The requirement to attend one or more work focused interviews with a Jobcentre Pus personal adviser is a feature of a number of important benefits. The Government's welfare reform programme has meant that increasing numbers of people, in particular lone parents and incapacity benefits claimants, are now required to attend interviews.
Contents:
What is a work focused interview?
Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Income Support (for incapacity), Severe Disablement Allowance
Lone parents getting Income Support
Carers
Partners
Deferring or waiving a work focused interview
Failure to attend a work focused interview
Benefit penalties
Challenging work focused interview decisions
An interview with a personal adviser at a Jobcentre Plus office. The adviser may be a specialist lone parent or incapacity benefits adviser. The aim of work focused interviews is to increase the numbers of claimants who return to work.
Attending and taking part in an interview
Claimants who are required to attend work focused interviews must also "take part" in them. This means being prepared to answer questions (if asked) about matters such as:
educational qualifications/ vocational training
employment history and work related skills
any current paid / unpaid work
caring responsibilities
any medical conditions which may make it more difficult to get or stay in work
Claimants must also be prepared to discuss their "employability" and whether they are doing anything towards "obtaining employment".
Who has to attend a work focused interview?
Most people who claim a benefit on the basis of incapacity, Income Support claimants including lone parents, and partners of some benefit claimants are required to attend interviews.
The rules about how many interviews a claimant must attend, and the timing of them, vary according to which benefit is being claimed.
Most people claiming these benefits are covered by the Pathways to Work scheme. Claimants are required to attend work focused interviews "as a condition of" receiving the full amount of the benefit. There are no set rules about how many interviews a person must attend or at what intervals. Claimants are not required to attend interviews if:
Some IB, IS and SDA claimants who have been continuously entitled since before the Pathways to Work scheme was rolled out have a different work focused interview regime.
The old rules for IB, IS (for incapacity) and SDA are explained here.
Go to Top
From April 2008 the rules were changed so that lone parents who have been claiming Income Support for at least a year, are required to attend a WFI every 6 months. This rule applies where the person claims Income Supprt (IS) on the basis of being a lone parent. If a lone parent claims IS on the grounds of incapacity, the WFI rules for incapacity benefits apply.
The rules for lone parents were amended from November 24 2008. Lone parents whose youngest child is 12 can no longer make a new or repeat claim for Income Support. They are expected to claim Jobseekers Allowance. This rule will apply progressively to lone parents whose youngest child is 10 (from October 2010) and 7 (from October 2011).
There is a fairly complicated schedule for applying this change to lone parents with an existing Income Support claim and a youngest child who was aged between 11 and 15 in November 2008. Income Support is withdrawn for these claimants depending on the age and birthday of their youngest child.
Some lone parents are exempt from the rule.
This new rule also affects work focused interviews for lone parents. They will be required, as a condition of receiving Income Support as a lone parent to attend quarterly WFI's:
where their youngest child is aged 9, 10 or 11 from November 2008
where their youngest child is aged 6, 7, 8 or 9 from 26 November 2009
where their youngest child is aged 6 from 25 October 2010
Lone parents aged under 18 do not have to attend interviews.
Claimants of Carers Allowance are not required to attend a mandatory WFI. When they claim, they are offered the opportunity for a WFI at their local Jobcentre Plus office. There is no obligation on carers to take up this offer.
But carers who also get Income Support must attend a mandatory work focused interview under the Jobcentre Plus scheme, see next section.
Other Income Support claimants
Anyone who claims Income Support other than on incapacity grounds must attend work focused interviews both when they make the claim and at intervals during the claim.
Lone parents not covered by the rules explained above have to attend an interview every 6 months.
A person who stops being entitled to Carers Allowance but is still entitled to Income Support must attend an interview when Carers Allowance stops.
A person who has been in education or training which was arranged by a Jobcentre Plus personal adviser has to attend an interview when the education or training finishes.
A claimant who stops or starts part time work (normally work under 16 hours per week) must attend an interview.
Income Support claimants who are not covered by any of these rules have to attend an interview when it has been 3 years since their last interview.
Claimants aged 60 or over are not required to attend interviews.
In some circumstances partners of people claiming Jobcentre Plus benefits are required to attend a work focused interview. This applies where the claimant gets:
Employment and Support Allowance (income related), Jobseekers Allowance - income based (not joint claim JSA), Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carers Allowance
which includes an amount for their partner
and they have been continuously entitled for at least 26 weeks
For most benefits where the WFI requirement applies, the claimant can ask for an interview to be:
Note that for Employment and Support Allowance work related activity group claimants WFI's can be deferred but not waived.
An interview may be deferred or waived if it would not be:
Guidance suggest this can include circumstance such as illness, or emotional distress, for example, following a bereavment or relationship breakdown.
When an interview is deferred, or new date will be set and the claimant notified. They can apply for the interview to be deferred again or waived.
A person should let the Jobcentre Plus office know if they cannot get an interview. If a person fails to attend a WFI without good cause they may get a benefit sanction. To avoid this they need to show good cause within 5 working days of missing the interview. This time limit can be extended to a month from the date failure to attend is notified, if it would not have been practicable to show good cause within 5 days.
In deciding whether a person has good cause for failing to attend a WFI the decision maker should take into account all the circumstances. The regulations state that they must take into account:
learning, language or literacy difficulties
misleading information from a DWP office
attending a medical or dental appointment or accompanying a person for whom the claimant cares and in either case the appointment could not reasonably have been rearranged
transport difficulties
religious observances
actively pursuing "opportunities for self employment"
accident, illness or the sudden relapse of a physical or mental health condition suffered by the claimant, claimant's dependent or person cared for by the claimant
attending the funeral or a relative or close friend
a disability which makes it impracticable to attend at the time given
The penalty which may be applied for failing to take part in a WFI depends on which WFI scheme applies to the claimant.
If the claimant has to attend an interview as a condition of making a claim, the claim is disallowed if they fail to attend without good cause. This applies to people making a new claim for Income Support.
If attending WFI's is a condition of continuing to receive benefit, failure to attend without good cause may result in the benefit being reduced. The amount of reduction is:
£12.86 per week for Income Support for lone parents
£12.86 per week if the claimant's partner fails to attend
for Employment and Support Allowance, 50% of the work related activity component for 4 weeks, followed by 100% of the component.
In all cases the reduction continues until the claimant attends and takes part in an interview.
A claimant can ask for a decision to be looked at again or can appeal if it as a decision:
There is no right of appeal against a decision not to waive or defer a WFI. A claimant could try contacting Jobcentre Plus to ask them to reconsider, but they are not obliged to.
More information about challenging decisions