Universal Credit meetings

beegirl90s

Hello,

I sent my UC50 off in february and there are no work related activities on my account. the work coach calls me every 3 weeks for work focused interviews.

I have two questions. Firstly, is there anyway that they would agree to less contact over the school summer holidays? My children will all be home and my oldest is autistic and will get very upset if I'm upset. The calls really trigger me and put me a bad place mental health wise.

Secondly, I have asked and asked what will be asked in these interviews but they won't tell me and that makes the anxiety significantly worse and it ends up in panic. Some days they don;t ask much, other days they ask me odd things about cleaning my house etc. I don;t know what they will say or how to respond. Is there a set script used for these interviews or is up to the work coach what they ask?

Biblioklept

They shouldn't be asking about cleaning your house or anything like that, the only time that should come up is maybe at a work capability assessment!!

There's no set script for the work focussed interviews, but they may be trying to determine what you're capable of currently. If you've not yet had a WCA you are really lucky they are only doing 3-weekly calls, it's usually much more often! They can apply discretion so you could ask if they can be less over the summer but they don't have to agree 😔

Do you claim anything like DLA for your daughter??

beegirl90s

I had a different work coach who was lovely! Wish I had her as my usual one, she was really kind and nice.

I don't claim dla for any of them - one is autistic, one has an ongoing health issue that was a major operation last year and will be another coming up. She's very brave about it all though- recovery was so hard last time. She's a star!

She wasn't able to eat very easily before her op but we managed and she's eating by herself well now

It won't last though:/ but hopefully for the next your or so she will keep being able to eat unaided. It's all a bit complicated!

Thank you for confirming that they shouldn't be asking about cleaning - it blindsided me tbh and I do feel quite bad about how little I an manage so it was quite a triggering question. Urgh.