I have had a couple of clients who were given unreasonable jobseekers agreements, my colleagues have had others. The first thing we did was challenge the jobseekers agreement, after checking the jobseekers regulations. Regulations 7-15 are the most relevant ones, if I remember correctly. I think there is something in there about the Secretary of State being able to direct a jobseeker to carry out a particular activity if it would enhance their chances of finding work. I would start there: ask why this job centre adviser thinks that looking at Universal Jobmatch every day is the best way for this claimant to find work, when it has a history of scams and fake job adverts, job adverts which don’t give contact details for applicants, and the DWP find it so unsatisfactory that they have decided not to renew the contract of the company that runs it. [Articles in the Guardian, if you need evidence.]
Realistically, a jobseeker needs to look at several websites, not one, to cover all the possible job vacancies that he/she might be able to apply for. If they don’t have easy internet access, there is also national and local newspapers, trade and other magazines, and sending CVs on spec, and so on. A jobseeker also needs to allow time to prepare for job interviews, and attend them - this is something jobcentre staff tend to forget about.
If this claimant is in poor health, has that been taken account of in his jobseekers agreement, in terms of how many hours he has had to agree to work, or the type of work he can do, or the amount of time he (theoretically) has to spend looking for work each week?
My colleagues and myself have used all these points to get clients a jobseekers agreement that is workable and bears some relation to both commonsense and benefits law. As far as I know, the job centre adviser has to refer any queries to a decision maker, if their interpretation of the JSA regulations is being questioned.
I’m assuming your client is able to get to the job centre to sign on. What facilities does his local job centre have for searching for job vacancies and is using them in his jobseekers agreement? That might get round his lack of internet access, until he is able to reclaim ESA.