ESA: Work related activity.

I have a Client who claimed ESA in January 2014, he has not been assessed following the 13 week period though an appointment was booked on the 20th of November which was cancelled due to assessor not being available. My Client suffered a panic attack on the day and had to be taken home by Taxi arranged by ATOS.

My Client has however been told to attend work related activities though he is has not been placed in the WRAG or support group.

Can anyone please tell me if this is right and if so is there any ESA guidance policy to this effect?

He was probably referred onto the Work Programme during a previous JSA claim. He would then stay on WP after the ESa claim.

This guidance states that while the WCA is pending he should be treated as a voluntary participant.

Should they be sending him mandatory activity notices it may well count as indirect discrimination and harassment thus, possibly , breaches the Equality Act. You can bring a claim against the Work Programme Provider in the Employment Tribunal and I have had some success with that. It’s quite a complex job though as there are questions of jurisdiction.

Should you wish to discuss email me; dan dot manville at wolverhampton dot gov dot uk

There are costs risks so don’t go throwing ET1s about willy nilly however it might be worth a lot of money; depending on the extent of the harassment it could stretch to £15k so worth exploring and a very good tool to persuade Work Programme Providers to play nice.