This is a repost as we’ve been made aware that DWP are sending out a new crop of letters to those in the ESA support group
We ‘ve had increasing numbers of emails from those in the ESA support group facing constant harassment from local job centres. Harassment takes the form of letters and phone calls ‘inviting’ people to work focused interviews, chats with job coaches or other ‘helpers’. Another type of ‘invite’ suggests that the job centre need to check you’re getting the right amount of benefit they advise you to take in bank statements and other documents. Often these letters and phone calls wrongly state that your benefits are at risk if you do not attend. All such interviews are voluntary according to the regulations, not mandatory. Its sounds like a scam warning from some dodgy company doesnt it, but this is the DWP Job Centre, supposedly public servants, causing anxiety and misery.
We have reproduced two template letters to use if these scams happen to you -with thanks to John Slater
Your Name
Address 1
Address 2
County
Post Code
Name JCP Manager
Address 1
Address 2
County Post Code
Date
Ref: NINO
Dear JCP Manager I received your letter of <insert date> stating that you have arranged a work‐focused interview for me on <insert date> at <insert time> without my knowledge or consent.
The DWP is aware that I have been placed in the Support Group for Employment and Support Allowance and therefore exempt from activity of this nature. S.19 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 specifically forbids the Secretary of State from imposing any work‐related requirements on anyone allocated to the support group.
This letter has caused me considerable distress and has exacerbated my illness. Should the DWP persist in sending me further letters of a similar nature I can only conclude that it does so knowing that it will cause me alarm or distress. Such actions are a criminal offence under section 2 of the protection from Harassment Act 1997 and I retain the right to make a criminal complaint to the police.
As the DWP is acting contrary to the Welfare Reform Act 2012 please regard this letter as notification to cease and desist all such activities immediately.
I will not be attending the work‐focused interview and in doing so I will not be placing my entitlement to ESA at risk. Any suggestion by the DWP to the contrary will be considered harassment.
I remind the DWP that I will continue to comply with all lawful requirements in respect of my ongoing claim for ESA.
Yours sincerely
A. N. Other
Your Name
Address 1
Address 2
County
Post Code
Name JCP Manager
Address 1
Address 2
County Post Code
Date
Ref: NINO
Dear JCP Manager
I received your letter of <insert date> stating that you have arranged an interview for, without my knowledge or consent, on <insert date> at <insert time> because my circumstances may have changed and the DWP need to ensure my payments are correct.
The DWP is aware that I have been placed in the Support Group for Employment and Support Allowance and therefore exempt from any work‐related activity. S.19 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 specifically forbids the Secretary of State from imposing any work‐related requirements on anyone allocated to the support group. It also makes no provision for people allocated to the Support Group to be summoned to attend random benefit interviews.
On the .GOV website the DWP states:
“You’ll then be placed in 1 of 2 groups if you’re entitled to ESA:
work‐related activity group, where you’ll have regular interviews with an adviser
support group, where you don’t have interviews”
In fact the DWP has the Benefit Centre network that contains benefit integrity centres and performance measurement to undertake this type of review by appropriately qualified officers. Therefore, this interview appears to be incompatible with the DWP own processes.
In respect of payments the DWP knows that I am in the Support Group and the amount I am in receipt of. Therefore, it can easily determine if this amount is correct without recourse to a face to face review.
To the best of my knowledge my circumstances have not changed. If the DWP has evidence to the contrary please address them to me in writing as I find the benefit system far too complex and distressing to deal with on the telephone or face to face. I also rely on extensive support from other people when dealing with the DWP.
This letter has caused me considerable distress and has exacerbated my illness. Given that the proposed review is incompatible with the DWP own business processes and published guidance I can only assume that its purpose is to cause me alarm or distress. Should the DWP persist in sending me further letters of a similar nature I can only conclude that it does so with the same intent. Such actions are a criminal offence under section 2 of the protection from Harassment Act 1997 and I retain the right to make a criminal complaint to the police.
Please regard this letter as notification to cease and desist all such activities immediately.
I will not be attending the interview and in doing so I will not be placing my entitlement to ESA at risk. Any suggestion by the DWP to the contrary will be considered harassment.
I remind the DWP that I will continue to comply with all lawful requirements in respect of my ongoing claim for ESA.
Yours sincerely
A. N. Other
Templates can also be downloaded at the links below
Correct Detail or Support Invite Reply Template (1)
Has anyone recently used the second template if you are in the support group after they send you a vague letter asking you to come into the Job Centre with your bank statements and ID? Have you used it successfully? Not a letter that says there is a problem or that it is mandatory but comes across like they want to go on a phishing expedition as they are under targets to cut benefits. The terms for Esa support are that you report any changes and that support group does not go to interviews? Maybe that is why they have not said it is mandatory? A reply will be made but the person in the support group who this pertains to has not had things change and would prefer to confirm this in writing versus going in, having to be inspected, try and coerced to sign a statement of the meeting, particularly if not told that it is mandatory. So with this in mind, would be grateful to know if anyone has used that second template successfully? At the end of the day they have guidelines they follow and can end the agreement but as has been highlighted here and in the press can try and overstep the marks to meet targets so wondering if a letter like this that reminds them of the rules that they are supposed to follow can make them back off if they have not stated something like this is mandatory. Thanks for any insight.
I am in the support group and the local dwp keep asking me on an annual basis to send in bank statements in order to check that my payments are correct, I am asked to send my documents by post and not deliver them into the centre by hand and under go an interview, are they allowed to do this or is this pure harassment and is there anything I can do about this as Its causing me enough stress and heart worry as it is without being asked to prove savings on a annual basis….
Anyone know how I should react to a failure to even consider correspondence relating to a decision that, miraculously, I am suddenly fit for work even though my conditions (severe clinical depression, generalised anxiety and depressive schizoaffective disorder) have got worse since my first ESA50 was submitted? The DWP lost my first response to their missed WCA letter, so I sent a second copy of everything, only for the woman on the phone to keep repeating that I had not responded within a month therefore they did not consider the correspondence I sent, which included a covering letter. She said she would e-mail someone to see if they would consider what I had sent, as if she was doing me a favour, rather than actually responding to a letter sent to them. I was in the support group, and now don’t receive anything, which has caused severe stress and arrears that might lead to me being evicted. I can’t get through to Citizens Advice, so am stuck. Any help gratefully appreciated.
if you have been found fit for work you need to appeal the decision. This will be at tribunal where you can tell them all your evidence and judge will decide. The time limit you mention should not be held against you with mental health issues and you need to remind them of this. I would also make complaint about the person you spoke to and your situation.
does anyone know how long the tribunal decision stands for coz i’m heading for my 6th or 7th tribunal my last one was feb 2014
It really concerns me the number of people with learning disabilities in these groups who do not know their rights in these situations
The support workers supporting them also often have little to no training about welfare benefits and often very easily accept decisions like putting clients in the wrong group
Social care managers and providers seem reluctant to provide any training for clients and front line staff about benefits rights for fear of seeming too political or having an antagonist relationship with authorities / councils
We get told take the client to citizens advice it’s not your job or responsibility as a support worker to know about the benefits system. If you can get anywhere near the citizens advice or are lucky enough to still have one ..
I completely disagree disabled people and those supporting them should all be aware of their rights and managers claiming it is not necessary absolutely disgusts me. To be told it is not our role as I was told in those words is just wrong
I’m in WRAG and since May 2010 have had only two proper WFI’S (Work Focused Interviews) one in June 2010 when they said within 2 minutes I should be in the support group. Then again in Feb 2013, after I rearranged the appointment because it clashed with an hospital appointment. I had one arranged in July 2012 but it was conducted by the JCP manager and quickly changed from a WFI to a gathering of forms for my daughters maternity benefits. That lasted all of 10 minutes, I think it was because covering the page for other information I had put the following ALL VERBAL COMMUNICATION WILL BE AUDIO RECORDED. With the WILL BE double underlined, he saw this and went to the manager who, possibly, offered to do the interview on his behalf. Now back to the Feb 2013 WFI the first words out of her mouth after waking me up was “You should be in the support group.” Then ask for my telephone number which I declined to give saying “It was for friends and family only and as an employee of JCP/DWP she was considered neither.” She wrote something on my copy of the appointment letter which I read when I got outside, it was asking to give the letter to a carer so they could contact her and give a phone number to contact me. I binned it on the way home as I had already scanned the appointment letter to my documents folder.
Hi Terminator, It is illegal to do what that Manager requested. If you make it clear you do not want to give out your private telephone number, that has to be accepted. The telephone number may also not be your personal number but a friend’s number which you use, as you cannot afford a phone.
This seems to be part of a very nasty underhanded means of causing claiments of esa as much stress as possible. As you stated the interview was not related in any way with what you had been informed it would be about. It seems when faced with using audio recordings when in face to face meetings. The dwp back down. Is this because they are acting outside their regulations and acting on their own , to gain Brownie points with the management?
Thanks for this, though my question is not exactly on this, I think it may be linked to what games DWP are playing. Does anyone on DPAC steering group or who read this page have experience of ESA claimants in the Support Group being downgraded to WRAG? I think it’s part of their plans to harass people off ESA or downgrade them, so they’re more likely to be sanctioned/lose ESA at an earlier stage? I was put straight into support group 2 years ago on my first ESA claim, I received my new ESA 50 I’m March this year. It has taken until August 3 rd & after cancelled appointments, to have my first Maximus assessment & it was a farce as they all are. I was kept waiting over an hour and a half with no water or anything, when I went into torture room, no recording equipment ready, despite my request. At that point I was so stressed out & agitated (they had also changed the entrance you went in, with no instructions) I said I wasn’t going ahead without it & I wasn’t leaving either, to wait for another appointment. They went away and ” found” recording equipment! On Thursday morning last week I got a call on my mobile from a man saying he was from the DWP & was I ok to speak. I said I was, expecting he just needed to confirm something, but I had a bad feeling about it & asked how I knew he was who he said he was. He then went on to say I had scored 0 points by Maximus (shock!) asked me what I now realise we’re questions around certain descriptors on the form, he was likely looking at the “report”, while I was in the dark. I asked why he kept focus img on 1 or 2 things & he said it was because the report on those didn’t match what I was saying. I can’t think on the hoof, but I said my disability was about much more than 1 or 2 descriptors & I said we all knew they were trying to take people off ESA or downgrade them! He then said sonething along lines of, ” I’m trying to give you some points so you don’t lose it all” & upshot was he decided on this call, to put me in WRAG group for 1 year. When I said I didn’t agree & mentioned my GP’s that said my condition hadn’t improved in 2 years, he said that they overruled medical evidence & a script like comment along lines of, “people can improve over time, enough to ” don’t know what else. I asked him about my letter asking to be considered under special regulations (as per Black Triangle) if I didn’t score enough points & he said that didn’t just happen & went very vague, as though he wanted to move on. My son has now rang DWP with me on call as part of a conference call & woman we spoke to said this call I received seemed very off & she would get the person looked at by their manager, send me my report ) now received in Saturday) and that I should appeal it immediately once I receive decision in writing. I had a very quick look and can already see lies such as, ” she appeared not to be fatigued”, “sat in one position”, “can go online” and I’ sure many more? Part of their mo is to put down things that won’t show in a recording, and other underhand techniques. Do you think this is part of another crackdown or just because Maximus did it, I suppose it’s hard to tell? Any advice greatly appreciated. Marion, Norwich
From what is in the news the welfare system is being cut all people on benefits are going to be hit hard. They want us all not to claim which is why mAking it so hard, not just for those with disabilities but those on jsa also. Unless someone fights for us in government things will not be good.