UC

c54645645

Hi people, I hope this is the right place for this. 

I have extreme mental health conditions to the point where i really dont want to discuss how bad it really is but its bad. The police come to my house weekly to do a welfare checks etc and this is something that was put in place to guarantee my safety. so from that i hope you can understand how serious my problems are.

I have been on UC since Nov 2020 and was straight onto applying for LCWRA due to my health conditions. Its been since then and i only just got an assessment last week. This has now been sent off to the decision maker.  

But its not just that.

When on a sick note am I required to go to the job centre every two weeks? 

Phone calls would work so much better for me and I don't sleep for two  days just for a 10 minute face to face appointment its horrendous. 

my work couch treats me like UC is hers and if i do one thing wrong i will be sanctioned. She mentions my health problems every single time. She puts all my health conditions in my commitments for what reason? Why does everyone need to be reminded? they are my commitments and i certainly don't need to be reminded about the problems I have every time I go on there.  

in 2021 i requested 10+ times for a new work coach etc and was ignored every time. 
I contacted the assessment thing multiple times too and was never given a time frame on when i would get it but thankfully that has been resolved and im awaiting the decision as stated above but im just worried how long this is gonna take... another year?

correct me if im wrong but under the data protection act  i can request access
for a copy of the assessors report ONE WEEK after my assessment.

i have now been declined that 3 times.

i requested i have an appointee so i don't have to deal with this stuff and was told i couldn't have that either. Is there a certain way or thing i need to say to get this without any hassle from them...?


How long do you think i will be waiting for my decision? i have been waiting long enough. 

all this has caused so much trouble to myself.

Thank you.

   

poppy123456

When you claim UC you are classed as a job seeker until a decision on your work capability assessment says otherwise. It's a work coaches discretion whether they turn of work commiments, some do some dont and others will reduce them.

The reason it's taken so long for them to assess you is because there are huge backlogs and some have been waiting a year. Thankfully, that's now been completed and you're waiting for the decision.

Regarding the assessment report, i'm not aware of any data protection act with regards to sending you a copy of the report. Sometimes they will agree to send it before a decision's been made, other times they won't. In all honesty it often causes even more anxiety than you're already experiencing so i can't see having a copy is going to help in any way.

Sometimes a decision can made as soon as within 1 week but other times it can take several weeks, so hopefully it won't be too long until you receive that decision. Once it's made the letter will be uploaded onto your journal.

With regards to an appointee, if you're mentally or physically incapable of dealing with your own claim then yes you can have an appointee. The appointee can leave a message onto your journal to ask if they can become your appointee ( i did this for my daughters UC claim) then someone will contact that person to arrange to become your appointee.

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community 

Decision can take 2 to 12 weeks but the lcwra decisions don't seem to be taking too long 

To have an appointee you have to lack capacity to deal with your own benefit claim they get all your communication   speak on your behalf and your money is paid to their account as well . So maybe you want to think about that before asking again 

Your work coach can turn 9ff your commitment at their discretion while awaiting a decision they could have done this from you reporting your condition.  They could have done phone appt just up to the coach what they set your commitment to be 

MarkM88

This might help you understand - 

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to find out what information the government and other organisations store about you. These include the right to:

• be informed about how your data is being used
• access personal data
• have incorrect data updated
• have data erased
• stop or restrict the processing of your data
• data portability (allowing you to get and reuse your data for different services)
• object to how your data is processed in certain circumstances

You also have rights when an organisation is using your personal data for:

• automated decision-making processes (without human involvement)
• profiling, for example to predict your behaviour or interests

However, the above states personal data and therefore I am not sure reports fall under that. 

I believe now under GDPR, you would be entitled to ask for a subject access request. This would be better to do officially rather than through call centre staff. 

*Feel free to correct me if I am wrong as I don’t know the fill ins and outs.