At my most recent Working Links appointment the consultant mentioned Universal Jobmatch to me and as I am due to attend my fortnightly signing at the Jobcentre tomorrow it will be interesting to see if anyone mentions it to me. It appears that it is voluntary to register but according to many articles I have read online it could be eventually a condition of receiving jobseekers allowance. Some people are concerned that it will be a way of the jobcentre finding out how much time you spend logged in doing jobsearch as a threat of 35 hours jobsearch a week is being talked about. I can't imagine that 35 hours of jobsearch a week forced on people can ever really be brought in as it makes no sense other than being a scare tactic. If you are up to date with your jobsearch then you would only have at most a dozen or so new jobs to look at and clicking back and for on those jobs for seven hours would be ridiculous. I have tried the government website for jobsearch and I can still access some details of jobs but my computer keeps freezing for a couple of minutes everytime I click on a vacancy. It is now being run by monster and I have not yet registered and I noticed that although I can obtain information on some jobs it doesn't supply a reference number for the jobs. I am finding totaljobs much better in regard to speed and at least totaljobs lets you apply using your own email account without registering by providing us with contact details. If Universal Jobmatch is mentioned to me tomorrow I will not register but request information regarding it. The thought of giving my consent to something that is being given because of threat of sanction doesn't seem legal to me. At least they can't just stop your money without going through the process of a decision maker sending you a request for your explanation why you think you shouldn't have to register before he or she makes a decision. I probably wouldn't go that far as a loss of benefit for even a short period would make it very difficult to survive and approaching christmas and colder weather it probably would make sense to grudgingly register. If given a chance I will avoid registering until it looks like I have no choice. I do apply for many jobs but I'm a big supporter of the data protection act and it looks like our rights are being taken away from us. It's true as it has always been "You get the justice you can afford."