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Reposted as the full comment was not posted

disabled people are finding that the DWP are still contacting them via phone saying " they want to explain this offer more clearly " 

The good advice is to politely but firmly say No Thank 

Appointments taking place monthly? I only speak to my son 99% of the time, the 1% is my mum, I rarely leave my home. I have enough issues with my mental and physical health without this spiteful lot adding to them.

MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee have called on the DWP to reform the conditionality regime, including sanctions, placed on jobseekers and people in work on Universal Credit. The Committee also want to see a personalised action plan, which better reflects their skills and experience, replace the Claimant Commitment.

> What’s so frustrating is that it didn’t have to be this way. If, over the years, the DWP and successive governments had focused on genuinely supporting people rather than surveilling and punishing them, we might be in a completely different place.

Instead of gaslighting and endless reassessments, they could have built a culture of trust — where people’s accounts of their own conditions were believed, and where support was shaped around building confidence, stability, and quality of life. Instead of hammering everyone into the same boxes, they could have looked at what each individual needed to manage their health and, if possible, explore safe and meaningful ways to reconnect with society or with work on our terms.

A humane system would have recognised that living with long-term illness or disability is already a full-time job in itself. It would have valued the right to relax, the right to some peace, the right to a life worth living — rather than constantly threatening to take those things away.

That’s not weakness or dependency; that’s the basis of dignity. And perhaps, if there is genuine listening to claimants’ experiences, what is currently a blunt and damaging process might one day reform itself in the truest sense of the word — into something more humane, flexible, and respectful of the lives it touches.

The systemic gaslighting — with forensic reassessments carried out by incentivised private companies — has left us constantly on edge. The implication that you could work if only you “tried harder” seeps into every aspect of life: our relationships, our ability to manage extremely challenging health conditions, and even our relationship with relaxation itself. Many of us now find it almost impossibly hard to switch off or believe we have a right to any quality of life, because even a thin veneer of looking “well” can feel like a risk to our security.

Meanwhile, neighbours slap us on the back with “cheer up” or “take a holiday” suggestions, not realising the toll. For some, the pressure and self-hatred this creates has even led to self-harm.

And now they expect us to ‘engage’ with work coaches? For many of us, the very idea evokes dread. As SLB has said, there’s no genuine tailoring here — just one-size-fits-all hammering round pegs into square holes.

It’s hard to know what to think. Thank God for now it’s not compulsory. Let’s hope it’s more refined than their Reform agenda press release seems to imply.

Tough work,all weathers,no guarantee work or pay.

Stopped three years ago crippling arthritis knees and hands.....like most building workers it does catch up with you.

BW have been fantastic in advising me how to claim the entitlements I am due...not a benefit as I have paid thousands in to the Hoover the years since 1975( £19k Tax/NI ten years ago)

If you need help definitely subscribe to this site 👍.

Point I make is construction is a very tough industry and NOT an easy channel for government and job centres to think they can just move people in to.... especially if medically or mentally vulnerable.

Great industry but not for everybody.

Good luck all

I realise that comment might sound snobbish towards those who do manual work, but it's not meant to be.  What I'm getting at is that the only work they think we could possibly do is minimum wage jobs stacking shelves.  There's a general assumption that the disabled are not trained or qualified in anything else.   

I now have sixteen books under my belt - most (but not all) self-published - and I would be over the moon if they offered me a training course on marketing those books, or even how to make effective advertising videos for social media (particularly tik-tok which I really don't understand, but is known to increase book sales substantially when used right) so that I can make the most of them, and maybe make a living from them and eventually stick two fingers up at the DWP!  But there's no indication that what they offer is ever going to be fine-tuned in that way to what an individual might find useful.  And I'm sure there are other "self-employed" people (I use the term in quotes as many of us don't make a living from it) who could find courses on aspects of their business useful too - especially as being self-employed is often the only likely way of us returning to work as it allows us to work around our conditions. 

Instead, they view the disabled as one big group, as if we have lost our individual identities, aspirations, and aptitudes as soon as we became ill.  But we are not one big group, we are a hugely diverse group, educated anywhere from GCSEs to PhDs, and each of us with our own skill sets that could, perhaps, at some point be utilised to get us back to work.  They just don't see that - or want to.  They want a one-size-fits-all answer for a group of millions because it would be an easy fix and a good headline.  Except that, unless they change their view, that fix and headline is never going to happen.

So, by April, Jobcentre staff are aiming to engage with 65000 of them, who are then going to build houses and drive lorries. Mm hmm.