Jobcentre Plus is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which acts as both a social security office and an employment agency. Jobcentre Plus or JCP for short, was formed when the Employment Service merged with the Benefits Agency.
Jobcentre Plus provides resources to enable unemployed people to find work via the Government's Directgov website (they closed the Jobcentre Plus search on 30/03/2010) and the Jobpoints, and also a system for employers to advertise job vacancies called Labour Market System (or LMS for short).
They also offer a service called Jobseeker Direct for the unemployed where they can find out job vacancies (for example if they don’t have internet access) and also to find out details of a certain range of jobs where Jobpoints and the internet site don’t display contact details of how to apply for them; it instead asks the Jobseeker to ring up Jobseeker Direct to find out how to apply.
This enables Jobcentre Plus to log the jobs they apply for and check up on them. They wont provide any details or assistance until you have disclosed your name, address and National Insurance number. The big problem with this technique is those using the internet and Jobpoints typically don’t bother applying for those positions.
Jobcentre Plus manages many benefits including administering Jobseeker's Allowance(JSA).