starting work

Is there anyone out there who can help me with some advice? I receive HR AND LRM for a mental health condition. I was medically retired form the civil service and have received this award for 5 years -up to 2015. I really want to go out to work again-not in the same capacilty as an administrative officer but to work as a classroom assistant. I have been offered a post for 20 hours per week but I will require full support to prepare to go to the job , somoeone to talk to at break times and someone to take me home again. I did do this job earlier in the year-Jan-June 2010 and notified DWP of this as a change in circumstances-they did not want to look at my claim again. Now that I want to try this work again do you think it would be another change in circumstance and I would need to notify them again? Its the same type of work for the same education board-can anyone advise me please??

If you start work, this is something that you must tell the DWP about, but it need not affect your DLA if your care and mobility needs do not lessen. When I last went into paid work from being unemployed, I was on HRC and explained that I would in fact need more support in work than out of it, and I didn't have to fill in any forms at all. Having said that, I cannot guarantee that they won't reassess your needs.

Surely people on HRC and HRM wouldn't be forced into work.. the reason they are on the higher rate is because they can't do much ... !!!

DLA is based on your care and mobility needs, not on whether you are able to work.

Let me take a simple, classic example (and, of course, most cases are more complex than this).

Let us suppose that you have problems with your joints that mean that you cannot walk unaided and cannot wash yourself unaided and need help to go to the loo at night.

You may nevertheless find work that you can do from a wheelchair and without the need to do much with your hands and arms.

Now, such jobs may be hard to find and few people may be up to doing them, but nevertheless, the possibility is there, and if you were to do such a job, you could still get the DLA.

Obviously, in many cases, it's far from so clear cut. However, I have been in work whilst on HRC and LRM with a severe mental illness. I was fortunate to have an employer who wanted my intellectual skills and my organisational skills and was prepared to provide the daytime care necessary for me to do that.

Hmmm ... But those jobs are very few and far between.... Also I bet if someone did manage to get a job while receiving HRC and HRM they would immediately be re accessed with the risk of benefits being taken away by this madcap govt...

Yes, if you start a job whilst on DLA, there is the risk of being re-assessed, but as Jacks and I have both said, we have both had the experience of working whilst on HRC and LRM.

The key thing is how the nature of the work ties in with care and mobility needs. For example, needing guidance in unfamiliar places isn't going to clash with going to the same office every day.