Sanctions come under section 19 of the Jobbseekers Act, not the regulations. Failing to apply for a vacancy notified by an employment officer is one of the group of "offences" that may lead to a sanction of up to 26 weeks, while some other "offences" are 2 weeks first time, four weeks subsequently (and ther are others that go on to 26 weeks third time).
There is no such "offence" as failing to comply with the jobseeker's agreement. It is often used as a guideline at signing on to check that the claimant is genuinely available for work and actively seeking employment; but in fact what is in it has no real legal status. Lots of JSAgs "require" the claimant to do about 10 things a week to look for work; but the law only requires them to do more than two, unless in all the circumstances it is not reasonable to do so many (eg, because you contacted every employer in the area last week) - reg 18 of the JSA Regs. PAs tend not to know this and will stop benefits at the drop of a hat if the claimant doesn't do everything in the JSAg. Tribunals are known to knock them down relying on CJSA/1814/2007 which reminds them to look not at what the JSAg says but what the law says..
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