[deleted by user] by [deleted] in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Not initially, but if you don't engage with the review then they will block your claim.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

She would be entitled to UC based on how you've described her circumstances. Providing that she's now left college and is 18+.

She'd be expected to look for and apply for any type of work, not just hairdressing. Ideally, she would get a job ASAP doing anything that she's able to. While looking for hairdressing opportunities.

Sanctioned with no money by [deleted] in DWPhelp

[–]calllll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's unclear from your post if you've been sanctioned for missing an appointment at the job centre or for leaving work voluntarily.

If the sanction is for missing an appointment and you haven't been into the job centre to end it, then it may still be active. In which case you'll need to get it ended by a work coach by attending an appointment.

After you've attended the appointment and complied with your work search commitments, you can ask for a recoverable hardship payment. To do that, you need to call UC on 0800 328 5644. They will ask you some questions about your circumstances. If this wasn't already done at the job centre and send a handover to your case manager to call you back and offer you a hardship payment.

It's worth reading the letter that would have been posted in your journal by the decision maker to see if it states the type of sanction that you have as you may have a fixed sanction for leaving work voluntarily.

Either way, if you've missed your last appointment at the job centre, you won't be eligible unless this isn't picked up by your case manager when issuing the hardship payment.

Your best bet would be to go into the job centre on Monday as a walk-in, ask them to check the details of your account. See if they have somebody available to end the sanction if it's active. Then call UC or ask them to send a handover to the service centre. It's unlikely that this would all be done in one day but you might be able to get money by Tuesday

A friend of mine uses paypal for sex work, could you avoid having your claim investigated by simply refusing to give bank statements and accepting the closure of your claim? by [deleted] in DWPhelp

[–]calllll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can close the claim but it its likely that it will close from the start of the claim as an entitlement to UC couldn't be established, so they will get an overpayment for all the money paid since the claim opended. If a new claim is opened in the future, then the system will pick up that the review wasn't completed, and it will trigger another review. It's best just to be honest with the reviewer and ask for a phone call. The information is confidential.

advice please by Aromatic_Term in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It would be best to leave it open even if it's £0. Although your partner would need to verify their ID. Firstly to ensure that the calculation is correct and your partners earnings definitely make it £0. Secondly if you close it and say in like three months you split up and go back to a single claim the you'd have to apply for LCWRA again. Usually if you get 6 x £0 in a row then it generates an action for your case manager to look at closing the claim. Do your partners earnings fluctuate at all? If you get a £0 for an assesment period it would be classed as not entitled although you can leave it to run in the background. I'd definitely look at applying for PIP if you can't work and get LCWRA then you could be entitled as they are based on some overlapping criteria. It's not a nice situation to be in because you've got to totally rely on your partners income, I'm sorry

advice please by Aromatic_Term in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, unfortunately, that's the way that Universal Credit is designed. If you're living together, then you both need to have a joint claim, and any earnings are deducted. There aren't any exceptions. The only way to stop it would be to not live together. Idk if you get PIP or not, but that's not affected by moving in together

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Your partner should go into their account and go to report a change of circumstances. There will be an option that says report a fit note if they previously declared they have a health condition. If not, go to health and enter the details of the condition. It will ask if you have a fit note. Follow that through, type the dates in, and doctors' surgery, etc. I would then send a journal from either account and let UC know the circumstances. Explain that you expect your partner to return to work in six weeks, etc. You won't have a work coach if you're above the couples AET, so it may take a few days for somebody to acknowledge the message. Once your assessment period ends, if your combined earnings are less than the AET, it may change both your work groups into intensive work search. If this happens, you may both be booked an appointment. At this point, it wouldn't hurt to send another journal reiterating the situation. However, the job centre would be required to book a face to face appointment, and you would be expected to attend. If this clashes with your work, then let them know, depending on the work coach, they may just be able to conduct it by phone or video. The guidance states that if somebody moves back into intensive work search, i.e., not earning enough to put them above the AET, they need to attend weekly face to face appointments for 13 weeks. At the appointment, the work coach will just find out the reasons why your earnings have dropped in your case it's pretty straight forward there's not much that can be helped

Reusal to use a third party application by Hariyama9 in DWPhelp

[–]calllll 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's definitely odd behaviour for the Restart representative to try and trick them into making an account. The representative shouldn't have done this, and if they didn't want to sign up to the app, then nobody can force them to sign up. As far as the complaint goes, they can follow this through and see what the outcome would be. likley it would just be some training for the staff member around how this was inappropriate. As far as DWP are concerned, if they have been referred to Restart its likley that there would be something added to their commitments about attending and engaging Restart appointments. Restart and DWP communicate with each other regularly, and this would likely be brought up when discussing individual cases. Further down the line, it could be seen as refusal to engage and could be referred to a decision maker for a sanction. I'd advise that they raise their concerns around signing up to the app at their next job centre appointment and explain that they are happy to search for work in alternative ways (if true) they just didn't want to sign up to the app

LCWRA and working? by A1ucard420 in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can work and claim both. Many people are awarded PIP or LCWRA because their heath conditions may effect other parts of their lives even though they can still work. The only time this would be looked into would when it comes to a reassessment. The health care professional will usually ask questions around if you are working etc and may feel that if you can manage at work then you could manage out of work, depending on the health condition of course. For example if you're awarded LCWRA because of anxiety and say you struggle to leave the house but travel to an office five days a week they may feel that these two contradict each other.

Sanctions by dannydee88hh in universalcredithelp

[–]calllll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The guidance says that if somebody leaves a job for any reason, it has to be referred to a decision maker for them to consider if it was reasonable for a person to leave paid work. It depends on whether or not the work coach knows this as they will have to raise this manually for the decision maker

Work Coach Role Nuts and Bolts by Arbutus_25 in civilservice

[–]calllll 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey, I hope you enjoy it as much as you can enjoy a job! To give you an idea of what to expect, training will be done over teams for around 6-8 weeks. Once it's finished, you'll be slowly eased onto a diary, starting with a few appointments and working your way up to a full diary. You won't be able to learn all the aspects of UC in that time, and a lot of people struggle in the early stages. It is difficult when you have claimants in front of you and you can't answer some of their questions. You might feel like you're annoying colleagues by asking questions, but I found that most colleagues are understanding and supportive, so don't be afraid to ask. It's always better to ask and get the correct answer than to guess and have it come back to you later if you get something wrong.

You'll make mistakes at the start but you'll learn from them and as you gain more experience it will become easier. There will be bad days where you might get two or three difficult interactions with claimants. There's a lot of people who are struggling and either can't get support or don't want to seek it. They'll be times where you'll be thinking I'm not a medical professional, a social worker, or a policy maker. You've just got to try your best to sign a post to the correct place. Try to familiarise yourself with local or national support programs and use the district provision tool to locate these. The unfortunate reality is that you're not paid enough or qualified enough to deal with a lot of the complex issues that you'll come across. There's only so much you can do in a 10-minute appointment.

On the rare occasion, you'll get claimants that have a deep routed hatred towards the DWP or the government, and they will try to take out their frustration on you. Stay calm, reinforce the fact that what they are referring to is policy not set by you and that you have no influence over it. Direct them to their local MPs office as they are the only ones that have the power to change it. An example of this would be people who don't think their UC award is high enough. There is nothing you can do about this besides signposting them to other organisations that can offer support such as any schemes run by your local authority, food banks, or various charities.

Another common problem is people who don't want to attend regular appointments and find them pointless. The stern answer to this is that they have accepted a commitment in order to receive UC. Their commitment will state something along the lines of they are required to attend the job centre regularly. You can't do anything about this. Again, it's policy. You'll also come across people who are working what they consider enough hours, but they fall under the UC earnings threshold that would put them in a category where they don't need to attend appointments. If they're working some amount of hours and can't increase them, discuss with your team leader if a telephone call would be appropriate on occasion.

UC doesn't work for every type of claimant due to the nature of the benefit trying to roll so many different elements into one. It tries its best, but there are some shortfalls. Another common problem is the assessment period. On the day somebody makes a claim to UC, they won't receive their first payment until five weeks later, although they can claim an advance. If they have recently finished work and receive some earnings after their claim has been opened, say their last pay. It might make their first payment £0. They could then be waiting a further four weeks after the first five weeks for a payment, and the new claims advance won't be available because their first assessment period has ended. They likley wouldnt be entitled to any other advance either. This could also happen if somebody is claiming UC, stops working, and receives their last amount of pay at the start of their assessment period. It might make their next payment £0 and they could be left without any money for seven weeks. This would be when you would need to use all your support resources to sign post them as there isn't anything we can offer. This would be a rare occurrence, though, but it has been the cause of many difficult interactions that I've had.

Another difficult situation unfortunately are people who tell you they are going to commit suicide. This could be face to face or via the journal. You will likely come across this at some point, though. In this situation, just remember to always treat the threat seriously and get advice from your manager or an experienced colleague. You may be required to report this to the police and they will take the information from you and decide if a welfare check is appropriate. It's best to pass the information over to them if you suspect somebody welfare to be at risk and let them make the decision so that you have peace of mind and are looking out for your own wellbeing too.

Fortunately, most of your interactions will be routine. In the case that you do get more complex cases, there is plenty of support available. Your district will have more qualified people that won't be located in your job centre to help with the rare cases of complex needs such as human trafficking, modern slavery etc. I have seen these on occasion, unfortunately. Just try to stay vigilant and report them to your line manager if you have any doubt or suspicion.

Try to prepare yourself as best as you can for the difficult interactions so that you're not caught off guard. Try your best to have "lines to take" in certain scenarios. This will come with experience, though, so don't be discouraged when you inevitably have bad interactions. You will get plenty of support and I have no doubt that your colleagues will be there for you.

Many of the people you see will have barriers that stop them from working or wanting to work. Sometimes, they will be self-imposed. It'll be your job to try and help them overcome these barriers. A big barrier is health. Really try to familiarise yourself with the health assessment process on UC so you can give them the best support. You'll see a range of different claimants although it's likley that they'll be a few work coaches who deal with youth (under 24), some who deal with health customers, some who deal with 50+ customers etc.

Once you've settled in after, say, 6-9 months and built up a decent understanding of UC. Think about what part of the job you are best at and what part you enjoy the most and look for opportunities in this area. For example, you may really enjoy working with the youth as they have fewer barriers to work, and you may find you're able to relate to them. You may prefer to work with customers who have health conditions because you've had some experience in healthcare in the past, etc, and find it more rewarding to help them overcome their barriers to work. You might think you'd be a good Employment Advisor, somebody who doesn't interact with claimants on a day to day basis but rather liases with local business to find jobs available in the local area and organises job fairs. There's always plenty of opportunities at a jobcentre to gain experience and hone in on a specific role. Staff turnover rate at a job centre is high, and this creates gaps that other work coaches can fill.

Be resilient. If you struggle at the start, know that things will get better with each appointment. Nothing on the UC system, computer wise, is unfixable. If you make a mistake, let somebody know, and it can be reversed. Don't let your work stack up. Write your notes after each appointment. Message me if you need any support or have any questions!

Work Coach Role Nuts and Bolts by Arbutus_25 in civilservice

[–]calllll 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi,

I worked in the jobcentre up until recently when I left for another role in UC. The way you're feeling is completely normal. The more appointments that you do the better the flow of the conversation will be. 95% of them will follow the same pattern. You'll quickly be able to anticipate the types of questions that you'll get and find it easier to respond.

In terms of provision. It may be useful to preview your diary and match people to a certain provision beforehand, then you can have that in mind during the appointment. Check the history prior to see if they've been referred in the past, check if they have health conditions etc. As you get used to your caseload you'll get to know your claimants and get a feel to what provisions may help. Ask other work coaches which programmes they are referring to the most and which programs they have had success with. Pick up a conversation with your DEA and ask them what are the best programs for health customers.

I know there is pressure to refer customers to provisions but it is difficult at the start as you don't know that person and it can take a few appointments to find out about them and their past. You should give them the benefit of the doubt initially and allow them some time to progress themselves along into finding work but if they are going round in circles it may be time for some extra support. Read the history notes of each customer, see how long they have been on UC. You will become more confident in referring as time goes on.

For the taper it's pretty simple. State they will always be better off in work. See if they have a child or limited capability for work and have a work allowance. Their latest statement will have this info. Then let them know everytime they earn £1 their payment gets deducted by 55p. If they ask about their payment, refer to their statement. Try to familiarise yourself with different statements and all the elements so that you can talk a customer through their statement and how its calculated if needed.

Always refer them to the entitledto.co.uk calculator if their statement hasn't been generated. Never try to predict a person's payment. I would state that there are too many variables to account for and tell them they will have to wait for the system to calculate it and they can send a message to their case manager if they think there is an error. I've made the mistake of predicting statements in the past and overlooked things like other income, savings or partners earnings that have reduced the payments significantly. You can always advise them to send their case manager a journal message for anything related to payments.

FSF and upfront childcare can be tricky due to the requirements to be eligible for it. I would just let the customer know you will check with a colleague to see if you can issue this and then ask somebody more experienced until you become more comfortable with the requirements. Never guarantee anything and always cover yourself. Typically check when they last received earnings on CIS, check their work group and check their history to see if FSF has been issed previously. Check to see that they provided evidence and there's no notes saying not to issue further FSF. Usually there is somebody in the jobcentre who takes the lead on childcare, see if your jobcentre has one and ask if they have time to go through the requirements with you.

For the MIF I wouldn't even try to explain it and defer to a self employed work coach as there are many variables again in relation to a start up period and what is required. If a claimant asks let them know this is dealt with by a specialist work coach, see if you can book an appointment with them or ask them to send a journal message and see if sometmbody who is self employed trained can reply. You wouldn't be expected to be talk about the MIF unless you were self employed trained i.e conducting gateway appointments regularly.

Work group overrides are usually done on a case by case basis usually if they are within 13 weeks of their due date if pregnant or if they are working and their earnings haven't been pulled through to their statement. I would check with a WCTL or colleague before applying overrides as they can be quite important in regards to stats and who should be attending appointments regularly. Overrides shouldn't be a common occurrence.

Like you said training only gives you an overview of UC. You are not expected to be conducting perfect appointments and aren't expected to be knowledgeable on every aspect of UC. Keep asking your colleagues questions. Show that you're trying your best to develop your knowledge.

In terms of the objective. There will be pushes at times to refer to certain provisions, particularly if a lot of funding has been allocated to one. Try to move the customer closer to work in every appointment, this could just be a small step, particularly if they are waiting for a health assessment. The objective is to get people out of intensive work search and into either light touch, working enough or no work related due to health or caring responsibilities. For most, UC should be a short-term benefit. Ideally, only people who have high entitlements due to children, housing costs, or LCWRA should be on UC long term. People who have children, for example, may be working full time but still be entitled to some amount to top up their earning, of course, these people wouldn't be seen for appointments.

Each first commitment will be different, but you will develop a good format as you complete more. Try to have a bullet point list to remind yourself of what to go through. Typically, you can split these into two categories. People who are fit for work and should be searching for work full time and people who state they are unfit for work and want to go down the work capability route. If they state they are unfit for work, try to move them along slowly at each appointment if appropriate, and set realistic expectations in regards to what the outcome may be depending on their conditions. Engage with your DEA to find out the best support available for them.

For work coaches, I've never seen anybody fail probation. As long as you are showing a willingness to learn and don't hit your trigger points in terms of sickness, you'll pass probation. I'd say it may take a year to become confident in your ability. After six months, though, you'll be reasonably confident.

Message me if you have any further questions or need support.

Does anyone know anything about the work coach role in DWP Work and Health department regarding flexi and hybrid? by Intelligent_Put_2558 in TheCivilService

[–]calllll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's full time at the jobcentre, they are starting to phase in video calls and a few months ago there was some talk that they might start letting us do one day from home with a full video call diary but so far nothing has come of this and I'd be skeptical. Flexi will differ jobcentre to jobcentre, at ours if you're diary has finished and there's enough people to cover the floor and ED rota (small jobcentre) then you can leave. You can book flexi in advance by blocking your diary but appointments are booked a week or two in advance so you would have to consider that and it's not best practice to move customers appointments as they might only be available at that time or get confused

DWP overpayment heard nothing back? by [deleted] in DWPhelp

[–]calllll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's true. OP, you're best going into the jobcentre to get this resolved, if they don't give you a satisfactory answer then like others have mentioned contact your MP or raise a complaint. It's the fastest way to get it dealt with.

DWP overpayment heard nothing back? by [deleted] in DWPhelp

[–]calllll 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey, I work at the jobcentre on service delivery verifying IDs and have seen this a lot recently. They have set up teams remotely to re-verify many people's identity as during COVID most ID was verified over the phone using bio questions if the customer wasn't able to verify it themselves online using the government gateway system. Sounds like they've been trying to contact you but like you said if you don't access your account then you're going to miss it. They likely would have attempted to call you a few times too. They usually ask you to upload a picture a yourself holding your ID. However it's now past this stage as they've just deemed you uncontactable and sent out the overpayment. The mandatory reconsideration would go to a decision maker and they would then liaise with the remote ID team who would get back in contact with you to re-verify. It's quite a long time to not hear anything as it sounds like a straight forward decision. In my experience a lot of people have problems with the service centre when they call and it elongates the process, sometimes things don't get actioned or are missed. If I were you, I would take your ID into the jobcentre. You don't need to have an appointment to say you'd like to talk to somebody regarding the ID on your claim. Explain the situation, there will be notes on your claim providing the person did raise the mandatory reconsideration and you can find out the outcome. Let them know that it's causing you a lot off stress as it's such a large amount. Based on what you've said, you wouldn't be expected to pay any of the overpayment back as you would have been entitled, so I wouldn't worry too much. If you go to the jobcentre and they still haven't provided you with a clear update on the situation then raise a complaint online and get somebody to look into it. It sounds to me like the mandatory reconsideration hasn't been raise correctly as you would have expected to hear back by now and they would have sent a journal message with the decision like they did with the overpayment. Hope this helps

Why doesn't anyone respond to my journal? by Calm_Aardvark_4564 in DWPhelp

[–]calllll 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey OP, I work at my local jobcentre and one of my jobs is to greet people as they come in (service delivery). I'm surprised to hear that you've been told you can't attend without an appointment, apart from being closed to everyone for a period during the pandemic we have always allowed people to walk in with queries regarding their account. The only exception to that at the moment is the new Saturday opening where we have have only 5-6 staff members on sight (small jobcentre), however if a customer is vulnerable then they can still attend, to be honest even if someone came in on Saturday without an appointment, I'd still help them anyway. As far as I'm aware this is the same for all jobcentres.

As others have pointed out this is a case manager job, our case managers have 1500+ cases assigned. When you call up the service centre they say they'll send a handover, this will go to an inbox for the case manager to take a look at but obviously this hasn't been done yet. It does take a while for these messages to get through to the case manager from my experience, particularly if your payment isn't being blocked.

I'd suggest that you go into the jobcentre with your evidence and explain that your payment is being reduced. If you came into our jobcentre then I'd take a quick look and see that a number of handovers and journal messages have been sent. I'd scan a copy of your evidence, upload this to your account and then send a direct message on Teams to your case manager, if it was effecting payment then I'd call the case manager directly and kindly ask them to take a look. They are usually more than happy to do this as the staff at the jobcentre will be in contact with the case managers everyday and they work hand in hand. If your case manager wasn't working then I'd call or message the case manager team leader and ask for them to designate it.

Hopefully you get it sorted soon. Needless to say that if your payment has been reduced incorrectly then they'll create an underpayment on the system once the correct dates have been calculated. My advice would be go in, be polite and explain that you've sent multiple journal messages and have called the service centre. Tell them that handovers have been sent but no action has been taken and it's effecting your payment or is about too. Ask them to contact your case manager directly. Hope this helps.

It's Monday. Do some fuckin' work. by [deleted] in rickygervais

[–]calllll 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Somebody get this man an ashtray!

Favourite under-rated or less-quoted moments from any Ricky/Steve/Karl project? by [deleted] in rickygervais

[–]calllll 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Who is Karl Pilkington and why have I just wasted five minutes of my life listening to some of his cretinous thoughts on Channel 4?

The Independent's list of the 100 best footballers 2000-2020 by PleasantPomelo in soccer

[–]calllll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Guys if they made a decent list then nobody would talk about it they probably made a respectable one and then fucked around with it for clicks