Forum Home → Discussion → Conditionality and sanctions → Thread
35 hours a week work preparation
Has anyone come across this sort of thing?
Claimant has LCW; awaiting LCWRA WCA but has been waiting a year.
No work search requirements but has a commitment to 35 hours a week ‘work preparation’.
It makes no sense!
The Claimant Commitment is supposed to be a mutually agreed document which is drawn up with equal participation between the Work Coach and the claimant. It is not supposed to be foisted on the claimant as if it were police bail conditions. However I have met JCP staff who act as if they were police custody sergeants. See below…....
Establishing which work preparations should apply
Establish clear work preparation requirements, which must be appropriate to the
claimant’s physical and mental capability as well as personal circumstances.
Ensure the claimant understands the steps they must take to prepare to return to
work and the potential for a sanction to be applied if there is any failure to comply
with mandatory work preparation requirements.
Ensure the claimant is motivated and positively commits to complying with the
actions and expectations.
Health conditions must be considered in determining what the claimant can do to
prepare for work as well as understanding what their experience, knowledge and
skills are. Understanding of every type of health condition is not required, it is
more important to listen to the claimant’s needs and abilities as that will help tailor
the Claimant Commitments appropriately.
Cheers; I have put in a complaint along these lines.
Interestingly, the exact-same person had the exact-same complaint a year ago, and the response was that they must have agreed to the commitment. Odd they can’t recall doing so…..
I’ll advise of any reply, but we aren’t getting a lot of those lately.
I thought the expected hours for the work preparation conditionality group were 16
It used to be the case that a claimant caring for a child aged 3 or 4 need only work search for a maximum of 16 hours per week. I haven’t seen anything in writing that states this applies to everyone in the Work Preparation Group. Though I would be interested to know what actually happens on the Jobcentre floor.
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/universal-credit-guidance
Work Preparation regime (limited capability for work post Work Capability Assessment) 16
https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2022-0860/058._Expected_hours_V5.0.pdf