In a few days I will be attending the Jobcentre for the first time in over a year. My appointment is supposedly going to last up to an hour. Am I going to be pushed onto the new Restart scheme for the long term unemployed that could last up to a year even though I will reach retirement age in ten months?  It's possible as I remember a guy who was put on a thirteen week course who was due to retire in a month.

People like myself on legacy benefits who didn't receive the extra twenty pound a week might be targets for being put on a course. In the past when a training course ended we did rapid reclaims but now we would have to sign up to universal credit.

I noticed on a website someone stating that when a work coach puts pressure on you to sign up to a training scheme with threats of sanctions, as long as you agree to attend the induction and say you are willing to attend the course then you could refuse to sign any documents that will enable the provider to use your personal data. This wouldn't make it viable for the provider to take you on and the Jobcentre would find it difficult to sanction you as you are willing to take part.  I have heard of a legal case that is trying to obtain fairness for the people on legacy benefits over the extra twenty pound a week that claimants on universal credit receive. That could result in a small windfall for legacy benefit claimants so now is not the time to switch benefits. I will report back on here later this week to say what happens at my jobcentre appointment.