does this upcoming Jobcentre interview seem in line with LCW ?

Hi,

I moved from IR ESA with WRAG to UC with managed migration. The UC team at first tried quite a few times to get me to commit to commitments that were not in line with LCW, such as providing fit notes. Yesterday I was told on the phone that I can ignore the fit note requests, and I was asked to commit to the Claimant's Commitment or my UC claim will be closed at some point.

I have reiterated just the same things for the last three weeks, for example the fact that I cannot accept the CC since it doesn't seem in line with LCW, for example this part: ''I'll spend 35 hours a week looking and preparing for work.''.

35 hours a week looking and preparing for work, is work already (and not even paid, strictly speaking), so I repeated that this doesn't seem in line with LCW. I also said that my UC statement shows that transitional protection was applied instead of LCW.

The response was, well we still don't have all your ESA information, so if you accept the CC now you can change it later. I said no I can't do that since this would not guarantee that later I actually get it changed.

So they decided to send me to a Jobcentre interview. I said fine. What I'd like to know is does the upcoming interview seems tailored for LCW? It doesn't seem so to me, since it reads:

''Attend your Work Focused Interview in a jobcentre.
This is to discuss what you've done to increase your chances of getting work or earning more. We'll agree the next steps and talk about any other support you may need.''.

Thoughts? Thanks.

Thank you David. Is it true that people with LCW might be required to spend up to 35 hours per week just preparing for work? This seems to me an excessive number of hours compared to the permitted work I was doing under IR ESA. I understand this is not ESA but the difference seems to be absolutely shocking. I expect to have problems with this. Can you tell me if the below is true? I found it with 'search assist', an AI search thingy in my browser after asking the question '' how many hours preparing for work for people with lcw for universal credit?''.

This was the result:

''Work Preparation Hours for Limited Capability for Work (LCW) Claimants

General Requirement

Most individuals with Limited Capability for Work (LCW) are expected to prepare for work actively.
Typically, this means spending 35 hours per week on job searching or preparation activities.''

Thank you so much, David.

The 'info' I mentioned is pretty good proof that AI can be absolute rubbish and that it should always be compared with credible sources. Very useful link. Thank you again.

Hi David,

Thank you, I did read the document you shared; I didn't see any mention of hours expected but it was still useful to know more and I am trying to learn about all this as much as possible. My problem is this: I was doing about 7 hours of permitted work a week under IR ESA with the WRAG. I don't really understand why this should change now just because I am moved to UC. I could understand if, say, the work coach asks me to do more or differently, down the line. Then I might agree to that or not, and dispute it, but why can't I start doing things the way I was doing them? Or can I?

I understand this is not ESA anymore, but objectively my problems and issues haven't changed. The DWP is entitled to reassess me, but what I don't understand is why I have to now do more than I was, to - start -with.

Doesn't Managed Migration ensures that the work related activities I was doing before, aren't greatly changed, at least in the beginning?

The UC team now lowered the hours I am required to spend to 16 a week, but to me that's still a lot more than I was doing before while on IR ESA. To my mind it's just a matter of time before 10 more become 15, then 20.....any thoughts? Thank you so much.