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People submitting med evidence pending WCA not expected to be available for work says DWP
Recent response in a Q&A via stakeholder forum -
We do not expect customers with valid medical evidence to be available for work, while they await the outcome of their Work Capability Assessment. Any work-related requirements are agreed in discussion with the customer and will always be tailored in light of the impact of the customer’s health condition, disability and circumstances, ensuring they are realistic and achievable.
Where a claimant does receive a job offer we will not require them to accept this work however will support them in starting this work if they are capable of doing and accepting that work. A claimant providing medical evidence awaiting a Work Capability Assessment will not be sanctioned for declining a job offer or leaving employment.
If anyone has different experiences I’d be interested to know
Hi Daphne,
This position accords with those on ESA being treated as having a limited capability for work prior to a WCA.
But for UC?
I can’t see anything in the Advice for Decision Maker’s Guidance that says this.
Is it worth asking if this is reflected in any Work Coach and/or Decision Maker’s guidance and if so, whether its publicly available?
The guidance clearly states that “When a claimant first reports they are unfit for work, the requirement for them to be available to take up work (work availability) must be switched-off.” but goes on to say “If this is the claimant’s first or second period of sickness in a rolling 12-month period, any mandatory work search requirements are removed from the Claimant Commitment for up to 14 days (depending on the length of the fit note). However, the ‘Work preparation and search’ section of the commitment is not switched-off.”
It then goes on to say “If the claimant reports 3 or more periods of sickness in a rolling 12-month period or the sickness continues beyond 14 days, work search requirements can be applied if it is considered reasonable to do so based on the claimant’s health condition or disability.”
It specifically states “There is no automatic switch-off after 14 days”.
Even in normal times it will be far longer than 14 days before a WVA decision is made. Indeed the UC50 itself is not issued until day 29 (unless a Day 1 referral applies’.
“They can have a work focused interview and / or work preparation requirements applied at any time. See Discretion to switch-off requirements (easements).”
The only blanket concession appears to be “A claimant is not required to immediately be available to take up work while they have a valid fit note”.
All of this fits with the letter of what you quoted but clearly means the claimant experience will be down to the discretion of the Work Coach and this will inevitably vary. The claimant and the WC may have very different opinions about what is realistic and achievable. More fundamentally this approach is flawed in that it requires the WC to make an assessment of what the claimant may be able to do whereas the whole point of the WCA is for that to be determined by those trained to do so (leaving aside issues around the WCA itself).
I cannot add much to Ian’s comment, except observations based on my experience, WCs are not aware of the wide ranging discretion they have, or/and are not confident to exercise it. I am not sure of they have targets (formal or informal) but I have not seen many WCs who are voluntarily “tailoring commitment to personal circumstances”.
Rules allow for discretion and tailoring, but WCs on the ground are struggling with the concept.
It is of course an inherent problem with giving people discretionary powers. On the one hand it allows greater flexibility (which is a good thing), on the other hand it is difficult to create a situation in which discretionary powers are exercised in a consistent way (which is a bad thing and leads to unfairness).