Capability for Work Form - Advice Needed

Evil_Olive

My husband suffered with severe depression for several years from 2019. He worked hard on himself and was able to get back on track with just the odd temporary crash every now and again due to outside pressures or circumstances.

A year ago he lost his job and was coping well but is over 50 and finding it hard to get a job, or even an interview, no matter how many applications he makes.

Part of his depression was feeling a failure, even when he was in work, so this has caused him to crash again and for one week he didn't sign in to his UC journal or apply for any jobs. At the end of that week he wrote a note in his journal explaining why he hadn't logged in for a week and was told he had to get a sick note from the doctor to prove it or he would be sanctioned.

The doctor provided him with a sick note for 2 months. We are a month into that and he is doing better every day, in fact, apart from that one week, he has been applying for jobs, despite being signed off from the requirement to do so.

He has now been sent a Capability for Work questionnaire and we have no idea how to fill it in as the questions don't seem to fit his circumstances at all.

He doesn't want to apply for any disability benefits or be put into a different category - when the fit note ends he fully expects to be able to fulfil all the usual jobhunting tasks and requirements he was fulfilling before the crash. He is pretty much fulfilling them all now - it was literally only one or two weeks that he was low enough not to be able to do that at all.

He doesn't know why the doctor gave a fit note for 2 whole months - he was surprised, but didn't question it as it was a relief to him.

Now we have found out that this CfW form is triggered after a month and, had he known, he would have asked the doctor to limit the sick note to less than that.

We're also worried about the evidence they are asking for. His contact with medical professionals with regard to his depression has been minimal - a couple of doctors appointments and some self-assessment tests at the time of the initial diagnoses (he's actually not sure if it was even a 'formal' diagnosis but he definitely saw the doctor write 'severe depression' on his notes), Then covid happened and he dealt with it by himself.

He enquired about a paid phone counselling service in 2022 but didn't follow it up as we couldn't afford it, and more recently has had 6 appointments with a 'Health Coach' on the 'Well-being' program at Maximus - the Work Coach/'Restart' company the DWP uses in our area when they outsource claimants that have been on UC for a certain amount of time. He also has an upcoming appointment with a counsellor and a psychotherapist organised by Maximus.

So any medical evidence is very thin on the ground. We are not actually even sure how to go about getting it or how long that takes.

We have always both worked and are not very knowledgable on how the system works. We are worried that we might not fill in the form in the way they expect, make a mistake with our answers or that we don't have sufficient medical evidence.

I am working but we still get UC because we live in a very high-rent area in the South East.

We are terrified that we will be unable to pay our rent if they cut this off.

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone is able to give.

huckster

Fit notes are only advisory. Your husband can report change under health on his UC claim online, where he says that his health conditions do not prevent him from working. If he does this, he can send a journal message saying that he feels he can be available for work and does not need the work capability assessment.

Then don't compete the work capability form.

Your husband can ask Work Coach for more support with the work finding process. In most areas there are different job centre programmes and different provisions to help.

huckster

Sometimes pursuing permanent work can be very difficult, as there are so many other people applying, that getting an interview can be a real achievement. Employers are not often posting advertisements for multiple vacancies. If there are only 1 or 2 jobs and they receive say 500 applications, an employer is probably only going to look at a small percentage of the applications. And sometimes a computer program is used to read the CV's and filter out the ones that don't match the job specification.

In your husbands situation, I think the best route is probably going to be using recruitment agencies to find him any work that he could do including temporary work. I would suggest he registers with at least 2 or 3 local agencies and that he contacts them every week to find out what work they have available. If he can get a temporary job, this would really help his CV and evidence that he active, giving confidence to any employers he submits a permanent job application to.

And while he is searching for work, could he do some volunteering for a few hours a week for a local charity? It would get him out of the house, help with motivation and be seen positively by employers he applies to work for.

Bemmy2525

I did voluntary and agency work to boost my CV And it worked a treat.

Evil_Olive

Thanks everyone. He is going to join some more agencies as per advice. He is a trained sound engineer and does a fair bit of voluntary work already. We have a few African churches (the gospely, happy clappy type) in our area and he helps them with setting up and maintaining their sound systems & recordings, and teaches their kids how it all works etc. It's really helped to keep him outside his own head if you know what I mean