One has to laugh

Okay, YOU don't have to laugh, but I almost found myself laughing at an e-mail I received yesterday. Hopefully, it will be clear as to why later.

During the summer of 2022, my work coach at the job centre informed me that she needed to refer me to the DWP Work & Health Programme. During an initial telephone conversation with the person who was to be my key worker, I explained my various physical and mental health issues and how they affected my daily life. I felt I had painted a fairly clear picture of what my day-to-day life can be like, and made it clear that unless I was in a better place with my health, I felt the chances of me even considering work were slim. The keyworker intimated that although there was support for physical and mental health issues, it would only be offered for physical health OR mental health, but not both. In my case, I feel the two are very much intertwined. As the impression given in the Work & Health Programme literature is that it is tailored to the individual, let's just say that I was left feeling thoroughly unimpressed.

To cut a long story short, my dealings with the organisation running the Work & Health Programme did not do my health any good whatsoever, to the extent that my work coach removed me from the programme, told the organisation running it not to contact me, and insisted I go down the Limited Capability for Work route.

The content of the e-mail I received yesterday is irrelevant, but the fact I received it more than 12 months after being removed from the Work & Health programme is what I find almost laughable. It doesn't exactly fill one with confidence when the organisations the UK government seems to favour to deliver such programmes would be completely incapable of organising a p*ss-up in a brewery.