accept paper jobsearch records. If they cut up rough, quote them the info in Yarbs’s comment above (24th July @ 10.29pm). And regarding hardship payments, I remember that before they were abolished, crisis loans were unavailable if you were serving a period of sanction, so I’d check up on that, if I were you…

  33. Hi
    I am a bit confused by this statement: “Whilst a Jobseeker’s Direction can be issued forcing claimants to sign up to the site, there is still no requirement to tick the box giving the Jobcentre access to your account.”

    I am on work programme and almost to the end of my time and big notices have been put on every wall you can see stating that Claimants under the new regime will have to give advisers the right to check all their online work search activity. I take it that this means having access to you UJ account and all your online jobsearch accounts that your use. Maybe someone can show me where there is no requirement for them to do this so I can print it off and confront the work programme advisers about this? Thanks

    • Eric Greenwood (4727)

      Moab check What do they know there are a lot of questions about the Universal job match Chapter 3 of the universal job match tool kit. contains all the info you need

    • (*NOT ADVICE)… i have found up to now that trying to avoid being coerced to register/use and/a direction is most do-able when convincingly explaining/ able to demonstrate which other sites/means to search used to fulfil whatever requirements, how regularly etc. (as you would have to anyway).

      If registered with a few (don’t have to upload CV to use them/apply for jobs from them) and other steps being taken etc – more difficult for anyone who doesn’t usually apply for jobs in this way, as they’re likely to be directed straight to UJ website to create an “online presence” just explaining that indeed/Totaljobs or whichever other method(s) feel safer (seems) to offer less chance of reasonable reasons to doubt being raised. Showing genuine concerns eg. saftey/reliability etc of UJ) and regular attempts to locate work – but preferring not to touch UJ with a large stick – & being willing to state why. (More difficult to do this in a room full of others where it’s being done as a group – with posters stating “do it”) = would have to feel confident about politely refusing. Possible to mention there have been some (!) data protection worries with UJ (to massively understate the case) and/or that it doesn’t seem entirely user-friendly/etc. etc.. One adviser openly said to me that there are fewer jobs on there than were on DWP’s old site – and that the jobs often ‘come & go’/are repeated and missing details/state they are full time when they’re not etc.

      (Their posters sound ?fraudulent?).

      As they would like to be able to monitor people’s job search and because this is the DWP’s own (failing) s(h)ite, WP must be duty-bound to push it as far as possible and sell its’ merits(?). NO other site allows (anyone else) other than the person who’s account it is, to access their job search. I’ve heard of 2 people (they were at a food bank) who had been sent automated UJ job-lists and it was decided at one point that they had failed to apply for ‘enough’ of these – and both were ‘sanctioned’. Both women with dependant children.

    • Moab – sorry just re-read your post. If have to make an account – there’s a box to tick ‘allowing access’ – this is routinely being/has been presented as the ‘easiest’/most helpful way that advisers can increase their ‘help/input’ – rather than being ‘sold’ as a means to issue sanctions without having to bother even talking to the person, in person about a job first. “Just tick the box – it’s best if you do …”.

      Anyone ticking the box has given permission for dwp staff to view job searches made/with activity on the site/time spent on it etc viewable & reasons given for not applying where jobs sent out (via JCP) that ‘must’ be applied for – can be assessed as ‘not reasonable’. It doesn’t sound like a safe ‘deal’ to enter into – any ‘gains’ going one way only …

      • Yeah, you’re effectively handing them enough rope to hang you with. Don’t make their job any easier. Boycott UJM – if you can stand firm against the bully-boy tactics…

  34. Here is a simple scam. advertise a job, any job will do, and have said applicants apply by e-mail only. Once you have their email addy spam them to death with get rich quick schemes. UJM is a joke. Also note the endless lists of the same agencies. In Blackpool CVWarehouse can be over 50% of all new vacancies.

    On a side note would anyone like to start a sweepstake on when a DWP member of staff will be murdered for applying sanctions? I’ll have my quid on 13.08.13.

  35. Obi Wan Kenobi

    If you are told by a JCP adviser you ‘have’ to allow access to your UJM account and/or told you ‘have’ to give them your phone number – this is classed as coercion and is illegal – if this has happened to you go see your MP immediately – don’t wait.

  36. something survived...

    It has hapened to me and I was ordered to get a landline phone and mobile phone. I’m not allowed the former and can’t afford the other even if I wanted it. I can’t afford printouts but it won’t let me do screenshots or print anything anyway, most of the time also no printer! I said UJM have my email so ask them for it. UJM altered my personal details and falsified most of my information on my UJM account then they locked me out (summer 2012) of my own account. Fuckwit at JCP ordered me to make a new false CV and duplicate new false UJM account. Lying cunt. Is he asking me to commit fraud?

  37. Universal Jobmatch is the WORST job board out there. It’s full of self-employed vacancies and spam jobs, e.g., commission based positions or crap jobs selling Avon or Kleeneze products and similar. You cannot apparently even include a covering letter with your CV if you apply for a job using the site! And the design of the website couldn’t possibly be less user friendly or trying to use, from having to log on using a numeric code, onwards. Absolute bollocks. Unless mandated to do so why would anybody choose this site rather than totaljobs.co.uk or indeed.co.uk?

    • Eric Greenwood (4727)

      It is a sanction machine they are not there to get you a job they are there to get you off the dole (by sanction), I worry that the numeric code will one day be part of a human chipping system, Since you need the the number to access a lot of information via the government gateway since the numbers are so large would they ask you to have it tattoo’d on you.

      • To Eric Greenwood -, I`m not the only conspiracist here then lol. I totally agree with your saying, They`re merely getting us off the dole, and job or no job? getting us off of the dole is all that matters.
        Ironically, if they succeeded? where would they end up?
        JOBLESS??…. ha ha, if only!!!

        • Eric Greenwood (4727)

          It isnt a theory when you are told there are sanction targets for people, when advisers who dont report x amount each week get a intervention from the managers it is a conspiracy fact 😉

      • Please don’t say that – I don’t want to end up part of a bag of frozen chips in someone’s freezer …

    • Another Fine Mess

      Who’s bright IDea waS it to pay £17m to “a competitor” to do the site. It’s bound to be rubbish isn’t it.

    • TotalJobs is one of the worst job boards out there in terms of chances of securing work – most of the pages bring up completely irrelevant search results that makes even Universal Jobmatch look good.

      (i.e. you wont find a Coventry Royal Mail job search on UJM and find vacancies not even in Coventry let alone by Royal Mail; you would at least get some kind of scam vacancies of similar)

      Indeed uses UJM jobs as well as from other websites. To post directly on Indeed… employers need to pay per an job advert view to the candidate… in a similar way to CPC (cost per click – i.e. pay per click) adverts you might see beside google search results etc. so these are usually agencies trying to buy registrations.

      The numerical login is the Government’s inability to grasp the concept of a computer database. Your NI and NHS are examples of a number (with letters) which can directly refer to you as a person. Whereas D.O.B is personal data that might not directly refer to you – i.e. we all share birthdays, but with place of birth etc. it can find you.

      So they wanted a number for each person in the country (this gateway nonsense extends to buying car tax, passports etc. or so is planned any how). Little did they know, the same thing will work with strings, or quite frankly well-established “usernames”. If you have a unique registration system where no one can have the same two usernames, then it achieves exactly the same effect – same if it was an email address instead of the number.

      You sure you don’t want a self-employed wine sales rep or catalogue deliver job? There are several available in every town of the UK…. (haha, yeah none of them exist)

      I am sure the concept of made-up driver jobs is to obtain driving licence scans.

  38. It was out of fear of losing my benefits truly,I have been in court for non payment of tax and rent in the past from having zilch income (still paying the debt off today from 2010).
    They`re supposed to work for us right? I will use him (my MP) any way possible to fight the DWP / Council.

  39. It’s also massively shameful being caught looking at Universal Jobmatch in public. I often have a child porn website open so that I can clickly quick onto that if anybody walks past.

  40. I IN NO WAY CONDONE THIS ACTION IT IS SIMPLY A HOLE IN THE SYSTEM THAT I HAVE PRESENTED IN A SATIRICAL FASHION.

    Are you getting slammed by the Job Center for not applying to enough jobs on the Jobsmatch system? Do you want to spend more time actually looking for a job? Here’s the simple 7 step guide that will help you through these difficult situations:

    1. Go to a local library to use the free computers.
    2. Create a new e-mail with a business sounding domain name.
    3. Use this address to sign up as a Jobsmatch employer and get a Government Gateway identity.
    4. Create 2 or three jobs to “apply” for.
    5. Delete the internet history on the computer and log off.
    6. Go to the job Center and apply for these jobs.
    7. Go back to the library on the date of your “interview” and confirm your own attendance.

    For added benefit get all your friends to do this too and invite each other.

    NOTE THESE ACTIONS COULD BE CONSIDERED FRAUD. JUST BECAUSE IT IS POSSIBLE DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS LEGAL.

  41. UniversalJobotomy

    My experience of the whole situation is to use UJ with great attention to whom you are applying for and where you information is going. Many adverts look like incomplete web domain landing pages.

    Often you will not hear back from them or they will pass on the information to companies by selling them to people like CV library and the like, Also the algorithm used by the websites tells you there is (20×40 pages) 800 jobs each day.

    Put in a keyword and change the parameters this will get filtered however you are only applying this to revolving jobs. Some vacancies are two months old and there seems to be no maintenance.

    The basic facts are logon to UJ through the GOV.UK and that’s where the security stops. Advisers only need their own Monster logon and your e-mail address and they have access.

    Running traceroutes on their website is dubious as the packets get dropped and they don’t exist in internet terms. This is good from a security point of view; only I just don’t trust the advisers. Apparently they can only view your jobsearch records.

    Also a reason you may not be able to login is because someone else is already logged in. This is possible with systems like Google Mail, or any other cloud based service however the DWP seem to be using a cloud based service where they can override the security settings and muck around inside there without your consent. The tick box is a legal formality that I’m sure can be over-ruled.

    DPA my arse. We are not all fraudsters, banks, other financial institutions already offer this data protection as part of their service.

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