Restart evaluation of the restart scheme

https://respectfulbenefits.forumotion.com/t5023-dwp-to-ditch-toughest-penalties-for-universal-credit-and-pip-claimants

Well I was close, with the Disability-Tsar....

I'll have another bet here. That this Covid Corruption Tsar(CCT), will just be another waste of tax payers money. In a Chilcot inquiry, styleeee...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Inquiry

🥎 I'd say it was more about political mud slinging, than anything else...

I've been booked in to "discuss" a second referral to Restart in a couple of weeks time.

I have lots of questions about Restart that aren't covered in their "report"  

How does the DWP get private earnings data from HMRC in order for the DWP to be able to pay an outcome payment to the provider based on those earnings when there has to be a "started work" declaration first for HMRC to send any earnings data?  

Is Restart classed as "started work"? Is that why they are so rabid about getting a signature?

Is it classed as a "zero hours contract"?

When a claimant declares to the DWP that they have started work on a ZHC, HMRC then automatically sends earnings data to the DWP from that point forward, whether or not there are any actual earnings. They also (normally) automatically send earnings data for any other job the claimant starts. HMRC will send the DWP earnings data from job 2 or 3 even if job 1 never generates any wages.

Why does a ZHC with a temping agency before a referral stop a referral, but after a start date on Restart it doesn't? For example, if I joined a temping agency the day after Restart began and started to earn straight away they'd be paid for doing nothing.

Restart, in the initial meeting, is clearly acting as an employment agency when they demand a CV and proof of the right to work in the UK. They are, therefore, subject to the Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Why do they breach those regulations throughout a claimant's time on Restart?

Where is Restart's letter of authority that Coffey alluded to but never published where it can be seen in black and white from where Restart obtain their authority to mandate anything in breach of the employment agencies regulations 2003?

Working the RTE system by classing Restart as "job 1" when there is no job, so that Restart gets an outcome payment no matter what they do could be seen as Restart simply looting the UK's treasury department off the backs of workers.

Classing Restart as "job 1" under RTE proves that Restart are hired by the DWP to harass claimants into work as they will get paid automatically by the DWP once a claimant gets and starts "job 2" (actually job 1 in reality) even if Restart did nothing to help.

I don't expect I will get any of these questions answered by either Maximus or the DWP. No doubt under an FOI they would class it as exempt due to "business interests".

The Curse of Restart Strikes Again!

Given your impressive knowledge of DWP regulations, are some of your questions rhetorical? For example, starting Restart isn't classed as starting work because it can not satisfy the accepted legal precedent of work.

I am sure Maximus will welcome working with your enquiring mind.

May I ask how you got a second referral to this shitshow scheme?

Restart get your earnings once you start working. Only you provided your restart provider with the employer details, and with your consent forms signed, they will call your employer up, asking for x, y, z work hours, contract hours, earnings, start date, etc. Once they have confirmation you are back to work, happy they spoken to the employer, they will next register you for a job start on the restart system that enables your restart provider to start tracking your earnings with HMRC via the PRaP portal. (547 days in total) 

Once your employer starts uploading your wages and earnings to the RTI HMRC system, this will next ping over to the restart PRap portal. Once your earnings hit the milestone of £1000, £2000, they get paid in small amounts due to the DWP contract set out for them. The final job outcome payment is that if you earn £4750, the PRaP payment line automatically closes down restart will get a good amount of money DWP rewards the provider saving on the benefits bill.

Taking a restart job role is different; they have every last details, like employer, work hours, earnings, and start date. Consent forms are rendered useless at this point; they will make money out of you signing or not signing. That is why they tend to pressure and use extreme force getting participants to take on these roles so they can track you until you reach the job outcome threshold.
Here is a link on restart PRap job outcome training manual
Click on the ***OUTCOME*** have a nice read.

https://www.standguide.co.uk/reedtraining/OandC0522/index.html#/

These restart providers are bastards, just hyped up junkies sales Nazis controlling you till they get paid.

Ignatius wrote:Given your impressive knowledge of DWP regulations, are some of your questions rhetorical? For example, starting Restart isn't classed as starting work because it can not satisfy the accepted legal precedent of work.

My knowledge of DWP regulations or any other regulations isn't impressive to the DWP when I raise them

My questions aren't wholly rhetorical. I know Restart cannot legally be classed as "started work", but the DWP is of the (Hive) mind that it can do anything it wants to (even break other laws) and I am simply curious as to how they get around this:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/404201/uc-and-employers-faq.pdf

What happens when someone on Universal Credit starts work?
The claimant needs to inform DWP that they have started work.

The PAYE in real time system sends the relevant PAYE information to DWP automatically as soon as it is received from the claimant’s employer. When someone starts a second or third job, they do not normally need to inform DWP as the information will come through automatically. Individuals do, however, need to self-report their earnings if any jobs are self-employed.

The DWP itself classes itself as every claimant's "employer" (paying you to find work). How do they get earnings data following a "start date" on Restart when there's no actual job? Do they class Restart or themselves as the claimant's "employer" in order to get earnings data from HMRC? The answer to that (to me) seems to be "yes".

designergas:

May I ask how you got a second referral to this shitshow scheme?

Hubby and I were forced into a self referral last January under a joint JSA claim. I scuppered it due to them not following the Welfare Reform Act 2012, the SAPOE Regulations, the Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, and the provider being in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

I'm disabled and there is NO public disabled access to the building the provider works out of. I can name 3 other offices they use in my area where they work out of a second or third floor office (one of them is for the WCAs they conduct). The provider's building (second floor office) has a flight of very nasty stairs that are icy in winter to even get in their front door. When they rang me up I asked about their evacuation procedure for any disabled visitor to their office. There wasn't one. Chap on the phoned punted it off to the building owner. That is when I told him that we would not sign any of their paperwork. He did not offer "service" via email, phone or in a ground floor location.

Despite the above, they sent 17 appointments to my phone for both of us even though they did not have my phone listed for my husband's separate referral, nor should they have as he was partially deaf. They even sent a fraudulent MAN to each of us that they had created themselves. They then sent an auto FTA on working day 30, which did not result in a sanction. Good decision for the DWP to wisely  drop the whole thing.

Employment agencies themselves are covered by equal opportunities law such as The Equality Act, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations, and the Race Relations Act 1976 s.14, which make it unlawful for an agency to discriminate against a person in the terms on which the agency offers to provide any of its services, or by refusing or deliberately omitting to provide any of its services, or in the way it provides any of its services.  

Hubby died suddenly and unexpectedly on 12 November and I was forced into claiming UC. I won't go into the horror show they put me through. I got 6 month bereavement leave (had to demand it), which actually ran to 7, and I was put into the intensive work search regime on 10 June.

I did expect a second forced referral under UC as they have erased everything prior to my husband's death under JSA. They tried 3 times to get me to voluntarily agree to go "on" Restart. I refused, with good reason. When I said I couldn't enter the building the provider works out of for the third time in a row, the roach said "that's not my problem, they can do it electronically".

a link on restart PRap job outcome training manual

Thanks for the link and for taking the time to write what you did. I do know all about what Restart employment agency workers do in the first meeting and what they do afterwards.

Have you had your cuddly Warm Handover yet and received a date for your initial appointment?

Based on your account of your previous, short lived encounter with Restart, am I being naive and optimistic in thinking you are going to have to endure a stressful, pointless pantomime but that ultimately Maximus won't register a start within 30 days? Or has the heating melted my brain?

Ignatius wrote:Have you had your cuddly Warm Handover yet and received a date for your initial appointment?

The call is a ways off yet.

Based on your account of your previous, short lived encounter with Restart, am I being naive and optimistic in thinking you are going to have to endure a stressful, pointless pantomime but that ultimately Maximus won't register a start within 30 days? Or has the heating melted my brain?

I will have to wait and see.

Good luck 2nd referral must be a nightmare. This review explains all

Breach of Health and Safety Act 1974 lawless organization dont care about anything this includes coming from glassdoor reviews. (ex advisors)

And yet another great value service being funded and supplied to the British tax-payer.

They certainly get away with stuff a work coach wouldn't get away with. Restart agents utter lack of interest in DWP conditionality groups, sick notes, agreements with the DWP where travel is concerned, agreements with the DWP where disability is concerned etc and their flagrant breaches of the Equality Act and health and safety laws, along with them being appalling snitches, can all be explained by Restart agents' belief that they are the claimant's employer (a bad one).

Reviews of providers never fail to disappoint, especially those written by ex-employees. My short lived Restart business, according to reviews I read, used to send what were described as "attractive" female staff to try to get job placements for the participants.

Hopefully the jobcentre will forget to refer you, Absolut.

''flagrant breaches of the Equality Act and health and safety laws''

As Absolut points out above. On that basis, would be good to take them to a tribunal if that time comes. Someone will eventually sue them gladly . Proving they are being unreasonable and acting in a crappy way etc, shouldn't be too hard to prove .

Has anybody checked the reviews out for their local Restart office recently? When I recently checked, some of the negative reviews mysteriously disappeared. Of course this isn't a great surprise, as their advisors probably saw their name on the Google review and made their lives hell until the claimant removed the review.

Time to post them some more good feedback then .

jobberpw wrote: ''flagrant breaches of the Equality Act and health and safety laws''

As Absolut points out above. On that basis, would be good to take them to a tribunal if that time comes. Someone will eventually sue them gladly . Proving they are being unreasonable and acting in a crappy way etc, shouldn't be too hard to prove .

Knowing your advisor's attitude, they probably want you burned alive inside the building during an emergency.
What the purpose of signing that fire exit form tells me about the fire assembly point might as well tell me to stay inside the buildingcarry on job searching during my time on the restart. Once I did notice, once your restart appointment finished, I asked, Can I sign myself out of the register? My advisor says she will do it for me. Do I trust the advisor's words? Misery remains until the real thing happens. The whole fire department thinks I'm burned to ashes.🧑‍

If they can send participants to work without public transport, billions of miles away without duty of care, fuck knows what these advisors are capable of.
What messed up? My advisor only has her phone on from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., due to company safeguarding policy bullshit so forcing a disabled/vulnerable person to work after work hours leaving them stranded without any forms of transport getting home or cancelled transport without any restart emergency hotline sounds like a disaster waiting to happen soon.

''send participants to work without public transport'' This can be argued successfully as per the Eq act 2010, whatever kind of transport is provided or may not be provided. Depending on claimant's condition.

People have to study how to make them sit up and take notice. For example i would have gone nowhere and told moron to jog on and hit them with relevant sections of Eq act.

Indirect Discrimination (Section 19)
Definition: A practice that applies to everyone but puts people with a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage.

Relevance: If the lack of public transport disproportionately affects participants with a protected characteristic (e.g., disability, age), it may constitute indirect discrimination.

2. Duty to Make Reasonable Adjustments (Section 20)
Definition: Employers and 'service providers' must make reasonable adjustments to avoid disadvantaging people with disabilities.
Relevance: If participants with disabilities are affected by the lack of public transport, the employer must provide reasonable adjustments, such as alternative transportation.

From the report:

There was no evidence of people with health conditions being supported by the Restart Scheme to seek reasonable adjustments from employers such as changes to working hours or job roles.

There was no evidence of providers negotiating with employers, for example, to change shift times to accommodate public transports needs.

There was no evidence of working directly with employers to negotiate flexible working.

There were participants across areas who complained that their Employment Advisor provided them with details of job vacancies that were not suitable for them.

All the above shows that Restart is not fit for purpose.

Absolut wrote:From the report:

There was no evidence of people with health conditions being supported by the Restart Scheme to seek reasonable adjustments from employers such as changes to working hours or job roles.

There was no evidence of providers negotiating with employers, for example, to change shift times to accommodate public transports needs.

There was no evidence of working directly with employers to negotiate flexible working.

There were participants across areas who complained that their Employment Advisor provided them with details of job vacancies that were not suitable for them.

All the above shows that Restart is not fit for purpose.

jobberpw wrote:''send participants to work without public transport'' This can be argued successfully as per the Eq act 2010, whatever kind of transport is provided or may not be provided. Depending on claimant's condition.

People have to study how to make them sit up and take notice. For example i would have gone nowhere and told moron to jog on and hit them with relevant sections of Eq act.

Indirect Discrimination (Section 19)
Definition: A practice that applies to everyone but puts people with a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage.

Relevance: If the lack of public transport disproportionately affects participants with a protected characteristic (e.g., disability, age), it may constitute indirect discrimination.

2. Duty to Make Reasonable Adjustments (Section 20)
Definition: Employers and 'service providers' must make reasonable adjustments to avoid disadvantaging people with disabilities.
Relevance: If participants with disabilities are affected by the lack of public transport, the employer must provide reasonable adjustments, such as alternative transportation.

Everything you both posted is exactly what I experienced at Restart and posted here in July 2023. Restart practically blackmailed and bribed me into going for a job which is 1.5 hours travel each way on public transport - they bribed me by saying they'd pay for a taxi each way for the first few months, but they couldn't answer how I'd managed once that provision had ended. The blackmail was by feeding me and my JSA advisor false information, hoping they could sail me down the swanny.

For me, I pushed for the employer's name, contacted them and asked exactly what I needed to know. Even the employer and agency didn't feel comfortable employing me, so why do Restart think they so high and mighty? Oh that's right, the sacks of shits get a bonus at our expense.

Intincroi wrote:

Absolut wrote:From the report:

There was no evidence of people with health conditions being supported by the Restart Scheme to seek reasonable adjustments from employers such as changes to working hours or job roles.

There was no evidence of providers negotiating with employers, for example, to change shift times to accommodate public transports needs.

There was no evidence of working directly with employers to negotiate flexible working.

There were participants across areas who complained that their Employment Advisor provided them with details of job vacancies that were not suitable for them.

All the above shows that Restart is not fit for purpose.

jobberpw wrote:''send participants to work without public transport'' This can be argued successfully as per the Eq act 2010, whatever kind of transport is provided or may not be provided. Depending on claimant's condition.

People have to study how to make them sit up and take notice. For example i would have gone nowhere and told moron to jog on and hit them with relevant sections of Eq act.

Indirect Discrimination (Section 19)
Definition: A practice that applies to everyone but puts people with a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage.

Relevance: If the lack of public transport disproportionately affects participants with a protected characteristic (e.g., disability, age), it may constitute indirect discrimination.

2. Duty to Make Reasonable Adjustments (Section 20)
Definition: Employers and 'service providers' must make reasonable adjustments to avoid disadvantaging people with disabilities.
Relevance: If participants with disabilities are affected by the lack of public transport, the employer must provide reasonable adjustments, such as alternative transportation.

Everything you both posted is exactly what I experienced at Restart and posted here in July 2023.  Restart practically blackmailed and bribed me into going for a job which is 1.5 hours travel each way on public transport - they bribed me by saying they'd pay for a taxi each way for the first few months, but they couldn't answer how I'd managed once that provision had ended.  The blackmail was by feeding me and my JSA advisor false information, hoping they could sail me down the swanny.

For me, I pushed for the employer's name, contacted them and asked exactly what I needed to know.  Even the employer and agency didn't feel comfortable employing me, so why do Restart think they so high and mighty? Oh that's right, the sacks of shits get a bonus at our expense.

Wow, mate, that is a horrific ordeal. read mine more laughable not been in here for months. You guys made progress on the restart flaws. How this scheme is still operational remains a mystery. 

Bastards are sales advisors who have no skills or brain cells and no common fucking sense IQ level of a wet fucking lettuce these fuck wits cannot even operate Googlemaps or use IT correctly.

That is terrible; bastards who want the key performance target bonuses cannot even be covertly discreet keep their professional levels at all times. I received two telephone calls in the space of two days. I covertly recorded both telephone calls without them knowing.

My advisor and another advisor ganging up on me tried to get me into a job start ASAP, but sadly, they made plenty of mistakes. critical, nasty, basic errors 1st call, the sneaky, unprofessional advisor said the restart job starts next day, travel time is 2 hours, there is no location mentioned to me over the telephone call, she did check on Google Maps, and no buses are available coming back after my shift at 11 p.m. She wasn't rude, but she was extremely pushy. Spoken very condescendingly, I let this slide and didn't think anything about it. 

The next day, my main advisor decided to join in and called me up, sounding very upset shouting and condescending talking to me like piece of shit under my shoe saying. I must take this job and threatening me with sanctions again only job you can achieve in your life. She made plenty of mistakes and had a start time of 4 a.m. Indeed, I knew all my public transport in my area—no buses or trains till 6 a.m. at the earliest. The biggest mistake she made was never bothering to input my postcode into Google Maps. She was probably too busy gaining a promotion, with the bonuses kicking participants into work left and right bastard thought I was stupid.

At that point, I filed a complaint, with the recordings saying both of these advisors shouldn't be around any vulnerable people. To cut a long story short, I ended up not engaging with the scheme for months, didn't feel comfortable coming in, and even went AWOL for months. To this day, both of these advisors have left their roles. 

I ended up going through the steps of withdrawing consent forms, turning down everything they threw at me, jobs, courses, etc.—and finding my own employment withheld employment details. I started fucking around with them, and the action plan kept on changing what I wanted to do one week: warehousing, cleaner, train driver, teacher, even filling out a few job application forms, all wrongly wasting the 3rd new advisor time requested to have my personal data deleted from their database. I think the manager simply had enough, and sacking both of these advisors caused me a mental breakdown. It also probably has something to do with the exit report. The work coach and DWP want to know why the participant isn't engaging or cooperating with the restart scheme, and they used both of these advisors as scapegoats who fucking knows.

Charles1985 wrote:Wow, mate, that is a horrific ordeal. read mine more laughable not been in here for months. You guys made progress on the restart flaws. How this scheme is still operational remains a mystery. 

Bastards are sales advisors who have no skills or brain cells and no common fucking sense IQ level of a wet fucking lettuce these fuck wits cannot even operate Googlemaps or use IT correctly.

That is terrible; bastards who want the key performance target bonuses cannot even be covertly discreet keep their professional levels at all times. I received two telephone calls in the space of two days. I covertly recorded both telephone calls without them knowing.

My advisor and another advisor ganging up on me tried to get me into a job start ASAP, but sadly, they made plenty of mistakes. critical, nasty, basic errors 1st call, the sneaky, unprofessional advisor said the restart job starts next day, travel time is 2 hours, there is no location mentioned to me over the telephone call, she did check on Google Maps, and no buses are available coming back after my shift at 11 p.m. She wasn't rude, but she was extremely pushy. Spoken very condescendingly, I let this slide and didn't think anything about it. 

The next day, my main advisor decided to join in and called me up, sounding very upset shouting and condescending talking to me like piece of shit under my shoe saying. I must take this job and threatening me with sanctions again only job you can achieve in your life. She made plenty of mistakes and had a start time of 4 a.m. Indeed, I knew all my public transport in my area—no buses or trains till 6 a.m. at the earliest. The biggest mistake she made was never bothering to input my postcode into Google Maps. She was probably too busy gaining a promotion, with the bonuses kicking participants into work left and right bastard thought I was stupid.

At that point, I filed a complaint, with the recordings saying both of these advisors shouldn't be around any vulnerable people. To cut a long story short, I ended up not engaging with the scheme for months, didn't feel comfortable coming in, and even went AWOL for months. To this day, both of these advisors have left their roles. 

I ended up going through the steps of withdrawing consent forms, turning down everything they threw at me, jobs, courses, etc.—and finding my own employment withheld employment details. I started fucking around with them, and the action plan kept on changing what I wanted to do one week: warehousing, cleaner, train driver, teacher, even filling out a few job application forms, all wrongly wasting the 3rd new advisor time requested to have my personal data deleted from their database. I think the manager simply had enough, and sacking both of these advisors caused me a mental breakdown. It also probably has something to do with the exit report. The work coach and DWP want to know why the participant isn't engaging or cooperating with the restart scheme, and they used both of these advisors as scapegoats who fucking knows.

Crikey, what you've said makes what I went through sound like a walk in the park. But you're through the other end now, and what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

I too had experienced mental health issues as a result of Restart putting pressure on me. They knew my existing health conditions, they knew what I was doing to help myself with one particular health condition - yet they kept pushing and pushing. Well in the end, it's basically my health conditions that made the employer and agencies question if I was suitable for the position - I'd love to have heard them suck up to them later on with beetroot-red faces.

Several of my health conditions you can't actually see, so it's easy to see why they'd think I'm making them up. I wish I was making them up if the truth be known. But I have always been told that neither Restart or the joke shop can put you into a job which can make your health conditions worse.

If anyone has current or historic  health issues, or! that they feel will be putting them in a position of being disadvantaged while HAVING to take any action to receive benefits, study the Eq Act 2010 and use it. You will the be in a better position should you wish to make waves so to speak. It's just some are either not willing to, dont know how to, or! are in fear of. The latter, i fully understand as to the negative financial consequences' that hang over peoples heads and it's that! some, are relying on. Dont let them. They are not above the law .

jobberpw wrote:study the Eq Act 2010 and use it. They are not above the law .

Totally right.

Charles1985 wrote:Bastards are sales advisors who have no skills or brain cells and no common fucking sense IQ level of a wet fucking lettuce

The job adverts for Maximus Restart in my area shows that staff are not qualified in any way at all, to deal with any sort of job seekers.