I don't see how they can tell how many hours you have spent looking for work every week to star with, nor do the JCs have the staff to look at records in detail. At least the one where I sign on, the appointments are always under five minutes and they struggle to find a slot for the next appointment. They've only looked at my Universal Jobmatch once that I can remember, other times I think they can just see how many entries you've made in total without looking at each entry. They just haven't got the time to discuss what you do to find work. The whole thing has to be political, so as to make it look like claimants are 'working' for their benefits. If you were to spend 35 hours a week job seeking it could well end up backfiring, you'd end up being blacklisted by recruiters if you ring/email/text non stop. These days you can't look for work by turning up in person, you have to do it all online and once you've sent your CV all you can do is wait.

That sounds very good, can I ask what line of work you do?

As someone who has done a lot of the above, I can say it doesn't really work that well, not when your background is in corporate services. Over the past 10 years I have had leaflets and business cards printed: some done professionally on nice paper stock using spot colours, some from Vista (not sure whether I'm allowed to mention commercial enterprises here, wouldn't want to look like I'm spamming for them), some printed at home on a colour inkjet. They have been for various purposes: photo DVD creation for weddings and other events (8-10 years ago, before social media fever), selling beauty products and handmade jewellery, as well as web and graphic design services. Hardly anything has come out of any of that. I own a limited company, that's just a vehicle and doesn't make any difference for promotional purposes. The company has been used mostly to invoice for services provided full time as you would as an agency 'temp', without using an agency. At some point I even paid for ads on the online yellow pages, etc. I got lots of enquiries after this, sadly most were from people and companies trying to SELL me something rather than for my services. I also got quite a few CVs from job applicants! Any genuine enquiries resulted in a lot of time wasted creating pitches that came to nothing. With regards to emergency call outs, the OP has stated above that working short-term has led to misunderstandings with the DWP who seem to think if you work, say, 10 hours this week, you'll be doing that every week.

I shall ignore all those irrelevant comments posted by people who haven't got a clue what they are talking about and give an update for the sake of the CAG community, with my thanks to those who helped. At the time I posted on here I wasn't in possession of any written documents stating the reason why my claim had stopped, so I couldn't apply for mandatory reconsideration. I was made to attend a 'genuine prospect of work' interview at the Jobcentre. I went armed with piles of paperwork including emails from recruiters, proof of interviews, etc. They didn't want to look at anything and it was just whatever came up on their computer screens, starting with whether I had a job offer. I'd have thought it I had one I'd have notified them and would not be claiming for much longer. Then if I had done a course. Hardly the same as a job offer.... Then came a question as to whether I had taken any steps to become self-employed, started a business or registered a company. I replied yes to that one, then came the date of registration. 2008 I said. Had I informed HMRC and Companies House about it, yes, I've been submitting accounts since then. Then came questions about why I was claiming if I had a business, etc. I argued that I'd been in this country for 30 years and showed a letter that refers to my NIC record, dated 2010, and I had another pile of paper showing what I'd been doing since 2010. They were not interested and just made a note under "other comments". They told me it would all go back to the processing centre and I may not hear before I was due to sign on the following week. The day before I was due, I got a letter merely stating "You are currently not required to pass the genuine prospect of work due to you having an alternative right to reside". It was dated the day after the interview, I guess they took one quick look and saw that, if I had actually been filing accounts since 2008, then I must have been living here at least since then (and I'm also still at the same address, which happens to be the registered office). A lot of time and hassle would have been saved have they asked about he last five years rather than the last three months on the day of the Habitual Residence Test at the start of the claim, but those DWP advisors are just puppets of the computer systems that tell them what to ask for. I hope this is useful for anyone in a similar position.

Many thanks for your help, that's most helpful! I didn't even know about residence cards, it was never an issue if you were from the EU.

Income based as I was invoicing as a limited company in my last job, but they know all that. They never even send a letter or anything. Got a letter end of Jan I think saying something about having more money than law says I need to live on which I couldn't understand so I rang the processing office that sent it, they said it has been sent with the wrong code and there was nothing to worry about, they checked on the computer. Went to sign on two weeks ago and there was no mention of anything, nor have I received anything in writing.

Hi, I've just been to the JC to sign on as usual, asked for a letter confirming receipt off JSA and was told I'm no longer in receipt as it has "just gone over 6 months". Apparently you can only claim for 6 months as a EU citizen but when I started my claim I was told that didn't apply in this case as it was for new migrants. I did the HRT interview showed proof of residence for the last three months as required but tenancy agreement is 7 years old and date of first arrival in UK is 1984! I had my old passport issued in London in 2003, worked in the City since 97, only claimed for a year after the credit crunch, then worked 4 years non stop. Have paid taxes and worked in UK all my life, how can they do this? Have applied for over 100 jobs and had interviews, even an upcoming one so not exact intending to live off the system. In fact they agreed to pay for my travel to this interview so they know about it. When I argued they booked me an interview at the JC in 10 days' time. How can they do this just because I didn't apply for a British passport? It costs £950 and all these years EU citizens had much the same rights. I understand the idea of. Ot wanting people to come here to live off the state but I came here in the 80s and paid my taxes, etc. hardly ever claimed anything other than during the crunch. The CABs are all short staffed and wouldn't see me, any help and advice most welcome! Many thanks