A few months ago I wrote to the ESA team in Leeds for some answers to several queries, and have just received the reply. One of the queries concerned how will or should JC+ respond when a claimant says they have no 'goals' in relation to planning a return to work. We know that claimant generated goals are a key contributor to the WFI action plan. Here is a clip from the reply I have received...

'Your next question concerns the criteria by which to assess whether a customer has taken part in a Work Focused Health Related Assessment or a Work Focused Interview. In particular, you ask what would happen if a customer said that they had no goals in terms of work, or preparing for work...

.....It is only where the interviewer is convinced after due consideration of all the factors that the customer has voluntarily not co-operated with the interview process, and that there are no mitigating factors to explain this behaviour, that the customer can be found not to have taken part. So the customer’s response to an individual question would not be significant in itself. It is the customer’s overall response that would indicate whether or not they were choosing to take part in an assessment or interview.

...It may be worth adding that customers, particularly those that have been out of paid employment for some time, can sometimes be dispirited and reticent when asked about their aspirations for the future. Our medical assessors and personal advisers are trained to understand this reaction and to use their coaching and mentoring skills to address the customer’s negative perceptions about their prospects.'

So it seems to boil down to a decision about what is 'voluntary co-operation'. This could be tricky to correctly diagnose, particularly if the interviewer is not very well trained in dealing with people who may not communicate clearly or with the degree optimism that ESA seems to require.

Steve