Confused about ESA WRAG WORK PLACEMENTS

Gordon wrote:

del wrote: I am still a bit confused with this.

Is there actually a difference between DWP's version of ESA work, voluntary work and community benefit placement. It seems to me there are all similar or am I getting that wrong? When it comes down to it is it a case of you work voluntary for benefits money instead of working for pay?

First let's take the work out of the equation, members of the WRAG are not required to work or to seek work.

In terms of voluntary work, the DWP have broken this down into two forms, I suspect that this is to do with the type of voluntary work that is available, by type I mean, at least in part, the degree of physical activity that might be involved.

The first form is what most people might understand as voluntary work, in the majority of cases this will be for an organisation such as a charity, it is unlikely to be physically demanding and may involve limited hours, often it is the claimant that sets the number of hours being done.

Community based voluntary work has been especially created for ESA, commercial organisations and local councils will have defined certain roles as voluntary work, the work being done is for the benefit of the local community, the hours are likely to be longer and there will be less flexibility about which hours and how many that the claimant needs to do, whilst the JC+ must still take into account any limitations that result from claimants condition(s) you should expect them to be more physically demanding.

Both of these forms of voluntary work can be mandated by a JC+ advisor.

I hope this explain it better.

Gordon