Just a wondering meander.
Health-realated assessments (HRA) & Work-focused interviews (WFI) are regulated. You must or else....unless they say its ok or you have good cause.
Work-related activity comes out of the WFI via the action plan that The Secretary of State has to complete and give you a copy of. The is no requirement to sign so, unlike JSA, it is not a legally binding document. In effect you cannot be made to carry out any specified activity.
So if I'm right you attend the HRA & WFI discuss what would be good for you ad nauseum but then don;'t have to do anything about it. That is until further regulations are brought in to make it mandatory like the Jobseeker's Agreement.
Do you agree or have I got this seriously wrong.
Margaret

I think that's more or less the long and the short of it.

The explanatory memorandum to the regulations suggests that mandatory work related activity may not arrive before 2010/2011 (from memory). They are waiting to learn which activity works best from the Pathways to Work initiative, before deciding what to make mandatory.

Can anyone tell me whether the work related activity (including cognitive behavior therapy, and condition management programs etc) is going to be funded by new government money, or are claimants simply going to be pointed in the direction of already over stretched NHS and other resources?

The figures in the abovementioned memorandum seem to avoid these costs.

Steve

steve, Work Directions have the Pathways to Work contract in Birmingham. They provide in-house CTB and physiotherapy, presumably funded by the DWP contract, not NHS funding.
http://www.workdirections.co.uk/default.aspx?SectionID=2&Lev1ID=149&PagesID=9

ps - aside interst - WorkDirections belongs to Igneus, the company set up by Therese Rein, whose husband is kevin Rudd, Labour Prime Minister of Australia. she has since sold her australian company, but still has the overseas businesses.

http://www.kevgillett.net/?p=1243

just in case my mental typo confused anybody - Work Drections provides Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) not council tax benefit... : )

Regarding the question of new resources for ESA Conditionality, I spoke to a couple of JC+ people the other day, who said that whereas Pathways to Work came with extra resources, they thought that ESA will not. If there will be no extra resources for ESA, then claimants will be at the tender mercy of NHS waiting lists for their cognitive behaviour therapy etc, so will end up being left alone for long periods, whilst they wait for their appointments. If ESA does not come with any extra resources, why not just let Pathways to Work carry on as it is?

If this is so, what would be the point of announcing a 'bold new initiative' that is really no such thing? Tough on spin, tough on the sources of spin...

Don't forget, there is still no magic cure for people with depression. What worries me is all these decision makers will have been brainwashed into thinking that CBT is the bee all and end all cure. You can tell there has not been much thought into giving help, no where have I heard mention of psychodynamics, which is another form of therapy.
There are going to be a lot of very sick people being forced off benefit and left with very little money to live.

What concerns me more is the effect redundancy can have on people, particularly those who have returned to work being told that employment is the panacea to mental health problems.
Oops, silly me, the days of "boom and bust" and large scale redundancies are long gone....aren't they?