Attending work related interviews when ill

Hi

Has anyone any idea how many times is it likely that, if placed in the contributions based ESA contributions WRAG, one would be required to go to work related interviews and/or training and/or 'job club' type sessions for the year that they are eligible to receive it?

My husband is older than me (but is not of state retirement age) and receives a small occupational pension which would make me ineligible to go on to means tested ESA after the year is up. Amongst other things, I suffer from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia (wide spread severe muscle pain) and the thought of dragging myself to such sessions is terribly daunting. I am wondering what would be likely to happen if I went to these sessions and had to lie on the floor because of my fatigue and pain and/or had to get my husband to come and pick me up mid-session - Would they be likely to dock my ESA, even though I tried to attend and participate?

I would be very grateful if anyone can share their experiences of similar circumstances to those of mine and/or any knowledge of the policy that is adopted by the DWP/ATOS in such cases; that said though I do appreciate that no one can say exactly what I should do and what would definitely happen - many thanks in anticipation for your experiences and thoughts on this.

You might find these FAQ's helpful

Work Focussed Interviews

Work Programme

Your advisor might agree to defer the interviews or undertake them on the phone (which is not rare) or in your own home (which I have not heard of happening, although that it not to say that it doesn't). However, this is entirely at the discretion of the advisor. I think that you lying on the floor during an interview would have to be judged as 'reasonable adjustment' for our condition. I don't know how it would be viewed if you phoned your hubby to collect you - I guess that would depend entirely on the advisor.

As an aside, may I request that you keep all your questions to one thread please? This makes it easier for the moderators to see the full picture and give more pertinent advice. It might help if you make this thread a favourite', then you will be able to find it more easily in future

Hi nf,

You may also find these two previous topic threads of interest :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...4&limitstart=0#97945

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...3&limitstart=0#96923

Here is a list of topics that came up when I put WFI into the site search facility :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=sea...ldforums=1&catids=10

bro58

I appealed ESA CB WRAG because of similar circumstances to yours nofuss. I was very very apprehensive about attending WFI while I was waiting for a reconsideration of my application. I went to the first WFI accompanied by my husband who is also my carer, but before the appointment I wrote to the adviser explaining my access needs due to my disabling conditions.

I have to report that I was pleasantly surprised by the response. I was offered the opportunity to defer the WFI for 3 months. I chose not to do this, and went to the WFI, as the worry about it was worse than facing it. The adviser was most helpful, respectful and understanding. She did not have the details of my ESA applications, just the information that I had been placed in WRAG, and was due to have first WFI. She gave me some very good advice on appealing, and contacted the DWP decision maker asking them to urgently attend to my reconsideration. As a result of this I had a letter a few days later telling me I had been moved to the support group.

I know not all JC+ advisers will be as good as the one I saw for WFI, but hope that my experience will give you some reassurance that sometimes the WFI process can be positive.

Best of luck
PC

Sorry, Mrs Hurtyback, I appreciate your advice and the valid reason for it, but I have been accused in the past (by others, not you) of lumping too much together and was advised to separate my queries under different topic headings

Thanks a lot to you and bro58 for you replies with all the references I am very glad of your help and advice.

Ah, I appreciate that it is difficult when you get conflicting advice!