Dotty G

I've recently been awarded Limited Capacity to Work (LCW) after waiting 2 years for the decision, only to find that there is still a lot of conditionality on being awarded it.

I also receive PIP.

I initially thought that once you were awarded these benefits, that you wouldn't have to look for work as intensively (because of your health restrictions) and that you couldn't be sanctioned- but I was wrong.

I sharp learned that my assumptions were wrong when I recently had a face-to-face interview with a work coach who questioned me intensively about what I was doing to find work, because I hadn't reached the threshold of 35 job search that week.

She was about to sanction me, and when I told her that I was in receipt of PIP as well, she said it didn't make the slightest difference, and did not stop me from looking for work.

A manager intervened and said I was pardoned for that appointment for being none the wiser about the system, and the confusion many claimants find themselves in, but she then referred me to my Work Commitments, stating that I still had to carry out work searches.

The irony of the whole situation is that even when you do your work searches, look for a job, secure an interview - employers then make it hard for you to get the actual job by being so picky with their selection processes.

Furthermore, the very fact that certain aspects of UC are still unclear to many claimants adds to your mental health causing stress and anxiety, especially when your told your about to be penalised for something that you didn't even know about in the first instance - as was the case with me.