Signing On - your experiences?

[Carole18]

As a former PA in the midst of a recession I am thinking of biting the bullet and signing on. However am worried at what you need to do to prove you are looking for work. Will I be expected to apply for 10 jobs a week when it's quite obvious there are just no such jobs around at present, especially in my field of work.

I signed on around 10 years ago and the people I dealt with treated me like dirt even though I was actively looking then.

Will I be expected to apply for 10 jobs a week when it's quite obvious there are just no such jobs around at present, especially in my field of work
10 jobs a week? You have to apply more than 10 jobs a day!

A friend of mine has recently signed on for universal credit and I've helped them with it, and it was surprisingly easy. They didn't have up to date id so had to wait for a phone call to confirm id but normally I think you can do it online, and the system is pretty easy to use. You can send them messages through your journal which you get a reply to quickly which is much easier than the old queue for 45 minutes on the phone system.
They do expect you to look for work but they talked through the realistic options and my friend has to update the journal regularly but that's not really difficult. You can apply for jobs pretty quickly through job sites with an uploaded cv.

@ZombieFan

Will I be expected to apply for 10 jobs a week when it's quite obvious there are just no such jobs around at present, especially in my field of work 10 jobs a week? You have to apply more than 10 jobs a day!

Really?! Ten a day?

You’re meant to spend 35 hours a week looking and applying for jobs

I really sorry for applicants. It's a bit shit. I worry about them being forced to potentially reduce their chances of finding a job.

At several of my old places, we'd receive applications that were blatantly not suitable to the role. Wrong qualifications, lack of required experience, etc. One of our directors found it very irritating until I pointed out many had to do this to avoid sanctions. The applications still went in the bed but he stopped automatically blacklisting the applicant if they, at a later stage, applied for a more appropriate role.

OP I know exactly what you mean. It used to be very much like you described but it's all done online now and you just have to commit to spending 35 hours a week looking for work, you dont have to prove anything or apply for x jobs. In the old days you had to keep a diary but not at the moment. But signing on will help with your national insurance contributions which help towards the state pension so I would do it for that reason alone.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking of doing it more for the national insurance contributions rather than anything else.

I've recently done it and it was fine. Like the above poster said you have to commit up to 35 hours a week but that includes looking at adverts, filling out application forms, preparing for interviews. It's all done over the telephone at the moment due to Covid. The lady I spoke to was very nice.

My 19 year old son has recently made a claim for Uc and despite him currently doing 2 zero hours jobs one after another and working 11 hours a day he is still being sent work coach appointments and being asked to upload his Cv ! Hopefully after this month he will have earned enough to not need Uc, although with zero hours jobs it's a case of hours not always being available and one of the jobs is term time.