When is a job a job under JSA

[SweetLorraine]

Hi,

 

I have signed on for the first time in years. I am just entitled to contribution-based JSA as I have received a redundancy payment.

 

I have had an initial assessment and signed an agreement whereby I apply for 4 jobs a week.

 

OK - I hope I'm not out of work for long anyway and will be looking around intently!

 

However I haven't found many specific jobs available which I would consider suitable for me - but I have sent my CV to a number of recruitment agencies. There is one advertised job in particular though that I will apply for this week.

 

Does sending in a CV (on spec) to several recruitment agencies and applying for one advertised job count as applying for at least 4 jobs in a week? Or have I failed to meet my agreement criteria?

 

Any advice would be most helpful.

[count orlok]

If you want to be pedantic (as the DWP, etc. often are), you have only applied for one job. If you went to the recruitment agency and saw a specific job on their board (not knowing how they work) and tried for it that would count, but just sending a CV on spec could be seen as like looking in the paper, which I would imagine you are expected to do as well as applying for 4 jobs a week.

 

I am only guessing at all this, last time I signed on things where very different.

[estellyn]

Hi,

 

I have signed on for the first time in years. I am just entitled to contribution-based JSA as I have received a redundancy payment.

 

I have had an initial assessment and signed an agreement whereby I apply for 4 jobs a week.

 

OK - I hope I'm not out of work for long anyway and will be looking around intently!

 

However I haven't found many specific jobs available which I would consider suitable for me - but I have sent my CV to a number of recruitment agencies. There is one advertised job in particular though that I will apply for this week.

 

Does sending in a CV (on spec) to several recruitment agencies and applying for one advertised job count as applying for at least 4 jobs in a week? Or have I failed to meet my agreement criteria?

 

Any advice would be most helpful.

 

You're expected to apply for 'unsuitable' jobs too. For instance, someone with a degree in engineering would still be expected to apply for barwork, shopwork, cleaning jobs etc.

[SweetLorraine]

Thanks for the advice.

 

with regard to estellyn's point; on reflection, when I had my initial meeting I was asked a lot of things about what I was looking for in a job, but no mention about what would be the minimum salary I would consider.

 

For example, a qualified social worker who earned £34k a year, recently out of work would be hoping to get back into social work at around the same money or a fair bit less, say £30k.

 

I think I can guess the answer... but what happens if the social worker points to the 'job that you want' poster in the job centre and sticks to their guns about the type of work they want get back into, and doesn't apply for any part-time bar work etc?

[Nystagmite]

You're expected to apply for 'unsuitable' jobs too. For instance, someone with a degree in engineering would still be expected to apply for barwork, shopwork, cleaning jobs etc.

 

What a waste of time.

[estellyn]

What a waste of time.

 

Well it depends if you're applying because you have to, or because you genuinely want to do any job to earn money while waiting for the 'right' job. I've done jobs I was overqualified for while still looking for work - some really horrid ones too - working in a glue factory, a call centre, a picker at a clothing warehouse, in a shop. Though I agree that it can be difficult to get jobs you're overqualified for - they assume that its a stop gap, and you'll leave as soon as you find something better - and they'd be right!

 

I know there used to be a period you could apply for just jobs in your selected fields when first on JSA - not sure if that still applies or for how long. As far as I'm aware you can't specify a minimum wage you'd accept.

[flumps1976]

Permitted periods are not automatically given now when you make a claim for JSA and the criteria has changed for it where you needed to have been employed for a substantial amount of time and be suitably qualified to seek work in that area.

You can only restrict your wage again if you have held that wage for a substantial legth of time and the restriction is being/has been reduced to 13 weeks now (I believe as I'm not a personal advisor).

 

If you do not have the permitted period then you are expected to apply for all jobs that you are capable of and qualified to do.