BENEFITS INTERVIEWS: BE ACCOMPANIED

You have the right to be accompanied to benefits interviews!

You have the right to be accompanied to interviews at the Jobcentre and all DWP offices – and that's official! A top official writing on behalf of the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus for the United Kingdom has stated:

“On the matter of accompanied interviews....Mr McGonigle and his predecessor Bill Wilson have written to Edinburgh Claimants about this and made clear the position for interviews conducted on Jobcentre plus premises. We accept that there will always be times when customers attending our premises feel the need to be accompanied by a friend or advice worker and we will always try to accommodate this where possible.”  ( Letter copied to Edinburgh Claimants from Matthew Nicholas, Employers and Stakeholders Director Jobcentre Plus, on behalf of the Chief Executive Darra Singh, letter dated 15 February 2010.   Mr McGonigle and Mr Wilson are the current and previous Jobcentreplus District Managers for Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders)

Certainly if you have any interview you think might pose problems we advise you to take a friend or adviser with you. For example if they are threatening to cut your benefits, trying to force you to go on schemes or apply for jobs you don't want, or if you are called in by the Counter Fraud team, you should NOT face them alone.  Similarly if you have a benefits medical exam, you should take someone with you.

Edinburgh Claimants and Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty accompany people to such interviews, and to interviews at City of Edinburgh Council, all the time.

If anyone tries to stop your friend or adviser accompanying you, then tell them the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus says this is allowed, and show them the quote in this article.

BULLY TACTICS DEFEATED

Our right to accompany people to interviews had been challenged by a Jobcentre manager in Edinburgh in October 2008 – but following an official complaint by Edinburgh Claimants our right to accompany claimants was reaffirmed the following month.

On 30th October 2008 a manager and security guards tried to stop an ECAP member accompanying a claimant to an interview at Commercial Street Job Centre in Leith, Edinburgh - they failed in this attempt and had to back down. Edinburgh Claimants then made an official complaint to Bill Wilson, then the District manager for Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders - in a letter dated 18.11.2008 he apologised to Edinburgh Claimants and agreed that claimants could be accompanied to benefits interviews .

Now the letter from the Jobcentreplus Chief Executive's office makes it crystal-clear this right to be accompanied to benefits interviews applies UK-wide.