Work Focus Interview - read what the Goverment plans

[AwakeNow]

Ok, I just got my work focused interview letter this morning and duly telephoned to explain I cannot just go off to an interview as I have a child to look after (no, not my 14 year old but my son who is chronologically 28 except his mind remains that of a child – on a good day in his teens on a bad day he will tell you he is 10) that I am a carer and could this interview take place at home – she said ‘No way’.

Once again I tried to explain to this work focused advisor the constraints I have regarding my time, how my son hasn’t been outside the home for over 2 years – she interrupted asking’ You do shopping don’t you?’ my response was, ‘Of course I do, on line’ and added some more detail about how much time my daughter and I spend indoors due to the nature of my son’s mental condition.

The result being I have to ask one of my daughters, (who have moved out, not on very good terms since I explained I could no longer shoulder the burden of paying for their lifestyles) and to whom I have hardly spoken with in over a year, to come over and keep her brother company i.e. supervise him so he doesn’t burn the house down or get into a mood in my absence.

This led me to think well what can I find out about the rules for carers who happen to be lone parents who also are receiving Income Support as their primary income. This is what I found and thought it interesting and worthy of posting for everyone who receives benefit and are a lone parent.

The job work focus interview is mandatory and is now set to make work mandatory to overcome child poverty. I agree in principle with the idea that lone parents should work – after all just because they are single parents, through bereavement, or having their partner leave or deciding that they would keep the child and do their best to be a parent or whatever reason, there should be no concessions made to make this group a burden upon others - (note my sarcasm).

I will say there are people who take the benefit system for granted and who are able to work and refuse to but this doesn’t mean they are lone parents – so why is this group singled out?

Well the answers could lie in the following reports – I have to go to this interview despite knowing that I am already in full time work looking after my son (for which carers Allowance is taken from my Income Support) who I believe was damaged by circumstances beyond my control and yet have no way of seeking compensation to help alleviate the financial burden this care has created in its own right. I furthermore concede that I live in poverty and that despite my best efforts, poverty remains. However I will defend my right not to put my son into a home, I will continue to voice my disapproval of being allowed to look after my son with no additional help from the government due to their lack of financial funding to a group of people who really could do with it. After all, if I were to put my son into a home, their problem of making me look for paid employment would be over, however my son would probably end up committing suicide within a short space of time – is this the way to our future?


http://www.dwp.gov.uk/welfarereform/c3_c.asp

Home Welfare Reform Chapter 3: Helping lone parents Paragraphs 19-32
Chapter 3 Helping lone parents

25 We recognise that for some lone parents, for example those with additional caring responsibilities, work-related activity may not be an immediate option. Participation will therefore be voluntary – if a lone parent decides not to do any work-related activity, their entitlement to Income Support will not be affected, but they will not qualify for the extra payment. We will assess the effectiveness of the pilot before moving further.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/hb5/print_hb5.asp


A guide to non-contributory benefits for disabled people and carers
HB5 November 2006

Carer’s Allowance for adults who are unable to work full-time because they are caring for someone who is getting the care component of Disability Living Allowance at the highest or middle rate or Attendance Allowance or Constant Attendance Allowance.

Work Focused Interview
If you make a claim for Carer's Allowance, and you are aged between 18 and 60, we are able to offer you a Work Focused Interview with a personal adviser. The interview is not a requirement of your claim for Carer's Allowance, but is available to you if you would like advice about possible part-time employment or training. The help is there should you choose to take advantage of it, either now or later if your responsibilities change. If you would like to discuss whether a Work Focused Interview may be appropriate for you, or arrange an interview, please contact your local Jobcentre Plus office. The details of your local Jobcentre Plus office can be found in the telephone directory.

If you or your partner are claiming other benefits as well as Carer's Allowance you may be required to have a Work Focused Interview as a result of your claim for those benefits. If this is the case, the relevant office will contact you.


http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep443.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions
Research Report No 443
Corporate Document Services
Lone Parent Work Focused Interviews: Synthesis of findings
Andrew Thomas


‘Securing attendance at an LPWFI is largely an administrative procedure. However, a more proactive approach by advisers has occasionally been adopted and increased administrative resources to facilitate contact (as in New Deal Plus for Lone Parents (ND+fLP)) have successfully reduced failure to attend (FTA) rates.
There was resistance, primarily among existing claimants, to attending LPWFIs, although a tightening of procedures leading to potential sanctioning in 2002 has successfully reduced the administrative problems caused by FTA early in the initiative. Some of these lone parents see LPWFIs as irrelevant or inappropriate,

Summary
either because they feel unable to consider working (due to sickness, disability or caring responsibilities) or have made the conscious choice not to work while they have children to look after or because they have already decided to work and are taking steps independently to that end.’

‘Lone parents with literacy and numeracy difficulties, additional care responsibilities or long-term illness or disability have been found to be much less likely than average
17 Coleman et al., DWP Research Report No. 172 (2003).
18 Coleman et al., DWP Research Report No. 172 (2003).
19 Thomas et al., DWP Research Report Nos. 166 (2003) and 319 (2006).
20 Knight et al., DWP Research Report No. 315 (2006).
21 Thomas et al., DWP Research Report No. 166 (2003) and Coleman et al., DWP Research Report No. 172 (2003).
Summary
to start work following an LPWFI. Those citing other factors enter employment at rates close to the average, although they take longer to do so.’


1 Introduction
1.1 Strategic context
Lone parents are a key focus within the Government’s Welfare to Work strategy which aims to promote sustainable employment among those groups facing disadvantage in the labour market. The proportion of families headed by a lone parent rose from fewer than one in ten to almost one in four over the three decades to 2002. Two-thirds of children living in workless households live in lone parent households. Many lone parents are reliant on Income Support (IS) as their primary source of income and have a much higher than average risk of being, and staying, poor. Lone parent families have, therefore, been the subject of a number of government policy targets and goals since 1998, principally:
• a target that 70 per cent of lone parents should be employed within ten years;
• a target to halve child poverty by 2010 and to eliminate it by 2020.
Key elements in the strategy include:
• improving the financial incentive to work primarily through tax credits, though also through piloted measures such as Work Search Premium (WSP) to remove the disincentive of the costs of job search, and In Work Credit (IWC) to encourage and assist lone parents to leave benefits for full time employment;
• increasing work focus in order to translate the latent desire of many lone parents to work into a more immediate and realisable goal (through mandatory Lone Parent Work Focused Interviews (LPWFIs) and New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP);
• improving job search and skills through NDLP;
• improving childcare availability through the National Childcare Strategy to support work incentives;
• continuing to shift the attitudes of lone parents and employers towards more favourable perceptions of their return to the labour market;
• maintaining strong and sustainable economic growth.
Introduction
12
To meet child poverty reduction targets there is an emphasis on the need for jobs to be sustainable and for these to be secured by lone parents who, without an intervention would not have entered employment. The strategy also aims to increase employment rates across the age distribution of children – hence, the progressive roll-out to existing claimants and the extension of LPWFIs to new/repeat claimants with a youngest child aged under five years.
The government remains committed to these targets and refreshed its child poverty strategy39 in March 2007, outlining additional measures to contribute to the eradication of child poverty. Increased financial support for children and working parents is estimated to lift an additional 200,000 children out of poverty. Working for Children focuses on parental employment as a central element within a strategy of working in partnership with parents, local authorities, private and voluntary sector organisations.

In relation to lone parents, the updated strategy acknowledges that while the employment rate for lone parents rose to 56.5 per cent in 2006, there is still more that needs to be done. It proposes an approach which increases lone parents’ rights and responsibilities in this area. Specific proposals include:
• a change in conditionality for claiming IS from 2008, with a move to a similar benefits conditionality as relates to Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) at the point that a youngest child reaches the age of 12 years (as opposed to 16 years currently);
• different arrangements at this point for carers and those with health problems;
• the extension of IWC to June 2008 and the raising of the credit to £60 per week in London;
• piloting the linking of IWC to adviser support to promote job retention;
• the extension of New Deal Plus for Lone Parents (ND+fLP) pilots to March 2011 and coverage to the whole of London;
• making key elements of the ND+fLP programme (excluding IWC) available also to coupled parents;
• increasing the amount of maintenance payments that can be retained before affecting benefit levels (from 2010/11).
LPWFIs remain an important element of strategy and will contribute to meeting the 70 per cent employment rate target, through making lone parents aware of the help available to them in getting back to work.



Most lone parents say they would like to work.41 LPWFIs, therefore, place emphasis upon reassuring customers that they can work, and helping them to overcome the constraints preventing them from getting work. It is recognized that both working and non-working lone parents face similar numbers and types of constraints, (lack of childcare, distrust of ‘unknown’ carers, lack of skills, financial worries, low morale and self esteem and health issues), and that it is their ability to manage in spite of these difficulties, rather than their complete removal, which is important.

2
.4.4 Quarterly WFIs
There is widespread recognition that a degree of flexibility is required with the lone parent customer group to meet the diversity of their needs. Although advisers believe that for the majority of customers better outcomes result from more frequent contact, pressures on adviser time were seen to put limits on this in practice. The conducting of quarterly work focused interviews (QWFIs) for lone parents with older children, along with efforts at More frequent Voluntary Contact (MVC) supported by additional administrative resources, has been carried out under ND+fLP. However, initial qualitative evaluation of these measures has not indicated major gains in effectiveness, and advisers’ expectations of success with more frequent LPWFIs may not have been borne out in practice.

3.1 Attitudes to childrearing and parental responsibility

Greater impact upon work attitudes has been expressed by some existing claimants, though frequently for them, the determining factors in whether they pursue employment or not lie primarily in objective difficulties such as ill-health or caring responsibilities or in poor and outdated knowledge of support and tax credit opportunities rather than in set attitudes regarding working or not working.

3.3 Work orientation
Advisers are particularly reticent in challenging work orientations they perceive as based on strong cultural values. Pettigrew (2003) has revealed that different ethnic groups have different perceptions of work that advisers need to be aware of. For example, whereas a strong work ethic exists among many Black African and Afro-Caribbean lone parents, the same is not true in some Asian cultures where the idea of mothers working is held by many to be socially unacceptable.
In practice, advisers class lone parents into three groups:
• those committed to working;
• those unable or unwilling to work;
• those on the ‘border’ of working.


4.4 Overcoming lone parents’ obstacles to work
4.4.1 Identified constraints to working
Evaluation has confirmed that in helping lone parents into work, advisers are faced with a range of perceived constraints, some of which are harder to overcome than others. Difficulties cited by both existing and new/repeat claimants include: health problems/disabilities; and availability/cost of suitable childcare. In addition to these, new/repeat claimants frequently mention labour market constraints such as a paucity of local jobs and a lack of jobs with suitable and sufficiently flexible hours. Existing claimants perceive age discrimination by employers to be a problem, as well as their own lack of confidence.

Existing claimants are most likely to experience (in order of frequency):
• health problems;
• lack of skills and qualifications;
• additional care responsibilities;
• age discrimination;
• lack of confidence;
• financial difficulties (debt).
Whereas new/repeat claimants say they experience:
• difficulty in finding work with suitable and/or flexible hours;
• health problems;
• childcare cost and availability difficulties;
• lack of skills/qualifications;
• paucity of local jobs.

Lone parents with certain perceived constraints have been found to be much less likely than average to have started work since their LPWFI. This is particularly the case for those with literacy and numeracy difficulties (only eight per cent of those citing such difficulties in the participants’ survey had started work compared to the average of 23 per cent), those with additional care responsibilities for other adults or for children with special care needs for health or behavioural reasons (11 per cent starting work) and those with long-term illness or disability (12 per cent starting work). These last two types of constraint are more likely to affect existing claimants than new/repeat claimants. Lone parents with long-term illness or disability include a relatively high proportion (20 per cent) who say they do not want to work. Whether a customer agrees to be case loaded onto NDLP, or has other voluntary meetings with an adviser after an initial LPWFI is also strongly related to whether they have a health or disability problem. Although some claimants are offered the option of a referral to a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) only a small number appear to take up this option.

Despite this, 57 per cent of customers with a health problem or disability, 52 per cent of those with a child requiring additional care and 55 per cent of those with other caring responsibilities, describe themselves as ‘not looking for work but would like to work in the future.’ These findings, and the fact that a small number of surveyed lone parents in these categories had moved into work over the period of the research, suggest that there is some scope for advisers to challenge aspects of customers’ attitudes towards their own situation and possibilities. What was also clear is that those with a health problem or disability who did move into work required, on average, a longer period of support and preparation. Half the lone parents in this situation (50 per cent) took more than six months to enter work after an initial LPWFI, compared to just over a third (38 per cent) of all customers.
The restrictions on working associated with caring responsibilities and ill-health remain particularly difficult constraints for advisers to alleviate. The unpredictable nature of caring for someone or the nature of a lone parent’s illness impinged on the question of LPWFI timing for lone parents affected by these constraints.
Survey analysis found that 38 per cent of lone parents with health problems found the work focus of the LPWFI to have been inappropriate but further research suggested that it is the amalgamation of health problems with issues associated with being a lone parent (such as affordable and flexible childcare and finding a suitable job) which can make the health condition more constraining86. A focus on the restrictive nature of such constraints is clearly needed to provide advisers with a greater understanding of the issues, particularly as the 2003 Families and Children Study (FACS)87 found that lone parents were twice as likely to describe their health as ‘not good’ compared to mothers in couple families.



A quick look at one area of the country Newcastle Jobcentre plus work focus interviews leading onto Pathways whereby all lone parents are expected to work unless they have a good reason not to.

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/wr_jcpluswfi

[PriorityOne]

To get Carer's Allowance, your son must also be getting DLA... so the woman you spoke to is talking bowlarks. To get Carer's, you are also required to be looking after that person for around 35 hours a week... which are full-time hours... so on paper, you are already working....

She is probably aiming towards some kind of performance target or something...

[AwakeNow]

Originally Posted by PriorityOne

To get Carer's Allowance, your son must also be getting DLA... so the woman you spoke to is talking bowlarks. To get Carer's, you are also required to be looking after that person for around 35 hours a week... which are full-time hours... so on paper, you are already working....

She is probably aiming towards some kind of performance target or something...

Yep I agree with you there, PriorityOne. This work focus interview thing started up a few years ago and her predecessor was very nice, I only attended one interview in person, others were done by telephone and during my 'crying years' when I was very depressed, I have no idea what happened then lol.

This shift towards ending child poverty with a plan to get all lone parents into work is a good idea but only if the circumstances fit - instead the report made, which is being acted upon by the Goverment seem to find us lone parents wayward, to say the least - pro active should be pro active on both the lone parent and Goverment behalf, otherwise its not going to work.

[PriorityOne]

Originally Posted by AwakeNow

25 We recognise that for some lone parents, for example those with additional caring responsibilities, work-related activity may not be an immediate option. Participation will therefore be voluntary – if a lone parent decides not to do any work-related activity, their entitlement to Income Support will not be affected, but they will not qualify for the extra payment.


If you make a claim for Carer's Allowance, and you are aged between 18 and 60, we are able to offer you a Work Focused Interview with a personal adviser. The interview is not a requirement of your claim for Carer's Allowance, but is available to you if you would like advice about possible part-time employment or training. The help is there should you choose to take advantage of it, either now or later if your responsibilities change. If you would like to discuss whether a Work Focused Interview may be appropriate for you, or arrange an interview, please contact your local Jobcentre Plus office. The details of your local Jobcentre Plus office can be found in the telephone directory.

If you or your partner are claiming other benefits as well as Carer's Allowance you may be required to have a Work Focused Interview as a result of your claim for those benefits. If this is the case, the relevant office will contact you.

Basically... they can't make you work, but you'll probably need to go to shut them up.

[AwakeNow]

Yep, they can't make me go to work at present although there are new reforms coming in October this year. I have been told previously, and no doubt wil again, that 'many carers work', this may or not be true, however its down to the indvidual circumstance which often doesn't seem to be taken on board when decisions are made about benefit claims. I have also been told of the option to put my son into a home, that he would benefit from being with other people with similar disablities, this from one doctor when my son had to attend an interview to assess his ability for claiming purposes at the local D.S.S. testing facility.

Benefits are about people not just about putting a number or a tally on claim forms for an area. I know I would enjoy work, it would keep my mind keen but it would have to be from home, I have looked to the local jobcentre and other venues to see if the idea of working from home was feasible, it isn't apparently. Maybe when I'm 60 i can find something then :P

[PriorityOne]

Some carers may work and some may not, but it would depend upon the condition of the person they're caring for. They would also need a very understanding employer when the time came for needing time off.. and to be honest, there aren't that many employers that would accommodate those needs.

DWP has always had its eye on lone parents. It dropped off a bit when the issue of asylum seekers came on board, but it seems to be back again now. What the so-called go-gooders and the DWP don't seem to realise is that there are very few job opportunities out there that provide a living wage, as opposed to a wage that props up the income of someone else.... and who really wants to take on the extra pressure of juggling work, home, kids, etc... when there's no real financial incentive to do so ?

Tax credits aren't set in stone and are either eroded through increased earnings... or gradually disappear soon after a child reaches 18. Although most people are better off now because of tax credits... in a lot of cases they still don't compare to what others receive in terms of Housing Benefit, Income Support, Free School Meals and so on. This is why it remains a social "problem" for the Gov.... and for those who do work... because a lot of people still haven't taken the bait and this makes good "news" for the tabloids.

Off the soap box now... lol.

I have a job, by the way.... but have spent time as a lone parent on Income Support, so am able to see things from both sides of the fence. I can remember going to some of these stupid lone parent interviews several years ago... and experienced various degrees of intimidation from DWP staff to get me to return to work.... but that's all it was and we both knew it.

[AwakeNow]

I agree with you a hundred percent Priority One.

Is there space on that box for me - I like to watch people's faces as they go by thinking - "Why me??? "cos I think we can make a difference in changing opinion where it matters.

Eek my dyslexia nosing up to the foreground - I shall have to start to watch spelling.

[The GodMother]

what makes me laugh is the ppl they want to attend a work focused interview.

I have been sent a letter demanding i go for one as i am joint claimant on a IS claim.

I wrang up to reagrange the appointment and was basically told no even though i was due to be in hospital that day for tests due to me being pregnant.

I refused to attend as i had been told i did not need to attend due to me not being employable due to being pregnant.

Still waiting for the come back.

Just who would employ me. I was at the time 20 weeks pregnat at in anything from the next 8 weeks i would be going on maternity leave due to being pregnant.

Some of these pll hvae a bad attituted problem as i got verbal abuse down the phone.

[Mrs_Ryan]

I am a carer for my OH, and I also work part-time. i was full time until recently but couldnt cope with the demands of both. I am exceptionally lucky in the sense of my employers are absolutely amazing and very supportive and understanding of my situation.

I know what you mean about the work focused interview thing GM - they sent my mum one, despite the fact she is rapidly nearing 60 and is so disabled there is nothing at all she can do - she cant sit for long periods of time, cannot walk unaided, cannot operate a computer due to severe arthritis, cannot stand for more than a few moments, and is on morphine due to the extreme amounts of pain she is in.
She most certainly could not do the job she is qualified in (she is a former RMN - registered mental nurse) and pretty much any other job, and yet they still wanted to 'help her back into work!'
My poor mum was almost inconsolable, even after my sister who is a supervisor in the DWP offices in Newcastle, told her not to worry, it was just a random thing.. thankfully she recieved a letter before the date saying that they acknowledged her medical conditions meant she would never work again and her benefits were unaffected, but i think it is completely insensitive and they should get their facts straight before upsetting people!!!

[PriorityOne]

Work is pumped out as being the answer/cure to everything.... regardless of what it pays, what happens to the kids with no-one at home, job security, age, ability to do that job, the cost of getting to that job in the first place... and so on. According to DWP however, work will gve you self-respect, cure depression, widen your social network, enable you to afford luxuries, blah, blah....

Yeah... just go to WORK and everything will be fine...

I'm being a tad sarcastic, by the way.... I'm very lucky to have a job that I love.... but most aren't. Life is hard without the Gov. trying to force people into jobs with a pack of lies about how much better it'll be..... and by dressing things up in a variey of ways to suit their official figures.

[Mrs_Ryan]

Couldnt agree more.

The govt bleat on about 'protecting those who genuinely cant work for whtever reason and getting those who can work back to work.'

Rubbish. To me it seems totally the opposite. All they care about is their targets which is why they dont want to believe anyone on benefit without a job cant work. My mum has worked hard all her life and understandably she was upset as she feels the government are failing her when she needs it most. Dont even get me STARTED on DLA

What sticks in my throat is like the OP a lot of people who cant work would love to work but it just isnt an option.... the DWP need to realise this and stop hassling people who cant work and start hassling those who are too lazy!!!
I read the