Well done you for giving it a go. They are really twats aren't they? I, as I told you, got caught up in one of these years ago. Nothing seems to have changed and I don't suppose it ever will.
I am old enough to remember when one had to sign on at the "Labour Exchange" every week and as you signed on they would hand you notes to employers with vacancies. The following week you had to return the note, suitably annotated, to prove you had been for the interview. The employed had to give reasons why you had not got the job.
Six weeks and you had to have an Interview with "The Manager" who would flick through a card index of vacancies until he found one that "might suit" and send you directly round there. Nothing to do with whatever you could or could not do. Nothing to do with qualifications ~ always labouring work but you got a job, often for two or three weeks, sometimes only a day or two, until the hole was dug, the cement shifted, the bricks moved or the cargo unloaded and then back to the weekly sign on.
I sometimes wonder if a return to that system wouldn't be a good idea for the work-shy whilst those with some qualifications who clearly are out of work through no fault of their own could be dealt with sensibly.