The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL! :(

[FlamingParrot]

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/27/mental-health-benefit-sanctions-work-and-pensions-select-committee

My mental health deteriorated rapidly’: the real impact of benefit sanctions

Edited extracts of written evidence to a recent House of Commons work and pensions select committee on the impact of benefit sanctions

Glenn Mcdougall

I have been sanctioned on three occasions. On the first, I cancelled a jobcentre appointment to go to a job interview. It was short notice, but I phoned the jobcentre to inform them and was assured on the phone that it was OK.
I was sanctioned two weeks JSA [jobseeker’s allowance]. I appealed and was found to be in the right and the money was paid, which was great, but in the interim I had to go two weeks without a penny to my name. I missed other job interviews because I had no money for transport and went without food, electric and heating for some of that time. It was a cruel punishment, issued arbitrarily, that had a negative impact on my jobseeking and diminished my respect for the benefit system massively.

Isn't it ridiculous to sanction someone for attending an interview?

Simon Moriarty

My benefits were sanctioned for three months. That is an awfully long time to live without money. I had failed to apply for one specific (and, I felt, inappropriate) job handed to me by my adviser at the jobcentre. The fact that I had been for a job interview that week, had another lined up and had applied for at least 10 others was ignored. It was decided that I was not doing enough to find work and three months was deemed to be a suitable sentence. Three months for a first time offence.

My mental health (which was already vulnerable after months of unemployed stagnation) deteriorated rapidly and challenging the decision was incredibly difficult.

Gill Thompson

My brother David was found dead in his flat on 20th July 2013, he died alone, penniless and starving he was just 59. The coroner’s report stated there was no food in his stomach. His money had been stopped a month before he died for failing to attend an appointment and by 8 July he had just £3.44 in his bank (you need at least £5 to draw money out). His electric key had run out and could not chill his insulin and there was no food in the flat.
There used to be a time if you missed your jobcentre meeting and had a long-term illness like diabetes or were vulnerable there would be concern and outreach by jobcentre staff. Now they cut off your benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were aware of David’s diabetes, yet as a result of their sanctions he could not chill his insulin or eat and as a result died of “fatal diabetic ketoacidosis”.

[enaid]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

The financial institutions and their IT systems turned us all from human beings with different circumstances into a number. Just a number that flagged up on their systems with a reason for them to be able to trap us further on the debt trail and line their grubby pockets.
Now it's the turn of the Welfare system and don't get me wrong it does need a massive makeover, it just needs a makeover with a heart, a brain and indeed a bit of courage.

[Kati]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/ne...efit-sanctions

Poorest punished by benefit sanctions

Date published: 07 July 2015

THERE has been a 230 per cent increase in people seeking help in Oldham, Tameside and Manchester due to benefit sanction over the past 12 months.

Failsworth MP Angela Rayner has hit out at the Government for making the poorest and most vulnerable people suffer.

She said: “Since the Government made sanctions harsher in 2012, some claimants face having their benefits cut for up to three years, and a minimum of four weeks, while they look for work.

“Tameside Citizens Advice Bureau is very clear that harsh and badly applied sanctions are one of the biggest issues facing people in the borough. Since April alone, Tameside CAB has helped more than 2,000 people to make emergency payment claims — most arising through sanctions..

“Benefit is being stopped for ridiculous reasons. One of my constituents who is not computer literate, is dyslexic and has learning difficulties, had his benefit stopped for four weeks for not properly filling out a job search agreement.

Another young man who had badly ulcerated legs was admitted to hospital for treatment the day before he was due to attend an ATOS medical. He was sanctioned for non-attendance.

Another had his job-seekers allowance stopped because he hadn’t attended a work programme — but he was able to provide evidence that he had. He was still sanctioned for four weeks. By the time he won his appeal, he had been evicted from his home for non-payment of rent.

http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/co...s-named-top-20

Four Greater Manchester districts feature in the UK's top 20 job seeker sanction hot-spots - making it one of the most heavily penalised regions in the country.

Statistics from homeless charity Crisis revealed that more than one in 10 claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) are sanctioned in the Manchester, Tameside, Salford and Oldham areas.

The national sanction rate has increased dramatically over the past five years, following the arrival of the coalition government in 2010.

The rate has risen from an average of 2.5 sanctions enforced per 100 claimants per month in 2001, to seven per 100 claimants in 2014.

Since the Welfare Reform Act received royal assent in March 2012, claimants can also now have their benefit withheld for up to three years if they fail to meet strict requirements.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/article...-churches-urge

One man was sanctioned for writing information on the wrong line of a form.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...s-axed-5926152

A jobseeker had his benefits cut when a heart attack left him unable to attend his Jobcentre appointment.

David Duncan’s jobseeker’s allowance was stopped last week after the 58-year-old suffered a major cardiac arrest.

He was due to attend his appointment two days later, but finding himself under the surgeon’s knife as he had blockages cleared from his arteries and two stents fitted didn’t win him any sympathy from staff.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-10130199.html

Recent changes to benefit sanctions may be geared towards punishing people for being unemployed and might not actually help them find work, a committee of MPs has warned.

Parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee said there was evidence that the sanctions caused more problems than they solved, and that the Government had not yet provided evidence that the system was not "purely punitive".

[Kati]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

oh, and this of course: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...trative-errors

Benefit sanctions: the 10 trivial breaches and administrative errors

MPs’ inquiry heard copious evidence of claimants being docked hundreds of pounds and pitched into financial crisis for often absurd reasons.

The coalition’s benefit sanctions regime, under which more than 1 million jobseekers had their unemployment benefits stopped last year, has spawned hundreds of documentary accounts of claimants being penalised for capricious, cruel and often absurd reasons.
Independent review of benefit sanctions urgently needed, say MPs

The recent MPs’ inquiry into sanctions heard copious evidence of claimants being docked hundreds of pounds and pitched into financial crisis for often absurdly trivial breaches of benefit conditions, or for administrative errors beyond their control.

A typical example is the following anonymised list of sanctions reported by food bank clients to the Trussell trust charity:
1.Man who missed appointment due to being at hospital with his partner, who had just had a stillborn child.

2.Man sanctioned for missing an appointment at the jobcentre on the day of his brother’s unexpected death. He had tried to phone Jobcentre Plus to explain, but could not get through and left a message which was consequently not relayed to the appropriate person.

3.Man who carried out 60 job searches but missed one which matched his profile.

4.Man had an appointment at the jobcentre on the Tuesday, was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack that day, missed the appointment and was sanctioned for nine weeks.

5.Man who secured employment and was due to start in three weeks. He was sanctioned in the interim period because JCP told him he was still duty bound to send his CV to other companies.

6.Young couple who had not received any letters regarding an appointment that was thus subsequently missed. Their address at the Department for Work and Pensions was wrongly recorded. They were left with no money for over a month.

7.One case where the claimant’s wife went into premature labour and had to go to hospital. This caused the claimant to miss an appointment. No leeway given.

8.One man sanctioned for attending a job interview instead of Jobcentre Plus – he got the job so did not pursue grievance against the JCP.

9.Man who requested permission to attend the funeral of his best friend; permission declined; sanctioned when he went anyway.

10.A diabetic sanctioned and unable to buy food was sent to hospital by GP as a consequence.

Sometimes sanctions have a bizarre, nightmarish quality, such as this one, reported by Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea food bank and cited in a recent Church Action on Poverty report:

We had a number of customers who had been sanctioned including one guy who had been sanctioned for being late for his appointment at the jobcentre because the queue was so long it took him to past his appointment time to be seen. He was sanctioned even though he had arrived at the jobcentre in plenty of time.

Or this one, cited on the A Selection Of Especially Stupid Benefit Sanctions tumblr website (and taken from a local newspaper report)

You apply for three jobs one week and three jobs the following Sunday and Monday. Because the jobcentre week starts on a Tuesday it treats this as applying for six jobs in one week and none the following week. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks for failing to apply for three jobs each week.

The consequences, however can be severe. One claimant, Glenn McDougall, recalled his experience of being sanctioned three times in written evidence to the work and pensions committee inquiry:

On the first occasion I cancelled a jobcentre appointment to go to a job interview. It was short notice however I phoned the jobcentre to inform them and was assured on the phone that it was ok. I was sanctioned two weeks JSA. I appealed this and was found to be in the right and the money was paid to me, which was great, but in the interim I had to go two weeks without a penny to my name. I missed other job interviews because I had no money for transport and went without food, electric and heating for some of that time. It was a cruel punishment issued arbitrarily, had a negative impact on my jobseeking and diminished my respect for the benefit system massively.

The committee heard that claimants with learning difficulties, were especially vulnerable to sanctioning. Here’s an example provided by the charity Mencap:

AP has a learning disability and was given 30 job searching actions every week after he applied for JSA. These actions included accessing UJM (universal job match) every week. However, he did not have the IT skills necessary to do this and was not given support by JCP [Jobcentre Plus] to do this. He had, however, still been pro-active in applying for jobs. He showed the JCP several pages of handwritten job notes. They would not accept these as they were handwritten and not using UJM. He was then sanctioned. Given his lack of IT skills and the lack of IT support by JCP, Mencap argues that handwritten notes are a reasonable adjustment. He had already been sanctioned by JCP several times.

Claimants with mental illness are also at high risk of being sanctioned, with serious health consequences. Here’s Jessica’s story, cited in research by Durham University academics Kayleigh Garthwaite and Claire Bambra:

Jessica is a 23-year-old woman, who was 22 weeks pregnant when she came to the foodbank. She had walked over two miles to get here as she cannot afford the bus fare from her flat. Jessica explained that she was receiving ESA (employment support allowance) for mental health problems following the stillborn birth of her first child eight months ago. Jessica was sanctioned for not attending a work-focused interview appointment – her mental health problems prevented her from leaving the house on that particular day. She received a foodbank referral from the Citizens Advice Bureau after seeking help for her mounting debts following her sanction. Jessica had not eaten a proper cooked meal for two weeks, and was instead relying on her sister’s children’s leftovers. Jessica explained: “I haven’t had my fridge or cooker switched on for three weeks, I can’t afford the electric. I sold the telly last week – there was no point in keeping it ‘cos I couldn’t afford to use it anyway.” As Jessica is 22 weeks pregnant, she knows she needs to eat healthily for herself and her unborn child, but currently cannot afford to adequately heat her home or feed herself.

[Crazy council]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

The internal systems are set up to reward staff for removing people off the benefits register for more than 5 weeks.

lots of public systems go wrong for this specific reason.

But, :behindsofa:

There is need for action like this, and, for all the bad cases you see like above, you also get the other side.

Am currently dealing with a tenant that did not bother to get up to go sign on ( 7 weeks ago ), so his HB stopped and sanctioned. He cant seem to understand why he has been given notice to quit, and still thinks is ok to say the benefits will pay when his backdates sorted.

people have got so used to a benefit net, that they think its a backup for bills they generate,

No worky, no eaty
no renty no roomy ( i had a tough upbringing lol )

[jon1965]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

Do you know why he didn't 'bother' to go and sign on. I assume you have given him a S21 notice.
Why not ask if the council will pay you direct which some will do if you are in arrears.
It is generally the most vulnerable who get sanctioned because they are just that,Vulnerable. I have three times fallen foul of my local councils incompetence on HB because the people there are poorly trained and unable to think for themselves. It should not take so long to sort out a HB claim. Of course we are manipulated to think everyone on benefits is a scrounger by the likes of IDS and his mouthpiece the Daily Fascist ( Mail).

[FlamingParrot]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

Do you know why he didn't 'bother' to go and sign on. I assume you have given him a S21 notice.
Why not ask if the council will pay you direct which some will do if you are in arrears.
It is generally the most vulnerable who get sanctioned because they are just that, Vulnerable.

That's exactly the problem, people who are clever enough to know how to play the system don't get sanctioned. One size doesn't fit all and you can't expect an elderly diabetic or a youngster with learning difficulties to be as proactive as an articulate and healthy young person when it comes to both job hunting and complying with the DWP's requirements. The whole system has not kept up with the times. The DWP thinks they have by introducing the Universal Jobmatch system and forcing every claimant to use the internet both to find work and record their activities. However, the whole principle of Jobcentres is now obsolete. They were established as, ehrmmm, job centres, ie. physical job boards and the idea of requiring people to go there was so they could look for work. If everyone has to look for work online, what's the point of having to attend the JC? It's not like they actually provide any useful help to find work. The whole idea has got somehow distorted. What would be achieved by making someone attend the JC on a daily basis? In they old days it could be argued they'd be there looking for work, nowadays it would have the opposite effect, i.e. stopping you from looking for work which you can do more easily at home on your own devices (computer, tablet, etc.)

I have three times fallen foul of my local councils incompetence on HB because the people there are poorly trained and unable to think for themselves. It should not take so long to sort out a HB claim.

The people there are trained not to think for themselves, that is the problem. :mmph: LHAs were introduced precisely to speed up the process, before that HB claims used to take forever due to the need for each case to be assessed by a rent officer.

Of course we are manipulated to think everyone on benefits is a scrounger by the likes of IDS and his mouthpiece the Daily Fascist ( Mail).

Definitely!
By focusing on extreme cases such as very large families who have claimed thousands on benefits, they portray a highly unrealistic image. For a start, the total benefit figures include HB, which is not money available to spend and in most cases doesn't even cover the full rent. When quoted out of context, those figures give the impression that people on benefits are living the high life at the expense of those who work which is not actually the case. The media has created a distorted image of the welfare state and the benefits system. :ohwell:

[Kati]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

That's exactly the problem, people who are clever enough to know how to play the system don't get sanctioned. One size doesn't fit all and you can't expect an elderly diabetic or a youngster with learning difficulties to be as proactive as an articulate and healthy young person when it comes to both job hunting and complying with the DWP's requirements. The whole system has not kept up with the times. The DWP thinks they have by introducing the Universal Jobmatch system and forcing every claimant to use the internet both to find work and record their activities. However, the whole principle of Jobcentres is now obsolete. They were established as, ehrmmm, job centres, ie. physical job boards and the idea of requiring people to go there was so they could look for work. If everyone has to look for work online, what's the point of having to attend the JC? It's not like they actually provide any useful help to find work. The whole idea has got somehow distorted. What would be achieved by making someone attend the JC on a daily basis? In they old days it could be argued they'd be there looking for work, nowadays it would have the opposite effect, i.e. stopping you from looking for work which you can do more easily at home on your own devices (computer, tablet, etc.)

one guy I know got put on a 'Employability training' course in town. No problem there ... apart from the fact it took him 1.5hrs to get to town on the bus and there was another 30+ mins walk on top of that He lives in the middle of nowhere, a mile from the main road down a dirt track with no service bus before 7:30am or after 5:30pm and they're every 3hrs then. He was moaned at every day of the 2wk course because he arrived late and had to leave early or he wouldn't get home at all :sad: But at least he made the effort to turn up!!

Do you know what they did on the course?? Built models out of loo roll tubes and sticky tape and did a group presentation on FISH :fish2: . Everyone on the course meant to get a NVQ certificate at the end of it, but the company went into administration so none of the participants (19 of them) have got anything to show for it 2yrs later.

[PAWS]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

Roughly 6 years ago I was in the JC with my husband. We had panicked as we thought, through no fault of our own, we would be late for our appointment but managed to get there with seconds to spare. We had to wait however as the person before us had turned up one day late. He shouted at the assistant that he was ‘busy’ the day before and if he didn’t allow him to sign on he would raise hell. The security guard looked the other way and the assistant meekly handed over the paper for the bully to sign. The assistant then had a go at us for being ‘late’, warned us we could have our benefits cut and then threatened to have us removed when we calmly tried to explain we were on time but he was dealing with the bully. The security chap moved towards us as the assistant, not us had raised his voice!
Why were treated differently? Well, I am sorry if I offend anyone but the Bully was thick set and muscle bound. He was covered in Tattoos and piercings. He was wearing a vest with an offensive slogan and was shouting his demands into the assistants face. In street parlance he ‘looked handy’ and had a very menacing air about him. We were soberly dressed and calmly spoken. We would go off and starve if he cut us off but the other chap would give him a chair in the face or wait for him after work. They have been told to reduce the amount being paid out and they will do it to the meek and fragile. Those who will not ‘kick off’.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/p...nts-says-union
Jobcentre staff face losing pay rises if they fail to sanction enough jobseekers, claims fresh evidence presented to an MPs inquiry.
Documents produced by the PCS union at the committee’s request present a series of emails from Job Centre Plus managers which the union says show that staff who fail to instigate or approve enough sanctions are subject to performance reviews.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...angela-neville
As a jobcentre adviser, I got ‘brownie points’ for cruelty.
“We were given lists of customers to call immediately and get them on to the Work Programme,” she recalls. “I said, ‘I’m sorry this can’t happen, this man is in hospital.’ I was told [by my boss]: ‘No, you’ve got to phone him and you’ve got to put this to him and he may be sanctioned.’ I said I’m not doing it.”
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...ctions-targets
Government admits Jobcentres set targets to take away benefits

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics...ture-jobcentre
“Unscrupulous staff set claimants up to fail”: MPs attack the sanction culture at Jobcentres

[jon1965]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

There is a danger that this thread will go off onto an anti DWP IDS rant, which is fine by me as I wouldn't xxxx on them if they were on fire. When I was sent to the work program it was a joke, my C.V. which had been written by a professional and an employer told me it was the est C.V. he had ever seen was rewritten even though I was on ESA . I was asked if I wanted to go for an interview and said yes for a few hours a week to see if I could cope with work , part of the interview process was to work 5 days unpaid for this store and of course if someone on JSA refused they could e sanctioned (the offer was only for a 12 or 16 hour contract anyway)
I was also told that I would be sanctioned if I didn't apply for jobs, a quick official complaint to the manager soon put that right but what if I had been at my worst or not one of those people who understand any part of the system , I bet they would have sanctioned me.

The DWP and the Tory government are not (and I dislike this phrase) fit for purpose

[Kati]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

When I was sent to the work program it was a joke, my C.V. which had been written by a professional and an employer told me it was the best C.V. he had ever seen was rewritten even though I was on ESA .

Last year my fella's Godson went on a Work Programme IT course (under threat of sanction), he arrived on the first day to discover he was being 'taught' by a guy that had been at university with him. This 'teacher' had dropped out close to the start of the degree while my OH's Godson had completed it and was now teaching others things he didn't understand, but it made no difference :sad:

Then there's my fella. When he was sent on a course (a few years ago now) he was told that he had to remove most of the qualifications from his CV. These were mostly the ones he had gained working for Governmental departments while living in Austria, although he was also advised to not bother putting his teaching qualifications on either (as they might put a potential employer off hiring him)

[enaid]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

My daughters letter came while we were on holiday regarding ESA, they are going to telephone her, answer any questions she may have and help her move into work if possible.
Well I wish them all the luck in the world with that lol, a simple letter from her GP or indeed Social Services would confirm she has severe learning difficulties. This would save a lot of time, upset and money in the long run, but I'll do it their way and I will then have first hand experience of just how the system works or not as the case may be.

[jon1965]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

Just make sure she isn't bullied into agreeing to anything. I assume she is in wrag not support

[enaid]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

Just make sure she isn't bullied into agreeing to anything. I assume she is in wrag not support

She's on DSA ICA and IS at the mo, she is incapable of agreeing to anything as the people who deal with her medical and social problems already know, this is why I commented about a waste of time, money and upset being avoided if they only took the facts from people in the know.

[Amethyst]

Re: The real effect of benefit sanctions - DISGRACEFUL!

My daughters letter came while we were on holiday regarding ESA, they are going to telephone her, answer any questions she may have and help her move into work if possible.
Well I wish them all the luck in the world with that lol, a simple letter from her GP or indeed Social Services would confirm she has severe learning difficulties. This would save a lot of time, upset and money in the long run, but I'll do it their way and I will then have first hand experience of just how the system works or not as the case may be.

Oh for goodness sake.

Hopefully you will be able to treat the whole palava as an experience/research and write about it which in turn will help others dealing with the system, and that will help ease the stress of explaining your daughters circumstances over and over and over.

Welcome home xxxx