POID1 and med 3

I have just had a call from the local JC saying they have been trying to contact my son to arrange an appointment with a work coach. Please could you advise:

a) should they be doing this even though we have not yet had a decision letter following his recent ESA assessment? I said "do I presume he has been put in WRAG?" (he was in the support group previously) and she said she couldn't say but I should have received a letter.

b) should they be contacting my son about this when I am his appointee (because he cannot deal with things over the phone?)

c) might us attending this JC appointment affect any appeal that we might choose to make once we have had the decision letter?

Hi Kazzen,

1) We have had members in the Support Group who have been 'invited' to the JC for an interview and not told that this is voluntary. You need to check the status of this interview and ask what would happen if your son does not go.

If he is currently in the Support Group and awaiting re-assessment then no, he cannot be mandated to attend.

If this is a new claim and your son is in the assessment phase then he can be required to attend.The JC are obliged to make whatever 'Reasonable adjustments' your son needs. This could include the interview being conducted over the phone, although this would be entirely at the advisor's discretion.

2) I think communication should be sent t you but, of course, it would be your son who had to attend.

3) Attending this appointment would not adversely affect any appeal you might make.

Just to clarify, my son is on ESA in the Support Group; he had a re-assessment a few weeks ago but we have had no decision letter yet.

The JC called today and said they had been trying to contact my son (by phone), to arrange for him to see a work coach next week.

Just to clarify, my son was already on support level ESA and was reassessed recently.

I have just seen your comment on another post:
"The risk factors for Regulation 29 and 35, have been tightened up, you also need to be aware that unlike the Descriptors where you can rely on historical evidence, both Regulations require current evidence that there is a risk to you or others, the current ESA guides explain the changes."

I did not know that there had been changes. We filled the form in in January and I was not able to access the guides before his assessment. The assessor kept asking for recent examples (not easy as my son's life is now set up to reduce any incidents) and quizzed him in depth about his recent depression and whether he had made plans on how to end his life (I had told her we were still waiting to see a doctor about his depression, so I was not happy about her probing).

I am starting to wonder whether he has been awarded any ESA. I will call them to see if I can find out tomorrow.

Thank you for your reply Gordon.

This assessment was so different to the last three that it really threw me.

I will call them tomorrow to find out what is going on.

In your ESA guide it says that there is a detailed guide to work focused interviews, but I cannot find it. Do you have a link please?