You must do your JSA jobsearch online, even though we know you can’t

18 Oct 2014

Iain Duncan Smith, planner extraordinaire, aims to have the majority of Universal Credit claims made online. Here's an example of someone who will be completely excluded from claiming because of that:

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article about Eddie (name changed) and the problems that he was having with his online jobsearch. I've met twice with Eddie since then.

Eddie is a 51-year-old Kilburn man who has mild learning difficulties. He struggles to read and write. At the moment, he signs on for jobseeker's allowance. He has worked for most of his life as a catering assistant in hotels, pubs and in kitchens, but was made redundant about four years ago. He has been unemployed ever since. He is very keen to get another job, but has not been able to find one. He wants someone to help liaise with potential employers on his behalf - to ring people who take staff on, put him forward as a candidate, promote him and his work history and to talk through any problems that employers may have with his literacy difficulties. Eddie has taken CVs into businesses all over Kilburn. He never gets called back.

The upshot of all of this is that Eddie must go to the jobcentre every fortnight to sign on and to show that he's searched for at least 14 jobs. This post will show you how difficult and pointless this jobsearch exercise is for him. One of Eddie's main problems is his struggle to read and write. He can write letters out if people tell him which ones to choose (for example, he asked me how to spell "Customer Service Advisor" when applying for one job, then wrote it as I spelled it out), but has trouble with more complex words. He also finds computers challenging. He doesn't have a computer at home, which means that he rarely uses one. He wasn't sure what a browser was when I took my laptop around to his flat to help him with his jobsearch (you'll see some of this in the videos below).

Nonetheless, a couple of weeks ago, Eddie's jobcentre adviser instructed him to choose and apply for at least three jobs online as part of his fortnightly quota. He was given this sheet of paper - you'll see that it lists job ads and links:

Eddie was concerned about this because he was not at all sure how to tackle an online application. The jobcentre didn't show him. His jobcentre adviser actually conceded this when I accompanied Eddie to his signon appointment last week. Eddie and I explained to the advisor that we'd worked through the online application process together. I'd typed his CV for him, because he didn't have an electronic version and couldn't submit an online job application without one. I ended up completing a couple of the online application forms as well (to Argos and Superdrug). The adviser, who seemed a reasonable person, at least on the face of it, was quick to say that she knew Eddie had literacy problems, that she had never sanctioned him and was unlikely to do so because she felt that he did his best to meet his jobsearch requirements.

The problem is, of course, that people can't rely on a forgiving adviser. Advisers come and go, or take leave, or go off sick, or move to new jobs. New managers come in and apply target pressures. Jobcentres shut down and/or people are sent to different jobcentres to sign on. People can't just rely on scoring a nice adviser. Sanctions are the ever-present threat. There is always the chance, too, that advisers behave in a more concilitory fashion when a JSA claimant brings an advocate along ("never attend anywhere official alone!"says the Kilburn Unemployed Workers' Group. Indeed). None of that should matter. Effective and consistent support should be in place wherever you go. On this evidence, it isn't.

Eddie and I asked if someone at the jobcentre could help him with online applications in future. The adviser said that finding the time was difficult. She said that in the old days, she would have called employers and helped Eddie apply for work until he found a job. That sort of service was a thing of the past. "I used to see about five people a day. Now I see about 15." Courses and endlessly useless work programme training sessions are supposed to plug that gap. Apparently, Eddie is booked to go on a computer skills course. That won't exactly change the fact that he hasn't got a computer to practise on.

Anyway. Here are some short clips from the afternoon round at Eddie's flat when we went through the online job application process together. I have mixed feelings about putting these videos up - this feels an invasive and gratuitous exercise in many respects - but then again, this is what things are like. Let's not forget that the great Iain Duncan Smith wants most Universal Credit claims made online. I guess the idea there is to drop people in Eddie's situation at the first hurdle.

Here we are looking through the list of jobs Eddie needed to apply for (we're sitting on the bed in Eddie's tiny single-room flat here):

Then, I asked Eddie if he knew how to get online.

"No I don't know anything about this online at all," he said.

"So you wouldn't know how to open a browser," I said.

"No, because most of the jobs I just go in person with the CV and things like that."

I opened the browser next and ask Eddie if he knew how to type in a url to get to a web page. He didn't. The links were very long and a pain to type in. I messed this one up several times: www.superdrug.jobs/vacancies/vacancies-christmas-temp-554667-31.html.

Then we got to the job ad (the listed job had gone by then, so I had to find a similar job by going back to a general jobs page and then running a customer service advisor job search. That obviously required some familiarity with general site navigation and a basic search).

Then, I asked Eddie if he knew how to scroll down the screen and then what to do next to make an application:

And then I ask Eddie which button he would choose to open the online application form and apply for the job:

And so on. You get the picture. I'll remind the world of it next time I hear Osborne or Reeves or whoever making snide remarks about the feckless long-term unemployed. In my experience, the reality of long-term unemployment is a lot more complicated, unpleasant and unfair than the lying, disingenuous political class would have you believe. The destruction of our social security is based on a monumental political lie - that people who are on JSA are taking the piss. Actually, it is the architects of the destruction who are having the laugh.

On a more positive note, I like to think that we got somewhere with the jobcentre last week when we raised this. We'll find out in a fortnight. The adviser we spoke to agreed that Eddie wasn't getting the support he needed and said she would try to block out a morning to devote to Eddie and three or four other people who had the same sorts of problems using a computer. Of course - that doesn't solve things for other people around the country who are in a similar situation and doubtless getting sanctioned because they can't complete a jobsearch. This is an issue that needs to be thrown at the DWP, so more on that soon. For now - this is long-term unemployment for you, people. It isn't about laziness. It isn't about hanging out for the lulz. It's about being

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