Guidance

Chapter 10: Change of circumstances and notification

Updated 25 February 2022

Applies to Scotland

This is Job Entry: Targeted Support (JETS) in Scotland provider guidance.

Provider notifies DWP of Change of Circumstances (Disengagement/Re-engagement)

10.01 There are three occasions where you must notify DWP of a change of circumstances whilst on the Job Entry: Targeted Support (JETS) in Scotland. These are:

• when a Participant, after their start on the programme, has disengaged with you
• when a participant has re-engaged with you following a period of disengagement after having started on the programme; and
• after a change in the Participant’s circumstance and through discussions with them you jointly identify that alternative provision may better support the Participant. This must be in agreement with Jobcentre Plus

10.02 Disengagement occurs when a Participant is no longer interacting with you for a continued period. Disengagement after starting on the programme is defined as a Participant failing to attend appointments or complete activities as agreed with you; and you have tried to re-engage with them at least three times on separate occasions/days within 10 (ten) working days from the date of the missed appointment or incomplete activities. The first attempt being within two working days as per your Customer Service Standards (CSS).

Please note: any attempted contact or interaction with a Participant must be recorded on the Participant’s record.

10.03 A Participant may also disengage from the programme if they inform you that they consider that they have received the support that they require from the programme and no longer wish to participate.

10.04 The disengagement process should be followed if you have:

• attempted to re-engage with the Participant and not been able to make contact; or
• not received any notification from Jobcentre Plus to inform you of a change of circumstances on a CEPD1 or UC78e form

Disengagement Process after starting

Actions

• If a Participant notifies you that they no longer wish to participate, or if you are unable to engage with the participant, you should notify Jobcentre Plus of the dis-engagement using the change of circumstances notification form (JETS.S07); sent via unencrypted email
• You should attempt to discuss and agree a contact arrangement with the Participant for the remainder of their time on the programme, as agreed in your tender. This will enable them to access any additional support they may require, as their circumstances may change and they may want to re-engage
• You must record the outcome of this discussion in the Participant’s records. Do not enter an early completer code into the Provider Referral and Payment (PRaP) system. The place on the programme will remain open for the duration of the 182 calendar days to enable re-engagement, if appropriate

10.05 If a Participant fails to attend an appointment or undertake agreed activities with you after they have attended the initial appointment and started, you must attempt to contact the Participant on 3 separate occasions/days within 10 (ten) working days (or alternative contact timescale if agreed). The first attempt being within 2 (two) working days. You must update your records for each attempt. If you fail to re-engage with the Participant within this timescale, you must notify Jobcentre Plus via a JETS.S07 of the Participant’s disengagement.

10.06 You must notify Jobcentre Plus on the first day you deem a Participant has disengaged from the programme by sending a JETS.S07 form. Only one JETS.S07 form should be sent per Participant by unencrypted email.

10.07 When notifying Jobcentre Plus of disengagement the JETS.S07 change of circumstances form must include details of the referring office and Jobcentre Plus work coach. The email subject field must contain the following:

• JETS in Scotland Participant Disengagement; or
• JETS in Scotland Participant “alternative support discussion” (for those proposing to move to an alternative provision)
• Participants surname; and
• last three digits of their National Insurance Number (NINo)

10.08 A Jobcentre Plus work coach will contact the Participant to discuss participation on the programme. The work coach will notify you of the outcome of this interview on a CEPD1/UC78e change of circumstances form.

Circumstances that are not considered disengagement – (JETS.S07 not required for JETS in Scotland)

10.09 The disengagement process should not be followed and a JETS.S07 is not required to be completed in the following circumstances as there is contact with the Participant when you:

• make arrangements to tailor the level of engagement with a Participant who you are in contact with due to a change in circumstances, for example a Participant may have an operation and require two-weeks recovery. It is possible that a Participant’s participation will be affected by a change of circumstances or period of ill health. In these circumstances it may be appropriate to tailor engagement
• receive a CEPD1/UC78e change of circumstances notification from Jobcentre Plus where you may be asked to suspend or reduce engagement due to an easement (usually for a finite period of time); or
• are informed by Jobcentre Plus that the Participant wishes to disengage from the programme because they require no further support. Via phone/ email or letter, etc. you should agree a contact arrangement with the Participant for the remainder of their time on programme to enable them to access any additional support they may require as their circumstances may change and they may want to re-engage. You may agree no further contact if the participant is adamant they do not want to re-engage for the remainder of the programme

Compliance Checks

10.10 The DWP Provider Compliance Officer (PCO) will review evidence of your disengagement/re-engagement process at regular intervals against what you have agreed to deliver in your bid and against your CSS. However, DWP is aware that some Participants may not wish to receive continued support and engagement from Providers, and they may not be receptive to continuing attempts by Providers to keep in touch.

10.11 It is appropriate in these cases to support the needs of the Participant; therefore, you should ensure you annotate your records in the following circumstances:

• a Participant has asked you not to contact them again; or
• you have agreed to suspend/reduce engagement due to a change of circumstances (usually for a finite period)

Re-engagement – Completion of JETS.S07

10.12 You must notify Jobcentre Plus on the JETS.S07 change of circumstances notification form and send one form per email, per Participant, by unencrypted e-mail when the Participant re-engages with you.

10.13 When notifying of Jobcentre Plus re-engagement, the JETS.S07 change of circumstances form must include details of the referring office and Jobcentre work coach. The email subject field must contain the following:

• JETS in Scotland Participant Re-Engagement
• Participant’s surname; and
• last three digits of their National Insurance Number (NINo)

10.14 To mitigate the risk of data being lost, DWP Operational Security has restricted the number of client records that may be transmitted via the unencrypted email process to a maximum of one participant record per form per email. If more than one participant record per email is sent via the unencrypted email process, this will constitute a security breach and must be reported to DWP as per current instructions (see Generic Provider Guidance, Chapter 8 Information Security).

10.15 If you receive more than one form in an email and you are satisfied that the Participants are attached to you or your sub-contractors, you may process the change as normal as well as reporting this as a security incident to DWP Operational Security (see Generic Provider Guidance, Chapter 8 – Information Security).

10.16 If you receive a form for a potential participant who is not attached to you or your sub-contractors, you must report the security incident (see Generic Provider Guidance, Chapter 8 Information Security) and then delete the email and form(s). The format of the Jobcentre Plus email addresses will be ‘firstname.lastname@dwp.gov.uk’.

Please Note: All notifications for Special Customer Record (SCR) Participants will remain clerical notifications and will not be sent via email. Further information regarding SCR cases and what action you need to take please refer to Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 2, Delivering Provision.

Forwarding emails to your sub-contractors

10.17 You may forward UC78e or CEPD1 change of circumstances forms received by unencrypted email to DWP approved sub-contractors and inboxes within your organisation, provided that:

• no more than one Participant record at a time is emailed
• a business need to share the information exists and sharing protocols are followed; and
• the recipient is legitimately entitled to receive the information (emails must not be automatically forwarded without ensuring this)

Please Note: You must keep a record of where and when you sent the notification form for three months.

Contingency process

10.18 There may be occasions when due to circumstances such as IT failure you are temporarily unable to receive change of circumstances via unencrypted email from Jobcentre Plus offices.

10.19 In these circumstances you must ensure that your DWP District Third Party Provision Manager (TPPM) listed below, is kept informed of the situation and how long you anticipate it lasting.

Elaine Livingston
Office of the Scotland Area Director
Department for Work and Pensions
Heron House
10b Wellside Place
Falkirk, FK1 5S

Tel: 01324 505196 Email: elaine.livingston@dwp.gov.uk

10.20 The TPPM will inform Jobcentre Plus colleagues of the situation and they will temporarily suspend the use of unencrypted email.

10.21 If you anticipate the situation will continue for 48 hours or longer you must revert to the change of circumstances clerical contingency of receiving the CEPD1/UC78e through the post until the problem is resolved and you are able to use the unencrypted email again.

10.22 Your TPPM should be kept updated and prior to you starting to use the contingency arrangements you must inform the TPPM when these arrangements will start. Also before you begin to use the unencrypted email process again you must notify the TPPM.

10.23 If Jobcentre Plus have an IT failure, your TPPM will notify you if the problem will last for longer than 48 hours and that Jobcentre Plus will revert to the contingency arrangements of sending the CEPD1/UC78e form through the post.

10.24 Once resolved, your TPPM will notify you when you can expect to start receiving electronic change of circumstances forms again.

Jobcentre Plus contact following Participant disengagement

10.25 Jobcentre Plus will contact the Participant after receiving the JETS.S07 notifying them of a Participant disengagement from the programme. They will try to find out why the Participant has disengaged from the programme and, if appropriate, encourage them to re-engage.

10.26 Where Participants wish to re-engage, Jobcentre Plus will notify you of the outcome on a CEPD1/UC78e change of circumstances form and signpost them back to you.

Actions

• On receipt of a CEPD1/UC78e form, update the Participants record with the outcome as notified to you. Where you have been notified that a Participant will be re-engaging with you, arrange to contact them and continue to support them for the remainder of their time on the programme
• Notify Jobcentre Plus when the Participant re-engages using the change of circumstances notification form (JETS.S07) sent via unencrypted email
• Where Jobcentre Plus are unable to confirm the Participant’s status you will receive a notification on a CEPD1 or UC78e form. You should attempt to make contact and re-engage with the Participant as agreed in your tender for the duration of the programme unless you have been informed that the Participant does not want any further contact

Signposting to alternative provision

10.27 There may be an occasion where after a change in the Participant’s circumstances and through discussions with the Participant, you jointly identify that alternative provision is required. In the first instance you should discuss and where appropriate, refer to other suitable support accessible via your programme, before considering other alternatives. If following this discussion, there is no suitable non- DWP provision you should signpost the Participant to their work coach to discuss their options including alternative suitable support.

10.28 You must notify the work coach of this via the JETS.S07 (sent by unencrypted email) annotated with the words “alternative support discussion”.

10.29 On receipt of the JETS.S07 the work coach, if appropriate, will contact you to discuss whether a referral to an alternative DWP contracted provision is appropriate.

10.30 The work coach will contact the Participant to discuss and will update you of the outcome via the CEPD1/UC78e notification form.

10.31 Upon receipt of the CEPD1/UC78e notification form you must take the most appropriate action to either continue to support the Participant via JETS in Scotland or close the JETS in Scotland PRaP record down by inputting completer reason “46- exceptional circumstance”. Further information regarding completer action can be found in JETS in Scotland Provider Guidance Chapter 6 – Completers and Early Exits.

Participant notifies provider of change of circumstances

10.32 It is the responsibility of the Participant to notify Jobcentre Plus of any change in their circumstances that occur whilst attending JETS in Scotland, with the exception of those mentioned in paragraph 10.01.

Actions

• Where a Participant informs you of any change of circumstance you must direct them to report the change to Jobcentre Plus. Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/contact-jobcentre-plus Participants in receipt of UC have a journal, in these cases please ask them to update their journal to report the change in circumstances rather than direct them to Jobcentre Plus
• It is important that you assess how this change affects your engagement, including where any additional support is required
• Update your records to ensure you have the most up to date information for your Participants
• Keep in regular contact with the Participant to ensure you have the latest personal information

Consequence

Failure to update your records with a change notified to you may result in you providing inappropriate support for your Participants.

Jobcentre Plus notifies you of a change of circumstances

10.33 It is essential that you are in regular contact with the Participant throughout the 182 calendars days’ duration on the programme, as outlined in your CSSs to ensure you have the latest personal information and that you endeavour to work with them while taking into consideration their circumstances. However, DWP will also notify you of changes.

10.34 You may receive such notification of a Participant change of circumstance via a number of routes for example:

• by unencrypted email to your designated inbox (CEPD1 for New Style Jobseekers Allowance Participants or a UC78e for UC Participants)
• some clerical notifications may be received by post. All notifications for Special Customer Record (SCR) and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Participants will remain clerical notifications

Please Note: During the current COVID-19 event the level of response will vary.

Actions

• On receipt of the notification of a Participant’s change of circumstances you must ensure that the Participant has been referred to you or your sub-contractors
• If you are satisfied that the Participant has been referred to you or your sub-contractors, you must accept the notification and review the change of circumstances
• It is important that you assess how this change affects your engagement, including where any additional support is required
• Update your records to ensure you have the most up to date information for your Participants

Please Note: If you receive a change of circumstances for someone who is not your Participant you must notify DWP and destroy the notification. Further information regarding notification of Participant change of circumstances via unencrypted email can be found in the Notification of Participant change of circumstances via unencrypted email section.

Special Customer Records (SCR)

10.35 Any notifications you receive from DWP about a SCR Participant should only be dealt with by your Nominated Officer. Further information may be found in Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 2 Delivering provision and in Job Entry: Target Support (JETS in Scotland) Provider Guidance Chapter 9 Validation.

10.36 If a SCR Participant has disengaged with you, your Nominated Officer should complete the change of circumstances form, ensure that it is marked clearly that the claimant is a SCR Participant and send it to the Nominated Officer in the relevant Jobcentre Plus office by a secure postal service. Further information may be found in Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 2 Delivering Provision.

10.37 All information on SCR Participants whether received from Jobcentre Plus or generated by yourselves must be stored securely at all times. Further information is contained in Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 8 Information Security.

Participant starts work

10.38 When a Participant starts work Jobcentre Plus will notify you if the Participant starts/ends work where known (including part time, voluntary, self-employed, permitted), lost work, change in hours worked.

Participant becomes sick

10.39 A Jobcentre Plus work coach will notify you when a Participant has a period of sickness.

10.40 The Jobcentre Plus work coach will notify you on a CEPD1 or UC78e form of:

• confirmation that the Participant has declared that they are unwell; and
• the start and end dates (if known) of the period of sickness

10.41 On receipt of the notification you must consider adjusting your approach during this period taking account of their circumstances.

10.42 You must contact the Participant to discuss revisions to their action plan and agree reasonable activities, you expect them to do for the time.

Health condition likely to last longer than 13 weeks

10.43 At the point the health condition or illness looks likely to last more than 13 weeks the New Style JSA Participant will be advised to claim New Style ESA by Jobcentre Plus work coach.

10.44 Where this is the case the Jobcentre Plus work coach will advise you by issuing a change of circumstances form. You should continue to engage with the Participant if appropriate.

Participant is no longer sick

10.45 If the Participant does not supply a further Fit Note, the Jobcentre Plus work coach will notify you on a change of circumstances form that the Participant is no longer sick. You may contact the Participant to discuss their on-going support.

Please note: Failure to update your records may result in you providing inappropriate support for your Participants.

Participant Death

10.46 If the Participant’s representative notifies you that the Participant has died you must direct the Participant’s representative to Jobcentre Plus to report the change.

10.47 You should only note your records at this stage. Do not undertake any action to input an end date and completer reason into Provider Referrals and Payment (PRaP) system until you receive confirmation of the Participant’s death from DWP.

10.48 If Jobcentre Plus becomes aware that the Participant has died they will contact you immediately by telephone and also notify you by email on a UC78e form for UC Participants or a CEPD1 for Participants claiming New Style JSA.

10.49 Once you receive the information from Jobcentre Plus, you should update the PRaP system. The actual date of death must be recorded and not the date that the notification of the Participants death was received.

10.50 If you have not received confirmation from Jobcentre Plus after having being informed by the Participants representative. You should contact your local Jobcentre Plus to request confirmation. If you are unable to obtain this through your usual points of contact, email jetsscotland.policy@dwp.gov.uk requesting confirmation, providing them with the Participants name, NINo and DOB on one email per Participant.

10.51 For further information, please refer JETS in Scotland Provider Guidance Chapter 6 – Programme Completers and Early Exits.

Participant moves to another geographical area

10.52 If a Participant changes address to one outside your contract package area, in England or Wales, they will remain your responsibility. It will be up to you to arrange appropriate support via yourselves and your strategic partners to deliver the service requirement until the end of their allotted time.

10.53 If a Participant is mandated to the initial appointment and moves to England or Wales prior to attending the appointment, they are no longer required to participate in the initial appointment but they may choose to participate on a voluntary basis.

Informing Jobcentre Plus of an incident or accident on your premises

10.54 Any incidents or accidents which occur on your premises should be reported to your Jobcentre Plus contact, listed below, immediately by telephone and followed up in writing:

Elaine Livingston
Office of the Scotland Area Director
Department for Work and Pensions
Heron House
10b Wellside Place
Falkirk, FK1 5SE

Tel: 01324 505196 Email: elaine.livingston@dwp.gov.uk

Actions

• Contact Jobcentre Plus to report the incident/accident
• Ensure immediate action is taken to ensure the safety of Participants and prevent reoccurrence
• Record all accidents, including minor incidents in your accident book
• All accidents covered by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) are reported to the appropriate enforcing authority
• An investigation must be carried out to assess whether any changes should be made to the workplace or procedures following the accident/incident
• Risk Assessment Control Measures must be reviewed and, if necessary, revised to ensure their effectiveness and that they remain suitable and sufficient

10.55 Further Information can be found in Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 2 – Delivering Provision.

Self-Employment whilst on UC

Please Note: During the COVID-19 event Jobcentre Plus will be resuming some Self-employment gateway interviews. However, this is subject to local operations, therefore you may not be notified of any self-employed UC compliance activity and outcomes.

10.56 When a Participant report that they are self-employed, a Jobcentre Plus Gateway Interview is needed to provide an assessment of whether the Participant and/or partner is in gainful self-employment for UC purposes. You should advise the Participant to telephone the UC Service Centre to arrange a Gateway Interview to disclose their self-employment. Jobcentre Plus will inform the Participant on the latest requirements. For further information see Overview of the Self Employment Gateway Interview which can be found on Annex A on Jaggaer.

10.57 The requirements set out in this section are for UC purposes only to advise you of what a Participant will need to do to meet the conditionality requirements of being self-employed whilst on UC. Jobcentre Plus will inform the Participant on the latest requirements.

10.58 It is for the Participant to meet the requirements for declaring as UC Self-employed, however it would be to your advantage to ensure they are complying with the requirements as DWP will access pertinent data within a Participants UC record.

10.59 For a Self-Employed Outcome definition and validation requirements, please see the relevant contractual clauses and the additional information contained in JETS in Scotland Provider Guidance Chapter 8 Payment Model and Outcomes and Chapter 9 Validation.

10.60 The Jobcentre Plus work coach will notify the outcome of the interview on a UC78e change of circumstances form. If the Participant is gainfully self-employed and a start-up period is appropriate, they should also include the start and end dates.

10.61 If the Participant is treated as being gainfully self-employed, the Jobcentre Plus work coach will book a subsequent self-employed quarterly interview to take place at three, six and nine month stages. At the end of each quarterly interview (or at any other time when a change is reported), the Jobcentre Plus work coach will notify you if the Participant:

• has ceased self-employment
• start-up period has come to an end
• is no longer gainfully self-employed; or
• remains gainfully self-employed, but have not taken sufficient steps to increase their earnings during a start-up period. Where the start-up period ends, the Participant’s Labour Market Regime will be amended to Working Enough Regime if they would otherwise fall within the Intensive Work Search Regime and their participation becomes voluntary

10.62 Further information on self-employment can be found on the Self employment and Universal Credit GOV.UK website.