Support Group Telephone Call Work Provider -Again!!

[Lilly_Monroe]

Once again the letter from my work provider telling me a telephone interview has been arranged and that I must be available for it.

 

I know I do not have to participate as I am in the support group, but it is criminal how they hound people (we look forward to seeing you again, and helping you find the right job).

How can they 'see' me over the telephone.

 

It's so exhausting keep up with all of this, failed PIP medical, lost mortgage relief form, now these people.

 

You get to the point of just wanting it ALL to end.

[Lapsed Workaholic]

Once again the letter from my work provider telling me a telephone interview has been arranged and that I must be available for it.

 

I know I do not have to participate as I am in the support group, but it is criminal how they hound people (we look forward to seeing you again, and helping you find the right job).

How can they 'see' me over the telephone.

 

It's so exhausting keep up with all of this, failed PIP medical, lost mortgage relief form, now these people.

 

You get to the point of just wanting it ALL to end.

If you know that you needn’t participate then why do you let it bother you and not simply ignore them?

I reckon that by submitting to their requests they get encouraged and ask for more.

[Lilly_Monroe]

If you know that you needn’t participate then why do you let it bother you and not simply ignore them?

I reckon that by submitting to their requests they get encouraged and ask for more.

 

Because it does bother me, sorry to be such a soft touch - but that's the way I am.

Thanks for the support your were really encouraging and helpful.

[Nystagmite]

Can you speak to the job centre? I had similar. They also claimed I was in WRAG and that they're meant to be helping me. The funny thing is, it's because of them I'm on ESA in the first place...

 

They then told me they'd be in touch again in a few months time. I wasn't happy with this for various reasons and spoke to the job centre. They then (from what I understand) spoke to the WP provider and told them I am not required to parttake in any activites (which my award letter says too) and could they please leave me alone.

 

Ignoring them isn't as simple as that. They decided they "needed" to see my first fit note, which said I was signed off for one month. DWP and myself took this to mean July 2nd - August 2nd. They took it to mean July 2nd - July 30th. On July 30th 2012, they would not stop trying to get hold of me and sent me a text telling me that I have to come to this appointment with them tomorrow. I'd just come back from a weekend away with friends and was absolutely shattered and certainly not in the mood for this.

[Mr.P]

Because it does bother me, sorry to be such a soft touch - but that's the way I am.

 

Take the hard-line approach. Send them a letter stating that you do not want any telephone calls from them (this step is important). Once they have received your instructions to cease telephoning, if they ring again, lodge a complaint with the ICO and the DWP.

[Lilly_Monroe]

My worry is, if I get kicked out of the support group (and anything could happen) I will have to go back to these people - who could then make my life a whole lot worse.

 

Yes, standing up to them is fine, but the other side of the coin is a lot worse (especially for me) living so damn far away from their offices if I ever get put back into the WRAG group it's a 45 mile round trip.

I will ask when they call do they realise I am in the support group, and do not have to participate in anything I do not feel able to, and see what their reaction is.

 

Last time they set the date and time and did not even call - then before that they wanted me to ring them back on a mobile number which I will not do, I only get free weekend calls (there are NO emails to contact them on) they do not give them out.

 

I think the more you ignore them - the harder they will pester.

 

Thanks everyone I just have to keep reminding myself it could be worse.

[Mr.P]

If it is any consolation, there is a time limit on their harassment. From the date of your attachment, they have two years to do their "stuff". As you are currently in the support group, your participation is purely voluntary. Should you get moved to the WRAG, mandatory participation is only required for the remainder of the two year sentence. So if you have already done eighteen months, they can only harass you for another six - What is the chances of you being placed in the WRAG before April 2015 ?

 

If you feel their activities border on harassment and/or cause you distress, initiate a formal complaint using their advertised procedures. If you end up becoming a mandatory participant, you can then cite the previous complaint as grounds for victimisation if they turn nasty.

 

As you are currently in the Support Group, you are under no obligation to be at home to take this call - If they have previous form for not calling, why should you waste your own time over something that may not happen ?

If you want to go out and enjoy the sunshine, go for it.

[Lilly_Monroe]

If it is any consolation, there is a time limit on their harassment. From the date of your attachment, they have two years to do their "stuff". As you are currently in the support group, your participation is purely voluntary. Should you get moved to the WRAG, mandatory participation is only required for the remainder of the two year sentence. So if you have already done eighteen months, they can only harass you for another six - What is the chances of you being placed in the WRAG before April 2015 ?

 

If you feel their activities border on harassment and/or cause you distress, initiate a formal complaint using their advertised procedures. If you end up becoming a mandatory participant, you can then cite the previous complaint as grounds for victimisation if they turn nasty.

 

As you are currently in the Support Group, you are under no obligation to be at home to take this call - If they have previous form for not calling, why should you waste your own time over something that may not happen ?

If you want to go out and enjoy the sunshine, go for it.

 

 

You are right - I had forgotten my time with them is up early next year, and there is nothing to tell them or update them on.

Thanks for reminding me of that

[Lapsed Workaholic]

I’m afraid that I’m not in a position to support anyone, apart from myself, even that can be challenging. All I can do here is try to fulfil the objective of this forum and offer advice. The advice that I offer is based, in some instances, on experience, in other instances, on my understanding and interpretation of the regulations and the laws as they relate to the issues being discussed.

Having considered, confirmed and concluded, to the best of my ability, that my understanding and interpretation of a particular issue can’t but be the right one, I feel justified in confronting and contradicting anyone who has the temerity to attempt dissuading me of my conclusion, all the more so if they consider me so weak as to succumb to lies, intimidation and threats.

That’s the way I see it. My actions, dependent as they are on my understanding and interpretation, will have repercussions on nobody but myself. My advice, on the other hand, is for others and can be taken or left. Before taking it I would urge anyone to use it as an aid to reaching their own conclusions, not as a replacement to them.

Having come to a conclusion then, it behoves us to act. In the battle against the forces of evil, corruption and cruelty, surrender or appeasement, for whatever reason, is not an option; that leads to more of the same.

Thus resolved then, let us so conduct ourselves that generations, some yet unborn, of the sick, the infirm, the poor and huddled masses, will say; “Never in the field of social and welfare protection was so much owed by so many to those who stood firm and were counted”.

Here are a few extracts form official sources that confirm the righteousness of your own conclusions:

What is ESA: support group?

 

The ESA support group is for people who are judged to be unable to work or even to attend interviews intended to help sick and disabled people move into work.

 

What are the main differences between the support group and the work-related activity group?

 

The main differences between the support group and the work-related activity group are that:

 

 

• ESA support group members do not have to attend work-focused interviews or undertake work-related activities, such as training or condition management programmes;
  
• ESA support group member get more money because the support component is paid at a higher rate than the work-related activity component;
  
• if the government introduce a proposed one year limit on claiming contributory ESA, this will not apply to members of the support group.
  

How do you qualify for the employment and support allowance support group?

 

Around a third of claimants who qualify do so because one of a number of support group descriptors apply to them. Many of these descriptors are the highest scoring ones from the limited capability for work assessment. Other claimants qualify because they are exempt or because they are covered by the exceptional circumstances rules, such as there being a danger to themselves or to other people if they were not placed in the support group.

 

If the DWP decide, after the appropriate checks, who goes into the ESA support group, then surely only DWP can decide who is taken out? Certainly not WP Providers.

 

This, from the DWP Guidance to Work Programme Providers:

Voluntary Participants

 

1. WP ESA (IR) Support Group – Optional entry from the point at which the outcome of the claimant’s WCA is known: ESA Income Related (IR) Support Group participants.

 

2. WP ESA (IR) Support Group ExIB – Optional entry from the point at which the outcome of the claimant’s WCA is known: ESA Income Related (IR) Support Group participants who have previously received incapacity benefits.

 

3. WP ESA © Support Group – Optional entry from the point at which the outcome of the claimant’s WCA is known: ESA contributory based © Support Group participants.

 

4. WP ESA © Support Group ExIB – Optional entry from the point at which the outcome of the claimant’s WCA is known: ESA contributory based © Support Group participants who have previously received incapacity benefits.

 

Voluntary participants - Voluntary participants are not required to take part or to undertake work-related activity and their participation remains on an entirely voluntary basis.

 

You may not mandate voluntary participants to undertake activity.

 

So, with the law on your side, who can stand against you? You have nothing to lose but your chains.

 

My advice, should you decide to take it, that those people be sent a letter of complaint, expressing in the strongest terms that you consider their unrelenting demands for your participation in activities that you are exempt from as nothing short of harassment and intimidation which is actionable at law. Furthermore, they may be exposing themselves to prosecution under the Equalities Act, the Fraud Act and the European Convention on Human Rights.

It has to be said that a threat, however politely conveyed, is still a threat. Letters from WP and DWP seem to always carry a paragraph or two warning of dire consequences for those who transgress, however polite purpose of the information or request being conveyed is worded, or whether it applies in the matter at hand. The whole document, then, could be said to be intimidatory and menacing. Well, there’s more than them can play that game.

[Nystagmite]

Those letters from the WP are computer generated; so I imagine (I've never seen one since going on to ESA) they'd say the same for the support group as they do for WRAG.