Work Search Reviews
Overview
1. The Work Search Review forms part of the customer journey we offer to
JSA claimants and is a key part of the service we provide to help claimants
find work. As a minimum, these reviews must be held face to face every
fortnight.
2. We recognise that some claimants may need more regular coaching and
support than others and to help address this, offices will be able to agree
which claimants will benefit from attending Work Search Reviews more
frequently.
Purpose
3. The purpose of the Work Search Review is to ensure that claimants are
doing all that is reasonably possible each week to look for work and to look
at what they plan to do for the period leading up to their next review. As a
minimum, during the review you should:
Check if the claimant is available for and actively seeking employment
and therefore entitled to any Jobseeker’s Allowance and National
Insurance Credits due.
The claimant must do all that is reasonable
to look for work each week
Identify claimants who appear not to be doing all they should to be
actively seeking work for each week of the review period. Referring to a
Labour Market Decision Maker (LMDM) where necessary
Identify any more support needed
follow-up on any activities agreed previously
help the claimant to think about what they are going to do in the weeks
leading up to their next review and to make sure these steps are
recorded in their My Work Plan booklet
The importance of Work Search Reviews
4. Research shows that fortnightly face-to-face Work Search Reviews help
people move from benefit into work more quickly than would otherwise
have been the case.
Frequency of Work Search Reviews
5. As a minimum, unless the claimant has been excused attendance or has
been granted Postal Status, claimants must attend a fortnightly face to
face Work Search Review.
6. Some claimants may benefit from more frequent Work Search Reviews. In
certain circumstances, they may be required to attend Weekly Work
Search Reviews or, for those who have completed the Work Programme,
Daily Work Search Reviews.
7. In these instances claimants will continue to be paid fortnightly, even if
attending more frequently.
8. Alternatively, Work Coaches may have additional contact with claimants
between Work Search Reviews to:
follow up on agreed activity
provide extra support
keep track on progress; or
monitor specific actions
9. This additional contact does not have to be face to face. Claimants could
be contacted over the telephone, by e-mail etc.
10. When arranging for a claimant to attend more regularly, the following must
be explained:
the benefits of more regular reviews. For example, the aim is to provide
them with extra help and support
when they are required to attend, the frequency of these extra reviews
and the number of weeks these are expected to last
what will happen to the claimant, if without good reason, they fail to
attend any of these reviews. For example, they will lose their benefit for
4 weeks or 13 weeks if they’ve already received a lower level sanction
within a 52 week period
that travel expenses will be reimbursed for any days they attend which
are not their fortnightly benefit week ending day
11. At each review, the claimant will sign a labour market declaration, if they
have not already done so on that day. This must be for the period from
either the Date of Claim, or the day after they last made such a
declaration, until the date of this declaration. The only exception to this is
any period where the claimant has been treated as Available and ASE.
12. LMS is updated as to whether the claimant has continued to meet the
labour market conditions after each Work Search Review conducted on
the claimant’s Benefit Week Ending date.
13. For example, every Wednesday, if their NINo ends in 34C.
14. JSAPS D470 will continue to be updated after each Work Search Review
conducted at the end of the claimant’s payment cycle (P and R).
15. For example, every other Monday if their NINo ends in 07A
Weekly Work Search Reviews
16. If you believe a claimant would benefit from a period of more intensive
support, you can require them to attend Weekly Work Search Reviews,
which must be carried out face to face.
17. In these cases the “Claim Hotspot” must be updated to weekly.
18. It is expected that 50% of claimants will be assigned to weekly WSR. It is
expected that the monitoring and control of adherence to the 50% ratio is
achieved by the following process:
19. An LMS MIS report will be available weekly via the MI Portal.
20. This provides Districts with the number of claimants currently subject to
Weekly WSR, broken down to site level.
21. This enables Senior Operations Managers and Customer Services
Operations Managers (CSOM) to measure the position against the 50%
ratio for their cluster of Jobcentres.
22. The CSOM will investigate where any Jobcentres are significantly above
or below the 50% ratio.
23. Although the WSRs conducted at the end of the claimant’s payment cycle
(P and R) will continue, the weekly review does not need to be conducted
on the same day of the week as the claimant’s normal fortnightly WSR.
24. The content is the same as any other WSR and provides an additional
opportunity to check progress against activities for which a Jobseekers
Direction has been issued, or follow up actions to meet the requirements
of Day One Conditionality.
25. At every WSR, a signed labour market declaration is taken from the
claimant.
26. At each WSR, consideration is given to whether Weekly WSR remains
appropriate or whether the claimant is to return to fortnightly WSRs.
27. The existing requirements when claimants attend at the wrong time or Fail
to Attend remain in place.
Undertaking the Work Search Review(WSR)
Preparing for the Review
28. Before the start of a WSR, the latest copy of the Claimant Commitment,
and existing information on LMS should be checked to identify if the
claimant:
needs any extra support during their interview, such as accessibility
requirements;
needs to demonstrate that they have completed any specific activities
agreed during their last contact. This could include specific actions
agreed, such as following up on any jobs you have referred the claimant
to apply for or reviewing if the claimant has completed any outstanding
Day One Conditionality activities;
needs reminding about any future Follow-up Work Search Interviews
with you; or
has any other markers set on LMS, such as the Parent or Child Barriers
to Work markers and that appropriate action has been taken.
Starting the Review
29. At the start of the review, you must always start the review on LMS and:
introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the review
confirm the claimant’s identity
check that the claimant has attended at the correct time and day
identify if any travel expenses need to be refunded
check if the claimant is on any Mandatory Provision
If they are on Mandatory Provision (except sector-based work
academies (sbwa) and Skills Conditionality), check LMS for any
decision making and appeals (DMA) referrals made by providers
check the claimant’s method of payment
identify and arrange any Follow-up Work Search Interviews due.
Checking LMS for DMA referrals from Providers (except sbwa and
Skills Conditionality)
30. You (during Advisory Interviews or Work Search Reviews) must check the
LMS records of JSA claimants on mandatory provision for any Decision
Making and Appeals (DMA) referrals made by providers. The following
process must be followed:
Click the [Decn] button to open the ‘View Referral/Decision Details -
Name’ window.
Note: If the button reads [NoDec], there are no provider
DMA referrals and the check is complete.
If there is a provider DMA referral shown in the ‘View Referral/Decision
Details - Name’ window (see screenshot example below);
31. You must:
Inform the JSA claimant of the type of doubt referred by the provider
and ask if a Labour Market Decision Maker (LMDM) has contacted them
to explain their reason(s) for not doing what was asked of them by the
provider.
If the claimant says they have been contacted and given their reason(s)
to the LMDM, tell them if a sanction is applied, JSA cannot be paid and
explain about Hardship.
If the claimant says they have not been contacted, explain that they will
be contacted shortly by the LMDM and the importance of giving their
reasons to the LMDM and tell them if a sanction is applied, JSA cannot
be paid and explain about Hardship.
NOTE: This check is not required for claimants on sbwa and Skills
Conditionality provision because DMA referrals from these providers are
not sent direct to LMDM Admin Teams.
Reviewing Work Search Activity
32. A discussion with the claimant must always take place, to find out what
they have been doing to look for work each week within the payment
period in question. This is to confirm the claimant has been actively
seeking work, by undertaking all that can be reasonably expected and can
therefore be paid any Jobseeker’s Allowance/National Insurance credits
due.
Availability
33. You need to be satisfied that the claimant has remained available for work,
taking any agreed restrictions on the Claimant Commitment into account.
For example, someone with caring responsibilities may have agreed
restrictions around the hours they can work to fit in with their caring
responsibilities.
Actively Seeking Employment
34. In terms of Actively Seeking Employment, each week, claimants are
required to do all that can be reasonably expected to give themselves the
best chances of finding work. The work search activities that the claimant
is expected to undertake each week will have been agreed at their Initial
Work Search Interview and recorded on the Claimant Commitment.
35. Claimant’s will have been encouraged to turn these activities into realistic
and detailed commitments, explaining what they are going to do and how,
when and where they are going to do it, in their ‘My Work Plan’ booklet.
36. This information along with other supporting evidence should be used to
help inform the Work Search Review and determine if
the claimant has provided enough information to enable a judgement on
if they have met the ASE condition
the actions they have taken are all that they could have reasonably
done.
ASE for prison leavers working Community Resettlement
Companies (CRCs)
37. Some prison leavers will have had their access to the WP deferred
because they are undertaking activities to resettle into the community.
38. Resettlement activities must be taken into account when assessing
whether a claimant has met the ASE condition of entitlement by doing all
that could be reasonably expected of them to look for work.
39. If a claimant states that undertaking a resettlement activity meant that they
could not undertake certain agreed Work Search activities or undertake
them as frequently as agreed, the impact of undertaking the resettlement
activity on their Work Search Activity must be considered when deciding
whether the claimant did all that could be reasonably expected of them to
find work.
DMA must only be taken if, having taken account of any Resettlement
Activities, the claimant does not do all that could be reasonably
expected of them to look for work.Detail of information provided
40. For conditionality to be effective, claimants need to understand what is
expected of them and the type and amount of information the claimant will
be expected to provide about what they have done to look for work. The
amount of evidence provided will determine if further probing questions
should be used to help to verify, or expand that information. For example:
if the claimant has looked online, they should be asked to provide
details of the websites and what they found
if the claimant has looked in newspapers, which ones, on which days
and what was found?
if the claimant has visited potential employers, when did they visit and
who did they speak to?
if the claimant has sent speculative CVs, when was this? Have they
heard anything and, if not, have they followed up with a phone call?
Level of activity undertaken
41. Looking for work and meeting the high level work search requirements is
demanding and can be a full-time job in itself. It is not unreasonable to
expect claimants (with no agreed restrictions) to spend a large amount of
their time looking for work.
42. To help claimants recognise and understand how much they can
reasonably be expected to do each week, they should be advised to think
about whether they could have actually done more than they actually did.
Example
Ben is a single man of 20, who lives with his parents. He recently completed
a two year apprenticeship in Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) but was unable to secure a permanent job. He has no restrictions on
his availability or any health issues that would affect the type of work he can
do. In addition to ICT, he has included general administrative work on his
Claimant Commitment.
One of Ben’s actions for getting work outlined on his Claimant Commitment is
to search online for jobs and apply for all those he is able to do.
To meet this, Ben accessed reed.co.uk 3 times each week, jobsite 4 times
each week and Indeed.co.uk twice each week. He found a total of 9 suitable
vacancies and he applied for 5 of them.
There are a number of things that Ben needs to think about here. For
example:
is conducting 9 online searches each week as much as he could have
done, should he have done more
was he limiting himself by not extending this search to include Universal
Jobmatch
why did he only apply for 5 of the 9 suitable vacancies he found?
The discussion needs to include an element of questioning. However, it
should not be seen as ‘an interrogation’ but rather taking a less direct, more
persuasive approach, making suggestions and allowing the claimant to think
for themselves. For example, instead of asking: “Why did you only do 9
searches each week?” it might be better for him to be asked: “Is there a
reason why you didn’t search each site every day? Was it because they
weren’t updated that quickly? If not, he could be asked if he thinks he could
increase the number of his searches and to what level he thinks would be
reasonable.
Also, rather than asking: “Why didn’t you access Universal Jobmatch?” it
might be better for him to be asked if there are any reasons why he doesn’t
find UJ useful. It might be that there were IT issues that prevented him from
accessing it, or he may have struggled to navigate it.
The more Ben can think for himself, realise his own capabilities and take
ownership, the more he is likely to push himself and increase his level of work
search activity.
Considering whether the level of activity is enough to meet the
ASE condition
43. The more information a claimant can provide about their work search
activities, the less doubt there is to if they have met the requirements
under Actively Seeking Employment.
44. To avoid any doubts, claimants need to understand:
what we expect of them
what information we are looking for
the kind of examples they can use to provide it
what will happen to them if they don’t meet the conditions for Actively
Seeking Employment? That is, that their benefit will stop and they will
no longer qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance and that if they make a new
claim after such a failure, they may not receive their benefit for up to 4
weeks or 13 weeks if they’ve previously had an intermediate sanction
within a 52 week period.
Planning the activities over the next review period
45. The second part of the Work Search Review should focus on forward
planning. You should explain that planning and structuring work search
activities will give the claimant the best chance of finding suitable work. It
will also help confirm the claimant’s ongoing entitlement to Jobseeker’s
Allowance by showing they have done all they could reasonably be
expected to do, each week, to get a job.
46. Claimants should ideally come to the Work Search Review with a plan of
the specific actions they intend to do in the next 2 weeks, in the My Work
Plan document. This should have been discussed with them during their
Work Search Interview.
47. If their planning is lacking you should encourage and make suggestions
about how it could be improved. The claimant should be advised to think
about their next steps and record what they are going to do either in the
review (time permitting) or if not, immediately after their review whilst the
discussion is still fresh in their mind.
48. The claimant’s forward plans should include what other activities they are
going to do as part of their regular work search activities outlined on their
Claimant Commitment but may also include any follow-up action from
previous commitments such as:
following up job applications and speculative contacts
preparing for interviews with employers
Claimant does not use the ‘My Work Plan’ booklet to provide
evidence
49. The benefits of using the ‘My Work Plan’ booklet will have been explained
to the claimant at the Initial Work Search Interview. The My Work Plan
booklet benefits the claimant by:
enabling a claimant to plan and structure work search activities
acting as a reminder of the commitments they have agreed
making it easier for the claimant to record the detailed actions they have
taken to meet those commitments
50. We would strongly encourage claimants to use this booklet as a helpful
tool to plan their work search. Whilst this is not mandatory, claimants must
provide sufficient evidence of their work search activity to satisfy the
Actively Seeking Employment condition, the ‘My Work Plan’ booklet is
therefore an easy way for them to do this.
51. However, for those claimants who choose not to use the ‘My Work Plan’
booklet and who do not appear to be providing sufficient evidence by
another means, you should consider re-emphasising the benefits of using
it and explain that it will make it easier for the claimant to provide their
evidence. See the good practice guidance about making effective plans
for more information.
Doubt regarding claimant’s Work Search Activity / availability
52. If there is a clear doubt as to whether the claimant has carried out the
required level of Work Search Activity each week or been available for
work, as agreed in their Claimant Commitment, the claimant must be
formally told about the doubt and details must be immediately referred to a
Decision Maker.
53. If it is determined that a referral to a Decision Maker is appropriate:
a labour market declaration is taken, either on the appropriate form
ES24 or on Signature Capture Service
dialogue 470 is input in JSAPS, unless this is automatically done via
Signature Capture Service
the claimant’s benefit payment is suspended on JSAPS
a referral is made using LMS and DART
Decision made by Decision Maker
54. Details of the action taken when a Decision Maker has made a decision
can be found in the Labour Market Conditions Guide.
Claimant attends a Work Search Review following a suspension
55. When the claimant attends a Work Search Review following a suspension
and if there is no longer a doubt about whether they have met the
availability and actively seeking conditions, you should take a labour
market signature for the period following the suspension up to the date
they attend.
Recording the Outcome of Work Search Reviews on LMS
56. The outcome of the review must always be recorded on LMS.
57. That is, confirmation that the Claimant Commitment is still current and that
the claimant has met or not met the Actively Seeking Employment
condition.
Note: Failure to do so will incur an official error for Monetary Value Fraud and
Error purposes.
Booking the next Work Search Review Appointment
58. Claimants will have a set day of attendance, but the time of their
appointment may need to vary to accommodate diary commitments.
Therefore, you will need to make sure that after scheduling the claimants
next Work Search Review appointment on LMS, the claimant fully
understands this by recording the day and time of attendance in the table
on the ‘My Appointments page on the WS1 (insert) which should be
attached to their My Work Plan booklet (WS1).
59. Work Search Reviews must be booked through LMS and there are two
new appointment types within the ‘General Advisory/Benefits Interviews’
sub category on LMS to support this. These are:
Work Search Review – 10 mins
Work Search Review – 20 mins
60. In the majority of cases we expect 10 minute Work Search Reviews to be
enough. However, there is the flexibility to book a 20 minute Work Search
Review if needed. For example; you have asked a claimant to do a
number of specific activities and/or issued them with a Jobseeker’s
Direction that will need following up during their next appointment.
Note: These appointment types
must not be used for Work Programme
Participants who will continue to attend Work Search Reviews with an
Assistant Work Coach.
61. It is also helpful to remind the claimant how to contact you if they are
unable to attend any of their future appointments.
Universal Jobmatch
62. As part of making use of the resources available to them to look for work,
we can reasonably expect most claimants to make best use of Universal
Jobmatch.
63. However, there will be instances where claimants are not able to use
Universal Jobmatch or may not appear to be using Universal Jobmatch to
their best advantage. In these instances you may need to search for
suitable vacancies on behalf of a claimant and in some instances formally
require claimants to apply for these jobs. For example:
the claimant is not yet able to make best use of self-help vacancy
channels (if this is the case, support should be provided to address the
need); or
there are doubts about the activities the claimant says they are doing.
For example, they claim to be going online, but say that no suitable
vacancies are available
64. Further information about how to require claimants to apply for jobs can be
found in Chapter 3 of the Universal Jobmatch Toolkit.
65. You must follow-up on any jobs the claimant has been required to apply
for to identify if Refusal of Employment action needs to be taken. That is,
where the claimant has failed, without good reason, to apply for any
vacancies that they have formally been told to apply for.
Part-time work and or Reported Changes of Circumstances
66. Action must be taken if the claimant declares that they have done any part
time work or have had a change of circumstances.
Labour Market Declaration
67. The claimant must be asked to
read the Labour Market declaration, either
on the ES24 or on the Signature Capture Service pad, before signing it.
Non-claimants must be invited to read the Labour Market declaration on
form CR2 not ES24 before signing it.
JSAPS
68. Where entitlement to benefit has been confirmed and clerical ES24JP
forms are being used, dialogue JA470 is updated to confirm their
attendance in JSAPS and if appropriate, dialogue JA504 checked, to
confirm payment details are held.
Additional Action
69. Some claimants may require additional consideration at their Work Search
Review. If the claimant falls within one of these categories, additional
guidance is available as appropriate:
Drug and/or alcohol dependency
Potentially Violent claimants
Claimant is homeless/a person without address
Lone Parent restrictions
Childcare and recording child details
Volunteers
Import and Export of Benefit
Restrictions for Claimant’s with caring responsibilities for children
Disabled claimant with more complex support needs arising from their
disability - see ES18 page 2
Quality standards
70. Quality standards should be set and monitored using the Work Search
Review Quality Assurance Framework.
Booking the Work Programme Referral Interview
71. The claimant’s Work Programme Referral Interview trigger point is
identified by the ‘This customer is eligible for the Work Programme and can
be immediately referred’
hotspot.
72. This hotspot displays from 2 weeks before the claimant’s Work
Programme Referral Interview trigger point.
73. The Work Programme Referral Interview should be booked as close as
possible to the claimant’s trigger point.
74. The purpose of the Work Programme Referral Interview is to explain the
next steps to the claimant, highlighting the benefits of the Work Programme
and explaining their rights, responsibilities and conditionality while
participating.
75. The Work Programme Referral Interview should normally be conducted
face to face, however you can consider conducting a referral interview over
the phone in exceptional circumstances
76. As with other interviews, attending the Work Programme Referral Interview
is mandatory and Fail to Attend action is taken as appropriate.
77. Fail to Attend action does not apply to telephone interviews and a
subsequent face to face interview should be booked.
78. Regardless of if the referral to the Work Programme is voluntary or
mandatory the Work Programme Referral Interview is booked using LMS
interview type ‘Work Programme – JSA Referral’.
Work Search Reviews for claimants participating in the Work
Programme
79. Claimants referred to the Work Programme (WP) must continue to attend
face-to-face Work Search Reviews with Jobcentre Plus, on at least a
fortnightly basis. However, these must be undertaken by Assistant Work
Coaches only and the Work search Review – 10 mins’ or ‘Work Search
Review – 20 mins’ Interview Type appointment types
must not be used.
See the Work Search Reviews for Claimants on the Work Programme
guidance for more information.
Work Search Reviews for claimants participating in sector-
based work academies
80. Claimants participating in sector-based work academies are required to be
actively seeking work and available for work. The exception to this is
where pre-employment training is between 16 and 30 hours a week.
81. In these cases, the claimant is not required to be Actively Seeking
Employment or Available for work during the time they are undertaking the
training element of sbwa.
82. However, policy intent is that claimants should still attend Work Search
Reviews, to show that they are taking steps towards gaining employment.
The sector-based work academies guidance details the action to take.
Work Search Reviews for claimants participating in
Community Work Placements
83. Where a claimant has been assigned to Community Work Placements
(CWP), check with them that they have attended and participated on every
day as agreed on their Claimant Commitment.
84. If the claimant reports that they did not attend on one or more days, the
absence must be investigated to see if it casts doubt on the claimant’s
availability or capability.
85. If it does, DMA action must be taken in line with normal business
practices. If the reason given impacts on the claimant’s continuing
engagement in CWP, the provider must be informed using the change of
circumstances form CWPF1.
86. The work search activities undertaken during the time between the time
spent on CWP and the length of time the claimant is available to work
must be reviewed, to see if they were reasonable, given the claimant’s
circumstances during this period - including the hours they are able to
work.
87. For example, a claimant undertaking CWP between 9 and 3 each week
day but is Available for 40 hours each week, is expected to look for work
during the additional 10 hours of their Availability
JSA Full-Time Training Flexibility (England only)
88. Claimants in JSA Full-Time Training Flexibility are not required to be
Actively Seeking Employment or Available for work. However, policy
intent is that claimants should still attend Work Search Reviews to show
that they are taking steps towards gaining employment. The Skills Guide
details the action to take.
