Well after my assessment and being put in the wrag group last week,I have just received letter telling me I have to go for a work related I interview next week.
What I'm worried about is they say they stop your money if you don't go and some days I can't even get out of bed,and my IBS has no warning I'm so scared on the day in case I'm ill on the day
Debbie xx
Normally the job centre will see your not able and then decide to ring ....or you could ask if they can come out to you...then they will also see...
If you are too ill on the day, there is a direct contact number on the letter you have. They are pretty good at these centres and take in to concideration all of your ailments. These interviews are more like casual chats with an advisor that can tell you about possible college courses you may like to do, people who need volunteers at there organisations, back to work credits and that sort of thing. If you don't show, then you can lose the extra 30 something pounds that makes up your ESA from the lower 70 odd pounds. The extra 30 is because you are in the work focused group of ESA and not the support group. I have been to a couple of these meetings since being put on ESA and I was lucky that the my advisor has a close friend with FMS, so she knows the difficulties we face and is very supportive. If you can get a voluntary place with a disability organisation, there are no limits on how many hours you can volunteer and there is permitted paid work you can do also up to £99.50 per week, which is on top of your benefits and not tax deductable. Because it is a disability organisation and you are supervised, there is no cap on the duration you can do this permitted work. However, if this is not a disability organisation then you can only do permitted work for 52 weeks.
The law changes on 22nd October apparently to they can stop all your benefit for 3 years, and you then have to apply for something called hardship where they pay you half of your money,This is for persistent claimants who won't do as ask at these ""interview"" , was told there not sure if us WRAG are included!! I was told this on my last WRAG appointment cos my advisor was on about a overheard conversation from a man who went to a jsa interview for work etc and said cos they had 5 kids n gets everything paid and still as 400 plus a week to spend he won't get a job!!
Anyway , talk and explain in full detail on your first appointment about your health and ask if phone interviews can be done and there usually ok , good luck x
Thank you jue 2829 that's very helpful I will see what they say on Monday.thank you every one for advice Debbie
my daughter was put in the wrag group after being in the support group previously ( she stopped claiming as boyfriend moved in and was working but as i could not keep travelling the 17 miles a day to care for her and the baby he left work she reapplied for esa and got it straight away in the support group but was then suddenly put into the wrag) she saw some one in our local job centre plus and was then sent to a company for the work related activity. when she got there with her walking stick hardly able to walk ect the man spoke to her and said that it was stupid her being there as there was nothing they could do for her but he had to keep her on their books and see her every month but in future he will phone.( she had hospital yesterday to see her new orthopaedic consultant and there are 6/7 ops lined up over the next 3/4 yrs due to her HMS being made worse by having a baby. she can hardly hold her own baby. lets hope they read her esa medical form and put her back in the support group. her consultant is going to support her DLA application too as he cant believe she doesn't get it already!!
im in wrag and dragged myself to my interview where my advisor told me if im having a bad day or week on my next apt or the weather is bad cos it will be December I have to ring her and she will interview me on the phone.
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