Hi , i havent been able to work since 2022 due to ill health , im 55 years old and made a claim for uc on the 1st april 2025 , i had to reclaim as a pension lump sum put me over the threshold , this being the third time ive made a claim since 2022 as a tax rebate on the lump sum also pushed me over the threshold , my claim on the 1st of april i received the usual message in my journal with a date to attend first commitment meeting on the 9th , i replied with a request to record my meetings within the jobcentre , . The first reply i received just stated " recording is not permittable in the jobcentre" I looked into this and found a FoI from DWP central team which states "if a claimant wishes to record any information with a jobcentre plus advisor this must be agreed in advance of your appointment.This is because appropriate arrangements will have to be made to accomodate your request , if possible , a private room " i sent this in my journal but a further 3 times my request was rejected with messages of you cannot record , i assure you you cannot record and we cannot grant permission to record even after posting the FoI information after each comment . it then went onto a team leader , my appointment on the 9th had to be rescheduled and was made for the 16th , tomorrow . the team leader on the 7th said that in certain circumstances permission can be granted but they wanted a reason that being my reasoning was for transparency , accountability and fairness as i have experienced problems when attending there in the past , the reply , "having considered your reasons i am unable to agree to your request as your reasoning is insufficient" anyway this has been going back and forth as there is a lot more to this and would take a long time to note it all here , told there is no set criteria for decisions regarding recording on a case to case basis which makes me wonder how exactly a conclusion can be made , i have repeatedly asked questions which go unanswered , then the reasonable adjustments came into it , i was offered a phone call appointment which i could record if i wished to and told that was a reasonable adjustment , i declined this and asked how exactly this was assessed against the equality act 2010 but no answer to that , they did not ask anything about my health or medications and how this could affect my cognition or memory , no set criteria imo is just an excuse to say no without having to give an explanation . im still asking questions that arent being answered and stating that i have no intention entering the jobcentre until they are answered properly .ive asked for them to reschedule again but im not sure how long i can put up with the lack of transparency , accuracy , accountability coming from the dwp . i have very little savings and currently only receive ADP .
