At least the work programme isn't working ttoday. ..Some readers may recall that out of the blue I had a letter from the work programme , having not heard from them for eight months, demanding that I appear at an appointment which was mandatory and if I didn't come I faced benefit sanctions. Rather a joke, I felt as clearly they had just remembered that I was on their books.
I wasn't far off the mark in that assumption. I am now on adviser number three. The first one had too much work and several clients were transferred including myself to other advisers, number 2 left and this one I was ordered to meet was number three. He apologized for not knowing that due to my health, including a heart condition aggravated by high blood pressure and the medication I have to take for it, my appointments were conducted via phone, but said that since he had over 200 clients he couldn't read all their files to find out anything about them and felt it best to just send out the standard threatening letter demanding your attendance or else.
Once he had interviewed me he felt that there wasn't much the work programme could do for me and that in fact I should be claiming ESA and DLA, sickness and disability benefits. He especially noted that due to a previous fracture I am unable to go out in icy weather and am housebound, making going to work difficult and said, that in this country that can mean from October until April !!
I replied that he was as aware as I am that to claim these disability benefits, which even the Jobcentre now say I should claim , they can only be claimed with medical certificates from the GP. (own doctor ) . My doctor was writing certificates for some time. While he was doing so, the jobcentre advised me that they were in effect worthless because as soon as I was called for a work capability assessment with ATOS, I would be declared fit for work and put back on to Job seekers allowance, in fact said one adviser I was highly employable.. I'm sure I would be, if the employment was in a building I could be sure to be able to access, in a place I could get to by bus with no underground involved as I struggle with escalators, and if it was a job I could sustain with a heart condition aggravated by high blood pressure and the medication I have to take for it, arthritis and sight limitations. The certificates piled up in the back of my diary and then the doctor refused to write them because , he said that he didn't believe he could continue to help me in that way.....i.e benefit issues. .
I recently asked the GP again for a certificate as what I feared were symptoms of a stroke or blood clot are thought by the GP to possibly be Hemiplegic Migraine...bad enough if you have them lasting three days non stop in a week.He replied that he was not giving me a certificate as they are only for people who can do no work at all. When I told him that both the Jobcentre and the work programme say that I should have a certificate, he replied that it wasn't for him to say what sort of work, but I can do something...well, I agree on that because I am typing this rather well received blog, but there is no help available for me to come off benefits and make an income out of it, but that is a story for later.....Meanwhile the GP said that if the Jobcentre and the Work Programme say I should claim sickness benefits, then they can put that in writing to him...which of course they won't do ....because to do so they would lose their own jobs....
As for self employment the work programme told me that there is no help available to me, as I am not in receipt of any sickness benefit , if I became self employed or started work all that would be available to me on a low income or building an income is basic rate tax credits....£52 per week....even less than Job seekers allowance .....
The work programme adviser then said that he had to book my next appointment which he would carry out by phone. He entered it into his system and then announced that he had just remembered that he wouldn't be in the office that day but the system database couldn't be altered , so I would have to phone up on the day of the consultation, even though it wouldn't be happening and I would be told that he wasn't there, but if I didn't phone then I would be sanctioned...The appointment would go ahead the next day...today. However, it didn't, because yesterday I received a text to say that it wasn't happening and I was to wait to hear further when my next appointment will be ...The Work programme isn't working !!!
photo credit: Byzantine_K via photopin cc
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