Ok thanks. A sensible response. I'll feed it back to them.

Wow! Easy on the judgement please! I've read a lot of threads here about people using their skills to thwart JCP and Ingeus, and rightly so too. I was only asking for some advice how to avoid a job for my friend. Forget it then. Are you a DWP mole CitizenB?

I can't offer advice but from what I've heard Ingeus sound terrible. I'd recommend getting a job by yourself, so you avoid all this unpleasantness. Can you help with my question please. thanks

Hi, I'm posting for SWIM but I hope you can offer advice. My friend's been on JSA for nearly 12 months, but the truth of it is she doesn't really want a job. She's in one of those benefit trap positions where she lives in London and gets so much housing benefit that if she were to work then she'd have to move out of her flat, because work wouldn't pay. Yep, crazy I know, but that's the reality. However, now she's coming up to a year of signing on, her adviser has referred her to Work Program and is also threatening some sort of Community Payback gig where she'll have to remove graffiti like some sort of common criminal, or volunteer for some immigrant charity which she disagrees with out of principle. So, she was told that if she went to the doctor and said she felt A&D (which apparently is the buzzword for anxious and depressed) then the GP would give her a sick note she could take to her adviser and claim ESA instead which would get her out of any of the nastiness which is being threatened. Is it really that simple? Just because apparently everyone's doing it, I'm not sure it's right. What about the people who are really depressed?