List some strategies to avoid having to take part in the Restart 3 way call.

But if they still put you on Restart even though you refused to sign anything, what is the point of not signing anything as a way to prevent being put on it?

I thought not signing was a sure way to avoid it.

i didnt get asked to sign anything until being on restart, avoiding the 3 way call will be dealing with a DM, can't help with that engagement as i assume it will end up being a claim closed. subject has moved off topic so i will cease comments on topic, my apologies

Here is the procedure that Providers have to go through if you refuse to attend a Face to Face meeting. They have no power to make you attend. If you refuse to attend after all their efforts to make you do so, they will refer you back to the Jobcentre as a "Did not attend".

Failure To Attend Initial Face To Face:

2.34. Should your initial engagement attempt be unsuccessful, you must make repeated attempts to engage with your Potential Participant before the 30th working day from the referral.

2.35. You should check for any advanced support needs from information shared and tailor your initial engagement accordingly. In the instance that your Potential Participant has failed to attend the initial meeting, you must contact them to discuss if there were any issues which prevented them from being able to attend and make arrangements for another Face to Face meeting. A variety of communication methods should be used to do this if necessary. If some of these are proving to be unsuccessful, you may wish to contact the Jobcentre Plus work coach to ensure that the details you have received are correct.

2.36. If you do not get a response from your Potential Participant, you must continue to book an Initial Face to Face Meeting and notify your Potential Participant via other methods such as email or post, with enough advance notice to facilitate your Potential Participant being able to attend the specified date and time.

2.37. You can choose the communication methods for arranging the Initial Face to Face Meeting, and may wish to utilise more than one to encourage attendance, including reminders in advance of the meeting.

2.38. These steps should be repeated several times should your Potential Participant repeatedly fail to attend their Initial Face to Face meeting.

2.39. Where your Potential Participant does not attend the initial meeting and you have made repeated attempts to conduct it, you may consider setting it as a mandatory activity. The intent of mandating your Potential Participant to the initial meeting is to encourage attendance, and must only be considered where they have not demonstrated engagement voluntarily and there are no known challenges that would prevent them from taking part. These challenges may include advanced support or where meetings have been scheduled outside of agreed work availability restrictions.

2.41. Where you have made repeated attempts to engage with your Potential Participant and they have not attended an Initial Face to Face Meeting after 30 working days from the date of the PRaP referral, then you must close the referral as a “Did not Attend” on PRaP.

Please Note: If you have raised a compliance doubt after mandating your Potential Participant to an Initial Face to Face Meeting, and they have not attended at 30 days, you must notify DWP that there is no longer a requirement for the Potential Participant to undertake the mandatory activity of the compliance condition you set using form UCD604.

2.42. It is only at this stage that you can close the PRaP referral as “Did not Attend”.

2.43. The claimant will then be referred back to their Jobcentre Plus work coach, and may subsequently become a new referral to Restart.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restart-provider-guidance/chapter-2-referral-process-and-initial-engagement#:~:text=A%20Participant%20cannot%20start%20on,received%20within%202%20working%20days.

Do you still have to sign on at the jobcentre every fortnight if you are on Restart? Or do the Restart people pay you a "Restart allowance" or the like?

Regular signing as normal. No Restart allowance. They will reimburse travel costs and pay for things like interview clothes.

Does the person who signs you on ask you about what you have been doing the past two weeks at Restart? In other words, do you have to tell them how Restart meetings and job applications via Restart are going?

Or do you simply sign on without any questions asked?

, just came back from signing on. I have my three way call at my next appointment.there is no way of avoiding this clown show...
Work roach even had a cheek to say it'll be a nice change going somewhere else 🤮


She also wanted to know why I didn't complete the work and health program, I just said I don't remember.i never told her I didn't sign any paperwork........

Archangel wrote:Does the person who signs you on ask you about what you have been doing the past two weeks at Restart? In other words, do you have to tell them how Restart meetings and job applications via Restart are going?

Or do you simply sign on without any questions asked?

they ask me "hows restart going" i just reply "fine" it isn't on me to report anything to them  

(saying fine winds them up by the looks on their faces)

jcp visits are easier on restart far less questions but they are still every 2 weeks

The Catwoman wrote:, just came back from signing on. I have my three way call at my next appointment.there is no way of avoiding this clown show...
Work roach even had a cheek to say it'll be a nice change going somewhere else 🤮


She also wanted to know why I didn't complete the work and health program, I just said I don't remember.i never told her I didn't sign any paperwork........

"a nice change going somewhere else". I didn't realise Restart was daycare for the unemployed.

I trust they have issued you with the correct notices for the Warm Handover.

No, I didn't get any letter WC just phoned restart to book 3 way call for my next appointment.

The Catwoman wrote:No, I didn't get any letter WC just phoned restart to book 3 way call for my next appointment.

I didn't get any written notice either. However my SAR informed me that I had been given 2 notices - which was news to me. My WC noted them as JSA 534 & 536 - thanks to people on here I learnt the WC has got the numbers wrong, as well as lying about issuing them to me. On the big Restart Program thread Absolut gives more detail on notices people should receive.

Catwoman, it's on page 17 of the Restart Program thread. You should have received a JSA 594 & JSA 596. As I never received these, I have no idea of their content.

Sorry for not being being able to edit my above post to include this info - stupid phone

It's Only for this for this forum that I no about restart, my WC talks in riddles and is deliberately evasive they didn't even say that this useless program is mandatory.

All they said was it's no big deal, you go once a week as if it's a holiday camp.
As soon as I don't sign their paperwork, it won't be no holiday camp then.

I actually don't care what they say to me now, all these programs are the same, pretending they have secret jobs for everyone.
I'm not going to worry about it because all these programs have been the same for 20 years.

Once a week??? Yet another ignorant WC. Most people get away with fortnightly contact.

Archangel wrote:But if they still put you on Restart even though you refused to sign anything, what is the point of not signing anything as a way to prevent being put on it? I thought not signing was a sure way to avoid it.

During the 3 way call and the initial meeting the provider isn't being paid by the DWP to do anything at all. The DWP mandates you into going and it's then down to the provider if they think they can parasatise off your labour. If you are resistant to their bullying in any way, they will reject the referral. Plus, during the initial meeting some providers hand over a "consent to know your future earnings" form hidden in the induction pack. When claimants refuse to sign it, as is their right, the provider may or may not reject the referral. Some do, some don't. Under SAPOE Regs a referral is not meant to be rejected by the provider.  

The refusal to sign the consent form so early is to prevent the provider claiming money for a job they might have done nothing to help you to get.

The DWP has the legal right to select you to participate in Restart and to mandate you to the first meeting but it's to be in writing, not verbally over the phone via the provider with no contract, and then put on a notice.

Thanks Absolut.

By the way, if someone did sign the form and ended up on Restart, stayed on it a month or two, and then closed their claim for JSA, then after, say, 4 months, made a claim for UC (as JSA wouldn't be an option then), would that person have to re-continue with Restart where they left off, or would they only be eligible to be referred to it again after 9 months?

I heard that people on the Work Programme, who stopped claiming benefits, then went back on benefits, a few months later, had to still continue their stint on the Work Programme.

It was only people who stopped claiming benefits before they were referred to the Work Programme, and who went back on benefits later, that had to wait 24 months before they could be referred to it.

Is this the same with Restart?

I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of signing off, as at the end of the day you'll be missing out on Monday your entitled to.

When is your 3 way call?

In two weeks🤮

2 weeks?? Yuk.

If you haven't already read them, I recommend a read of the Provider Guidance covering what should happen at the Warm Handover call. I think it's Ch. 1 or 2. If your provider is like mine they may go off-piste and ask for information they are not supposed to according to the guidance.

From what I remember of my handover call, it seemed pointless. You get put through to someone in a call centre who is just like your bestie. JCP are meant to send them info about you after the call. There were questions about employment history, type of work I was looking for, did I have a driving licence - all stuff they cover when they do their stupid diagnostics on their victims. Mine took about 5minutes but then I was rather curt with my responses.

Did you tell them your employment history?

If they start asking for my address. Should I tell them you can get that from the wc as providers guidance says your not supposed to ask me that. ect.

The Catwoman wrote:Did you tell them your employment history?

If they start asking for my address. Should I tell them you can get that from the wc as providers guidance says your not supposed to ask me that. ect.

I gave vague answers. I told them I had done lots of different things for my employment history without mentioning employers and when asked about the work I was looking for, I just said 'any'. The person being handed over before me told them he didn't think he would be good at any job.

I was ambushed into the handover. I knew Restart existed but didn't realise it had been extended to JSA claimants until the day of the handover so was unaware they weren't supposed to ask certain things. With what I know now I think I would take a printout out of the relevant section from the guidance and refer to that if they so much as asked me for my NINO or such like. That's far too much to be telling them on a first date.

The handover appears to be with the big prime provider, in my case Reed, rather than with the smaller companies they who subcontract delivery to. You are dealing with someone in a call centre reading from a script. The WC doesn't really participate in the call, unless like me you didn't have your phone and they have to act like a translator because the loudspeaker on the JCP phone was a bit rubbish.

At the end of the call they will book the initial appointment. My initial meeting was for 3 days later. The guidance tells them to meet you asap and they have a customer service target of registering 70% of starts within 15 working days (I think) of the referral so they an imperative to meet you quickly. The WC will give you a JSA 598 after the handover with details of the initial meeting with the provider.

The same day as the handover I received an email from the sub contractor Reed are using in my area. This confirmed the first meeting details, bored on about the Restart journey, and told me how much they were looking forward to meeting me 🤮. I find it hilarious that my email provider sent every email I received from Restart straight to spam. Even our evil tech bros overlords think Restart is a load of rubbish.

They already got my national insurance number, the wc gave it to them when they were booking the 3 way call.
There already not following procedure.

Splendid Catwoman. Turn these things to your advantage. When you refuse to sign their paperwork, cite their inability to adhere to procedures as being amongst the reasons you are unwilling to consent to share your data with them.

Ignatius wrote:Splendid Catwoman. Turn these things to your advantage. When you refuse to sign their paperwork, cite their inability to adhere to procedures as being amongst the reasons you are unwilling to consent to share your data with them.

in the guidance it states that if claimants refuse to sign their documents any reason stated should be reported back to jcp, i stated "no reason given" and "I don't sign provider paperwork" to avoid potential questions from jcp

just be aware of how they might report anything said as a reason in a negative way

5.30. You are required to issue a copy of the updated action plan once it has been agreed and signed off by both you and your Participant and record the date of issue. Where Participants cannot sign the action plan reasons for this must be recorded. You must retain the action plan throughout your Participant’s time on the Restart Scheme and for the duration of the contract for audit and compliance purposes.

from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restart-provider-guidance/chapter-5b-ongoing-interventions-income-based-jobseekers-allowance-claimants-jsa-ib#action-plan