Universal Jobmatch was a British website for finding
job vacancies. The site was developed in a collaboration between the
Department for Work and Pensions
, type = Department
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, logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg
, logo_width = 166px
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom
, headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...
and
Monster
A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...
.
History
The concept
The website replaced the
JobCentre Plus
Jobcentre Plus ( cy, Canolfan byd Gwaith; gd, Ionad Obrach is Eile) is a brand used by the Department for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
From 2002 to 2011, Jobcentre Plus was an executive agency which reported directly to the Minis ...
' Job Search Tool and Employer Services Direct, which were part of the
Directgov
Directgov was the British government's digital service for people in the United Kingdom, which from 2004 provided a single point of access to public sector information and services. The site's portal was replaced (along with the Business Link po ...
online system set up in the
UK's New Deal employment system. The service has been introduced as part of a Government campaign to assist the DWP to monitor client's jobsearch activities directly, and as part of the "Digital By Default" agenda to migrate more British citizens to subscribe to an online process when claiming both unemployed and in-work benefits. The service was switched prematurely live through an AlphaTesting System in November 2012, was commended as being a perfect system by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions George
Iain Duncan Smith
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was S ...
in November 2012, but remains a work in progress. Whereas, in parallel to the switching of Universal Jobmatch, the DWP closed its existing processes supporting Job Search and Employer Services Direct, migrating its customers to the new system, and reported that 460,000 employers posting jobs and the site receiving over 6 million searches per day. By February 2013 there were some 2 million registered users., although ambiguity remains with these figures. When Universal Jobmatch was introduced, the DWP migrated existing users of its Employer Services Direct service to Universal Jobmatch, thereby inflating the database of registered users.
Development
However, from the outset of the Alpha Testing System being promoted as being live in November 2012, whereas Universal Jobmatch may generate a number of job leads, and whereas each Job Lead may require candidates to apply for a job through an external website, there is no guarantee that, upon visiting the web site, the Job Lead will still exist. Indeed, some jobs advertised on Universal Jobmatch result in multiple clicks and multiple tabs as they initially open a job aggregating website which links to a recruitment agency website which then links to an employers website and the application made is not recorded in the Universal Job Match necessitating the user to have to manually type in a report of their application. The Monster Corporation (which operates the system on behalf of the Department of Works and Pensions) makes it clear when candidates sign up to the system that "they do not accept liability or responsibility for any financial consequences".
Early teething problems
Early controversy has arisen due to people having registered with Universal Jobmatch and then finding that they are targeted by dubious organisations and individuals in financial scams.
Channel 4 news ran a feature, in December 2012, which explained how this new government service was being used to obtain personal details of jobseekers. Instead of resolving this issue, the Monster Corporation which operates the system on behalf of the
Department for Work and Pensions
, type = Department
, seal =
, logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg
, logo_width = 166px
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom
, headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...
(DWP) require all users, when creating an account, to accept a number of terms and conditions of use, including the clause that they "don't accept liability for loss or damage incurred by users of the website.
The Universal Jobmatch states regularly as of January 2013 that users must "Never ever give out things like scanned passports, national insurance numbers or bank account details until a job offer has officially been made." on their relevant web pages.
The site was also made a lot more user-friendly and less verbose in mid 2013.
Tender Controversy
On 12 February 2014, it was revealed in a
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act
* ...
request that Monster didn't win the Universal Jobmatch Tender falling into last place on value and second to last place on evaluation scoring;
until the service was put back out to tender.
The
Government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
paid Methods Consulting Limited and Jobsite UK (Worldwide) Limited £950,000 compensation, who should have won both tenders, when the new contract was awarded. To date, the Government hasn't specified its reason for placing the contract back out to tender but the fact it paid compensation seems to suggest it wasn't the private company at fault.
Concerns are raised how Monsters "satisfactory" evaluation score and high bid in the first tender, resulted in a near-perfect evaluation score in the second tender and a bid of under half the original which in turn made them competitive. Allegations of insider dealing and corruption has been made because of this.
Mooted demise
According to a report in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in March 2014, leaked documents from the DWP indicate that the government had formulated plans to scrap Universal Jobmatch when the contract for the site was up for renewal in 2016, due to the numbers of fake and repeat job adverts posted to the site and because of cost concerns.
Replacement
On 26 April 2018 a message was placed on the home page saying the service would be replaced by 'Find a job' on 14 May 2018.
Users were advised to save their information by 17 June 2018 as logins would not be moved to the new system.
Who can use it and why
It was not a requirement to register, and anonymous searches could be made by people looking for jobs and applications made directly to companies that had posted their contact details. However, as of 1 March 2013 JobCentre Plus advisers could, if giving a good reason, require
Jobseeker's Allowance claimants to use the site through a JobSeeker Direction. If they refused to comply, they could be recommended for a benefit sanction. A decision-maker took the final decision over whether benefit should be removed, which as a consequence of the UK Governments Welfare Reform Bill of 2012, may have led to a loss in State Benefits for up to 3 years.
Registered users had the option to allow the DWP to have access to their account to allow the department to monitor their activity. Whilst this was not mandatory, claimants were threatened with a sanction for not doing so.
Hacktivists
Additionally, hacktivists have created an plug-in addition for the
Chrome Browser
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, ...
which will allow the automatic distribution of CVs to any recruiters through Universal Jobmatch.
References
External links
#https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance
#https://www.gov.uk/jobsearch
#https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/Home.aspx
{{DEFAULTSORT:Universal Jobmatch
Business services companies established in 2012
2012 establishments in the United Kingdom
Department for Work and Pensions
Employment agencies of the United Kingdom
Government services web portals in the United Kingdom
Internet properties established in 2012
Unemployment in the United Kingdom
Welfare state in the United Kingdom
Employment websites in the United Kingdom
Business services companies disestablished in the 21st century