ESA and job match

Hi Gordon recently helped with information about my daughter being told she needs to go onto job match.I didn't know how to respond to the reply so I have started this as a new topic. She was receiving ESA WRAG income based (she suffers with anxiety and depression). The income based was because her partner lost his job and he had to apply under my daughters ESA claim. He had not paid enough national insurance contributions to get JSA so was added to my daughters claim. He has now left and my daughter is receiving contributions based ESA again. However, she was placed on WRAG after a medical and has appealed as we believe she should be in the support group. She is awaiting a tribunal date (we have actually been waiting since February for this). She received a phone call to say she needs to join job match and be seen to apply for work by registering for job match and applying for work online. She has 3 children and is a single parent. The youngest is now just 12 months old. After querying this, the Job centre say they are aware of her awaiting a tribunal, but 'everyone is now going to be made to go onto job match' in these situations. They are saying that they can help with childcare costs now after initially saying my daughter would not be eligiable for childcare costs because she was receiving ESA and not income support. Is the job centre correct that she has to now register with job match. They have given her 4 weeks to register, and threaten sanctions if she does not comply. Thanks Val

Gordon, as Val's daughter is now on her own with young children, could she claim IS and not have to worry about the WRAG conditionality?

Ah, of course, if she breaks her ESA claim she would not be eligible for contributary ESA in the future unless she had re-qualified through working.