Compensation to Participants in CWP under duress

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

If a JSA claimant is participating in CWP under duress to avoid being sanctioned, whilst simultaneously following the complaints process due to a strong belief the referral was inappropriate and the complaint was subsequently upheld:

1) Would the claimant be entitled to compensation for any hours worked on the scheme?

2) If so, how would this be calculated?

Yours faithfully,

D McManus

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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Mr V Johnson left an annotation ()

This is a very interesting question and response. In general "special payments" are far from generous. It would seem fair for compensation in these cases to be at least NMW-JSA received. Not paying the NMR is a criminal offence although I'm not sure who, if anybody might be caught by this - DWP? Placement host? Provider? It would all certainly cost DWP some embarrassment but they seem impervious! All this assumes that the participant persuaded JCP of their mistake which is never easy and given the vague nature of the referral criteria nearly impossible. The best chance would be if there was a technical error inn the processes.

As Workfare has a long history of which CWP is just the latest incarnation, a follow-up question on the number of upheld complaints relating to selection to previous schemes might prove interesting. It's no good asking DWP about "Workfare" schemes - other requester have been fobbed off with statements that DWP don't have any schemes called Workfare. You'd have to ask about specific schemes.

Dear Operations FOI Requests,

With regards to how the compensation would be calculated, could you please provide the information or a more direct link to it?

Yours sincerely,

D McManus

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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D McManus left an annotation ()

@Mr V Johnson

I would go further and say if the participant is undertaking work which would ordinarily be paid above NMW, then the market rate for the job should apply.

I'll definitely post another FOI relating to upheld complaints on referrals once I've worked out how to word it to avoid giving them an easy get out

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear D McManus
 
Please find attached our response to your recent Freedom of Information
request.
 
 
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
 
 
 
 

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