UC Advise - Fit to work but signed off

cazdee · 3 June 2019 at 8:58PM

Hi All,
I'm currently helping my mum who can't really use computers; she's never claimed anything in her life. She's ready to just give up.

My dad is retired and has a pension, my mum is 62 and has angina. She gets attacks randomly and has to sit and recover. This can be as simple as just after having a meal. Her doctor has supported her through this and signed her off as not fit to work.

She had a health assessment by the DWP and it said she was fit to work and she needs to look for work, but her doctor has signed her off to say she can't. I asked CAB who said she needs to complete a mandatory reconsideration form and send it in. The job centre wouldn't give me an address and told us she needs to write her reasons through her journal.

I did this and now they are saying "Can you please specify with detailed reasons to your health issues why you need the Mandatory reconsideration.". I don't know what to say next; i gave them the reasons (ie breathlessness, anxiety, attacks and recovery time, etc.) but they want evidence.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

poppy12345 · 3 June 2019 at 9:21PM

cazdee wrote: »

Hi All,
I'm currently helping my mum who can't really use computers; she's never claimed anything in her life. She's ready to just give up.

My dad is retired and has a pension, my mum is 62 and has angina. She gets attacks randomly and has to sit and recover. This can be as simple as just after having a meal. Her doctor has supported her through this and signed her off as not fit to work.

She had a health assessment by the DWP and it said she was fit to work and she needs to look for work, but her doctor has signed her off to say she can't. I asked CAB who said she needs to complete a mandatory reconsideration form and send it in. The job centre wouldn't give me an address and told us she needs to write her reasons through her journal.

I did this and now they are saying "Can you please specify with detailed reasons to your health issues why you need the Mandatory reconsideration.". I don't know what to say next; i gave them the reasons (ie breathlessness, anxiety, attacks and recovery time, etc.) but they want evidence.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

Evidence would be needed to support her claim. It's highly unlikely that they will take her word for it. Evidence should state how her conditions affect her. A fit note from a GP doesn't automatically qualify her for limited capability for work.

She needs to look at the descriptors to see which group she thinks she should be in and then state her reasons why. This link will help you know what the descriptors are for each group.
https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Your-Situation/Ill-Injured-or-Disabled/Universal-Credit-Capability-for-work-assessment

Substantial risk explained here, it says ESA but the same rules apply for UC. http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/esa-and-substantial-risk

Alice_Holt · 3 June 2019 at 9:36PM

1) She should address her MR to: Freepost DWP UNIVERSAL CREDIT FULL SERVICE
Here is a proforma for an MR: https://www.leicester.gov.uk/media/178163/mandatory-reconsideration-request.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/challenge-a-decision-made-by-the-department-for-work-and-pensions-dwp

"If you can’t call us, we strongly recommend that you complete the CRMR1 form to ask for a Mandatory
Reconsideration. You can download the form from https://www.gov.uk/mandatory-reconsideration
Once you have filled in the CRMR1 form, please print it and send it to the address on your original
decision letter."

Her Job Centre have not given her the complete picture. The response from her journal seems an attempt at gatekeeping by badly trained DWP employees.

2) She needs to explain how she gets to 15 points on the Work Capability Assessment:
http://www.mybenefitsandwork.co.uk/med2/indexxx.php or how work would pose a risk to her health:
http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/making-exception

It is not about her health conditions it is all about the WCA criteria.
Would her GP confirm that working would pose a significant risk to her health?

cazdee · 3 June 2019 at 10:06PM

thanks for the help so far - when my mum has the attacks, she would struggle to walk anywhere or reach/lift anything as she becomes very breathless and anxious. But when she doesn't have attacks, she is ok. She feels saying she can't do these things is lying. Should she say she can or can't do this?

i agree about the gatekeeping, i asked 3 times for the address and they sign posted me to money matters without answering the question.

[Deleted User] · 3 June 2019 at 10:55PM

Has she supplied them with a copy of her repeat prescription? I'm assuming she is on medication, which in many cases can be quite effective for angina, my OH suffers from angina attacks from time to time and the GTN spray works well in a few minutes.

huckster · 4 June 2019 at 9:08AM

I am not convinced that she cannot work at all based on the information provided. Plenty of people work with such health conditions while on medication. Type of work, number of hours, work environment etc will need to be factored in.

Of course finding an employers offering a suitable job, is likely to be difficult. But to receive a benefit, then the claimant has to meet the conditions to receive this, which is currently searching for suitable work vacancies.

So making sure a CV is available and that they have a standard letter prepared for them explaining type of work they are looking for, their current health etc would be a sensible move. Then to send letter with CV to a few local agencies, large local employers, local council etc. Keep copies to provide to Job Centre.

If health is generally worse than presented on the day of assessment, then your Mum needs to speak to her GP and to start to gather evidence in the form of letters/reports from Doctors. Unless there is evidence to support changing the original decision, then they will uphold the original decision.

poppy12345 · 4 June 2019 at 9:13AM

cazdee wrote: »

thanks for the help so far - when my mum has the attacks, she would struggle to walk anywhere or reach/lift anything as she becomes very breathless and anxious. But when she doesn't have attacks, she is ok. She feels saying she can't do these things is lying. Should she say she can or can't do this?

How often does she have those attacks?

cazdee · 12 June 2019 at 8:25PM

Her attacks depend on what she is doing. My mum just thinks no-one would want to employ her because she can't do too much, can't work computers. She decided not to fight the UC medically fit ruling but now she is giving up on UC... i will have to do a separate post for advice on this.

thank you for everyone's replies so far - it's been really helpful!!

GlasweJen · 12 June 2019 at 9:59PM

I don't understand what having angina has to do with working a computer? My 90 odd year old granda who's got all sorts of complex heart problems learned to use a computer in his 80s through his local library, I lay in cardiac ICU on my iPad recovering from a heart transplant so a touch of angina shouldn't stop a working age person from learning how to work a computer.

UC Advise - Fit to work but signed off

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