UC work related activity groups

Hi David,

Thanks.

''...your work related activities will be to try and increase your hours, that's all.''.

Well that would be a big problem.....16 hours is a lot more than I was doing before, already. My question to the DWP is why can't I just do what I was doing before? That I am moved to a new benefit, whether it's called Universal Credit or Stuart, makes no difference to me, i.e. my conditions and limitations are the same as they were before. I am not better than I was before, actually worse, as old age is setting in and I developed an insomnia problem....if I sleep less than 6 hours, I am half dead.

Perhaps I am struggling to accept that UC LCW is simply not IR ESA with WRAG....

I guess my best bet is to offer nothing to my work coach, and just answer any questions, then once I am back home I'll have to decide if I agree to the commitments or not....might actually take a gamble if things get out of hand, and appeal eventually, and bring up the arguments I made before.

'' Did you say that you intend to work 16 hours per week?''.

Not really, more like I feel I am being forced to do it, and if I refuse, something bad will happen. I guess there's no other way than to test it, I just am scared that UC would be stopped, including the housing element.

But no point worrying about things that haven't happened yet, and that they might never happen. It seems that it's rare for the housing element to be taken away too, unless one doesn't qualify for UC at all, which wouldn't apply to me anyway.

Sorry....mind's racing.

''Did you say that you intend to work 16 hours per week?''

oh sorry, you meant if I asked this to UC? no I did not, quite the contrary, I tried to say that I'd like to do what I was doing before on ESA WRAG, but this was completely ignored. Initially I was being asked to do 35 hours and I was refusing to agree to the Claimant's Commitment entirely.

Then the LCW was applied, finally, and the hours were lowered to 16. I still wanted to dispute that, but the deadline for acceptance of the CC was looming, and I was afraid that this time they could really close the claim since my LCW this time had been applied. So I accepted, but just to avoid the worst outcome and further complications.

sorry about the confusion....no I did not say to UC that I intended to work 16 hours a week, I was asked to do 16 h of work related activities.... But previously on ESA wrag I wasn't doing any work related activities, only 7 hours of permitted work. To my mind I was better at doing that, than 'work related activities' since to me these aren't of much use at all, for example I don't work well at all with others and prefer to be completely alone because I can pace myself (because of CFS), whereas these work related activities seem to be made in the contest of a workplace. It seemed that the DWP found my permitted work acceptable.

But then UC set as commitment 16 hours of work related activities (initially it was 35h and I refused). So now I don't understand how what was my previously permitted work, fit with that, for example, would the overall activity be 7 hours of work and 9 of other activities? Fact it, it seems I have to do a lot more, and I can't make much sense of that. I understand it's not ESA anymore but this sudden change doesn't make sense to me since my conditions have not changed.

Perhaps it's better if I go to the interview, keep my mouth shut, answer questions and explain what I do, and then let the work coach decide for himself, without me agreeing or disagreeing about anything, just listening. Then when I get back home, I'll mull it all over and decide what to accept and what to refute.

If the work coach proposes something and says 'ok?' or something like that, I'll just say I am respectfully listening but that I don't have a clear answer there and then, if the activities seem to have increased.

As they say, if unsure if saying something or not is a good thing, generally it's better not to say it....