Thank you all for replying to me : ) In answer to you questions ………………. The letter has not used the word “Mandatory” anywhere. It is a Community Work Placement The Work Coach found me a PRAP ??? with that most noble ofcompanies G4S Not sure about my “status” – I am a Jobseeker who has justfinished a 2 year work programme with Ingeus. I was handed the phone at the Job Centre to speak to thePRAP or whatever he was meant to be and an appointment was made. I have no other information about how long the CommunityWork Placement was for or hours etc. I have plenty of “Work Experience” – up until 2011 I havealways worked. But due to problems I was facing – bereavement coming in quicksuccession and homelessness too – I finally managed to secure a roof over myhead but have been unable to find employment as before losing my home I hadbeen self-employed and no one seems to want someone who used to run their ownbusiness working for them. I didn’t turn up for the appointment – handed them a letterstating they were outside the 8 week limit and that they should rectify their error. Information taken from - “Help to Work package (for JSA claimants whose WorkProgramme Completer Interview was on or after 28 April 2014)” 33. Work coaches then have up to 8 weeks* to assess whether one of the other HtW options (i.e. Daily WSR orCWP) is more appropriate given the claimant’sparticular circumstances. * Important note: 8 weeks is an absolute maximum and commences from thedate the WPCI is conducted. Once the 8 week point has been passed, a claimantnot allocated to Daily WSR or referred to CWP will continue in MIR i.e. after the 8 weekpoint, allocation to Daily WSR and initial referral to CWP are no longer an option.

Community Work Programme issued by JSA outside of 8 week period! Some advice would be really appreciated. Does the 8 week rule still apply? How to refuse the CWP? Where to count the 8 weeks from? After a 2 year period The Work Programme with Ingeus ended (2faced staff/ incompetent /useless), I was referred back to the Job Centre and issued with an appointment to attend in April this year. I was asked by myJSA to sign the My Work Plan (WS1 form) in May. I had to sign weekly for awhile and then back to fortnightly. Yesterday I was handed a letter to attend a Community WorkProgramme (CWP) later this week. I have been back with the JSA as I said since April or counting from May – either way it is past the maximum 8 week period in which they have to either allocate Daily Signing (DSR) or CWP (Community Work Programme). Has this changed? And if this 8 week max still applies how do I go about politely but firmly refusing the CWP without being sanctioned. Also which date am I meant to count the 8 weeks from – April is when I went back to the JSA – May is when I signed the “My Work Plan” – I am making the assumption this is the date of the WPCI interview but am not sure. Worried I will be sanctioned again – and a second sanction would mean months of financial punishment rather than weeks. (the first one was applied because despite having attended every single mandatory appointment Ingeus had given me and not missing any appointments/workshops of which there were many - there was just one I never received notification of in the post andby the time a text message arrived it was too late, I left a message for the advisor which was never passed on – I appealed the sanction and the Decision Maker in all his glory upheld the sanction as “the balance of probability is that the letter was not lost in the post”!!!!!!!)