LCW and conditionality in UC

My client, aged 23, has just left full time education and claimed UC and has various health conditions. As a care-experienced young person he has a participation and advocacy worker from Who Cares Scotland who has worked with him long-term and believes that the client will not be able to work full time due to his conditions; however he is able and keen to do some work. The JCP work coach had advised that he has a choice about going down the LCW route (he did not have a Fit Note when the claim was made) and has proposed that she refer him to the Disability Employment Adviser instead. I understand that the work coach has jurisdiction over the contents of the claimant commitment and could therefore impose WRRs for less than 35 hours per week, but I’ve not come across this route before - would any reduced hours for work/work search be permanent if agreed with a DEA or might they be subject to variation in future, e.g. if the client’s assigned a new work coach? I’m concerned that the client is being asked to withdraw the declaration that he has health conditions which limit his ability to work or look for work when it’s clearly the case that he does; the only way I knew to accommodate these circumstances is to claim LCW providing a Fit Note which specifies reduced hours as an adjustment qualifying the client’s capability for work.

I would continue with LCW route if you feel he meets the descriptors. Not only does that ensure that conditionality is reduced - rather than just being at workcoach’s discretion - but it also means if he does find work he will be entitled to a work allowance and so would be much better off financially

Thanks Daphne, much appreciated. I’ve tried to find out more about the role of Disability Employment Advisers, and I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the two routes are mutually exclusive? So could he follow the WCA route but in the meantime get support from the DEA to help him into work for the limited hours that he’d be able to sustain?

Yes I don’t see why not - DEAs are there to offer support generally in the jobcentre as I understand it although they are more second tier now -the work coach is the direct contact for the claimant and the DEA can advise/facilitate