Job search restriction period reduced for new Universal Credit and JSA claimants

New claimants of Universal Credit and Jobseeker's Allowance have had the period during which they can limit their job search to fields in which they have previous experience cut from 13 weeks to 4 weeks, under a change dated 5 February 2022¹.

Until February 2022, new claimants could restrict their job search to favoured fields for 13 weeks. This has been reduced to 4 weeks, after which people will be expected to apply for any job¹. The same source states that this is not a requirement to get a job within four weeks of claiming Universal Credit or Jobseeker's Allowance¹.

The change applies to new claimants of both benefits. Job search requirements for claimants are set out in the claimant commitment, the agreement between a claimant and the Department for Work and Pensions covering what a claimant must do to receive benefit; the guide to work-related requirements and your claimant commitment explains how those conditions work, and the guide to New Style Jobseeker's Allowance covers the separate contribution-based benefit, which can be claimed alongside Universal Credit. The differences between the two benefits are set out in New Style JSA vs Universal Credit.

The 5 February change was one of a series of benefit changes listed for 2022. Others included an expansion of the Northern Ireland Welfare Mitigation scheme on 8 February 2022 to cover more households affected by the bedroom tax or Benefit Cap, and an expansion of the Welfare Supplementary Payments scheme in Northern Ireland on 10 February 2022, under which all families with children affected by the benefit cap and all people affected by the bedroom tax receive a welfare supplementary payment¹. From 15 February 2022, people with a terminal illness are exempt from the requirement to accept a claimant commitment for Universal Credit, with terminal illness still defined as a reasonable expectation that the claimant will die within the next six months¹.

Why it matters for households

For anyone starting a Universal Credit or Jobseeker's Allowance claim from 5 February 2022, the window in which job search activity can be confined to a previous line of work is four weeks rather than 13. After that point, the expectation reported is that claimants apply for any job, not only roles matching their earlier experience¹. The change does not mean a job must be found within four weeks of claiming¹.

The practical effect falls on the work-related requirements recorded in a claimant commitment, which set out the activities a claimant is expected to carry out. Claimants whose commitment still reflects a 13-week restriction, or who are moving onto Universal Credit from a legacy benefit, may see different wording in the commitment they are asked to accept. The guide to moving to Universal Credit from legacy benefits covers that process, and the guide to Universal Credit sanctions explains what happens where requirements recorded in a commitment are not met.

What happens next

The same timetable lists later 2022 changes, including the restart of Managed Migration from 9 May 2022, initially piloted in Medway and Bolton, and an increase in the Administrative Earnings Threshold on 26 September 2022 to £494 per month for single people and £782 per month for couples¹. No further change to the four-week job search restriction period is reported¹.