Toward an epetition against number-crunching job applications

By Dude Swheatie of the KUWG

In a comment on Kate Belgrave's blog piece Learning difficulties and need support to sign on and avoid sanction? Too bad, EricGreenwood has written:

I once worked in a human resources department for a month while someone was off sick..they transferred me from marketing .. i was told to bin 90% of all cv’s application forms. even if they had the best qualifications. and only 10% got through, and out of those 10% maybe 1% forget. this was before the job centre/work programme started mass pushing for application forms to be sent out..

I reckon that is an excellent point, as anyone who has had direct experience of recruiting processes in the voluntary sector or any other sector can attest. Maybe someone could set up an epetition against benefit sanctions that cites the waste of business time through 'targets' that emphasise quantity of job applications over quality, as well as the drain on jobseekers' morale? The Government epetitions website states that 100,000 signatures to an epetition can get the matter it relates to discussed in the House of Commons:

What are e-petitions?

e-petitions are an easy, personal way for you to influence government and Parliament in the UK. You can create an e-petition about anything that the government is responsible for and if it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. You can find more information about how the House of Commons deals with e-petitions on the Backbench Business Committee website This link opens in a new window.

Yet beyond the matter of whether an epetition can raise enough signatures for the matter to be raised in a House of Commons debate, there is the matter that petitions can be tools for helping to raise awareness that is a precursor to challenging existent and misguided public opinion.