Jobcentre sanctions - Unbelievable - but apparently very true !!

[citizenB]

A Selection Of Especially Stupid Sanctions - article dated July 2013

 

 

The number and length of benefit sanctions has risen hugely under the coalition. Two and a quarter million JSA claimants have had their money stopped, and since October 2012 sanctions are for a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of three years. ESA claimants can have 70% of their benefits stopped indefinitely.

 

Imagine being without any income for a month, when your annual income is less than £4,000 a year – no chance of savings to fall back onto. Claimants go into debt, go hungry and use foodbanks, go into rent arrears or don’t turn on the heating when it’s cold. Now imagine being without any income for three years and what you’ll do then. On twitter next week, various CAB branches will participate in #CABLive, if you want to see the reality of life for many people at the moment, follow the hashtag.

 

 

 

 

■You get a job interview, it’s at the same time as your JCP appointment, so you re-arrange your JCP appointemnt. Or at least, that’s what you think. You attend your rearranged appointment then get a letter saying your benefits will be stopped because going to a job interview isn’t a good enough reason for missing an appointment. (Source: Daily Mail)

 

■You work for 20 years, then because you haven’t had the process clearly explained to you, you miss an appointment, so you get sanctioned for 3 weeks. (source: Councillor John O’Shea)

 

■You’re on a workfare placement, and your jobcentre appointment comes round. The jobcentre tells you to sign on then go to your placement which you do. The workfare placement reports you for being late and you get sanctioned for 3 months. (Source: DefiniteMaybe post on Mumsnet forums)

 

■You’re five minutes late for your appointment, you show the advisor your watch which is running late, but you still get sanctioned for a month (source: Clydebank Post)

 

■You apply for more jobs than required by your jobseeker’s agreement, but forgot to put down that you checked the local paper (which you’ve been specifically instructed to do via a jobseeker’s direction) so you get sanctioned (source: Steve Rose on twitter – part 1 . part 2)

 

 

You can read much more by following the link.... http://birminghamagainstthecuts.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/a-selection-of-especially-stupid-sanctions/

[kirkbyinfurnesslad]

And they say we are all in together.

Who are they trying to kid

[joeski]

reading the reasons people have been sanctioned for in the link i seriously can't believe how low the tories have sunk, they really are the most vile evil nasty government we've ever had

[bcham]

bet a lot of these people have brought it on their selves by voting for these torrie **** bags in the first place.

[kirkbyinfurnesslad]

bet a lot of these people have brought it on their selves by voting for these torrie **** bags in the first place.

 

Well you may have a point

[essexmat]

reading the reasons people have been sanctioned for in the link i seriously can't believe how low the tories have sunk, they really are the most vile evil nasty government we've ever had

 

Quite

[Lilly_Monroe]

bet a lot of these people have brought it on their selves by voting for these torrie **** bags in the first place.

No knowing what Labour would have done - they are all pretty much as bad as each other.

If labour get in next year will they modify any of these cruel regimes, not so sure.

People had to vote for someone, it was a pretty poor choice all in all, plus how did they know that any Government could and would sink so low.

You cannot blame the voter for putting their x were they did.

 

Anyway the cons did not really get in did they - they had to form a pact with the lib dems, so all in all no one got voted IN.

[Caz215]

I'm on Carers Allowance topped up by IS, in Jan 2013 they sanctioned my son's JSA for not attending his sign on date despite them telling him not to travel the 7 miles due to the snow, a few weeks later they sanctioned him again for attending a course they sent him on, he ended up with no money for almost 3 months. Then he got a job, he was racially attacked and rather than fight them he walked away (he's white but all the other employees are Eastern Europeans) he went back to sign on again and they say he can be fast tracked = 3 months before he got any money due to them losing his claim 3 times (and they won't backdate prior to the claim being made) and then they say he's not entitled to benefit due to walking out of a job, he appealed the descision and they agreed he could get the JSA again.

During each time they sanction him I have to pay rent and council tax, as they deem that someone with zero income can now afford to pay........... so add on the bedroom tax and 1 week of a fortnight I have less than a tenner to live on

[old bill]

Some of the JCP advisors who engage in unfair sanctioning are coming perilously close to finding themselves on the claimant's side of the desk. Treating someone unfairly comes within the scope of Article 6, Human Rights Act 1998.

 

Unleashing -

 

1. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for JCP failing to maintain accurate records;

2. Claimants' MPs to take the claimants' cases to the Parliamentary Ombudsman for maladministration.

 

Can you imagine what IDS would say if questioned by journalists about an adverse adjudication against DWP/JCP by the ICO?

 

"Secretary of State. Is it true the Information Commissioner has fined your department £500,000 for failing to maintain accurate records because your Jobcentre staff have been telling lies on claimant's files?"

 

There really isn't a lot he could say, is there? As the saying goes, "What goes around, comes around."

[Darcus42]

Since March managers at my local Jobcentre have attempted to delay my payments every signing period, and have attempted to have me sanctioned EVERY TIME for the last 6 weeks, including submitting false information and withholding evidence.

 

Luckily they have failed every time, and a full investigation is forthcoming.

 

They didn't like the fact I uncovered the huge increase in sanctions at their office and catching them using unlawful practices to do so.

[old bill]

Since March managers at my local Jobcentre have attempted to delay my payments every signing period, and have attempted to have me sanctioned EVERY TIME for the last 6 weeks, including submitting false information and withholding evidence.

 

Luckily they have failed every time, and a full investigation is forthcoming.

 

They didn't like the fact I uncovered the huge increase in sanctions at their office and catching them using unlawful practices to do so.

 

Good for you, Darcus42. Make sure as many people as possible know what is going on and that they tell others who, in turn, tell others. Once this sort of behaviour by corrupt JCP staff becomes public knowledge, the next step is to have those JCP staff who are corrupt removed from JCP offices, leaving those who genuinely want to help claimants to help claimants. A lot of JCP staff I have had dealings with fall within the latter grouping. The corrupt ones, unfortunately, are the ones we hear about most. Time to root them out and boot them out. After that, it is a case of getting the G4S goons removed from JCP offices. One is currently enjoying an enforced holiday in one of H.M. Holiday Camps for pushing a claimant down a flight of concrete steps, resulting in injuries which included -

 

Fractured shaft of humerus

Dislocated humerus

Torn Rotator Cuff

Fractured skull

 

Fortunately, the local nick is 200 yards from the JCP office where the incident occurred. The G4S goon was in custody fairly quickly.

[woody1066]

I can add one to this. I was claiming JSA as I had to fold my self employed business. I was obeying all of the rules until I was diagnoses with suspected lung cancer and that I needed surgery to confirm that diagnosis, I arranged a meeting with my advisor and explained my situation to her i.e. there was no point in me going for interviews as no employer would hire me knowing that I would need at least 6 weeks to recover from surgery. Initially my advisor was very understanding and I said that as soon as I was diagnosed I would go on to ESA.

 

Everything changed when I went to sign on. I was asked to produce my job search for the last 2 weeks (I had done some) and then got told that this was "Pathetic". I was then taken to some other staff members desk where he started to say that they were going to possibly sanction me. At this point I asked if we could go into a private room as I didn't want my medical problems discussed in public, to which I got the reply "I can see about the cancer. I aint bothered about that".

[essexmat]

""I can see about the cancer. I aint bothered about that"."

 

At that point I probably would have lost it

[woody1066]

At that point I got up and walked out (I am still proud of myself for that), pausing only briefly to let the front desk know that I was making an official complaint.

[essexmat]

You controlled yourself well, you are probably a better man than me - I would have probably done something I regretted after

[2ltr16valve]

My partners best friend got sanctioned for JSA for going to a university entry test interview !!

She had even emailed the proof to her advisor, which was the confirmation email from the university.

The interview clashed with a Jcp appointment so she told them and was told to do the above.

But yet they still sanctioned her !

 

I did tell her to appeal but she is too shy and has got a temp job as a health care assistant before her university course starts in September for nursing.

 

What a joke of a system.

[essexmat]

Joke of a system?

 

More like joke of a government, countryand system - the whole set up STINKS

[old bill]

Woody1066,

 

I admire you for your self-control and dignity in the face of such callous and unacceptable behaviour by a government employee. Let us hope the Civil Service Commission do the right thing and terminate their appointment, which is Civil Service speak for sack them.

[sillygirl1]

My friend signed off on the Thursday as he had a site induction day on the Friday for a job on the Monday, told the local JC on the Thursday, his appointment was for Friday afternoon, got a text on Friday evening saying he was going to be sanctioned as he had not signed on on Friday morning!

 

Their administration is a joke - if they actually appointed proper administrators rather than take on 'youth apprentices' the system would be more robust, as people would be aware that things are not working well and be able to sort out the paperwork nightmare - but of course it is now set as a trap - one which hopefully will swallow up its creators.

[Belfaster]

""I can see about the cancer. I aint bothered about that"."

 

At that point I probably would have lost it

 

I would have been charged with attempted murder, actually come to think of it, it would have been MURDER!

[old bill]

I think the time has come to expose those who are unfairly - or unlawfully - sanctioning benefit claimants. A database can be kept of the name(s) of the claimant advisor(s) involved, JCP office(s) involved and the nature of the unfair sanctioning. It would soon become apparent who were the worst offenders. Such information can then be used as leverage to remove rogue advisers from JCP offices and highlight what is, essentially, Misconduct in Public Office and breaches of the DPA, i.e. failing to maintain accurate records. At a push, mainly in serious cases, pressing to have rogue advisers prosecuted for fraud, as the intention is to cause the claimant loss or expose them to loss or the risk of loss.

[SabreSheep]

Maybe if everyone sanctioned unfairly wrote a letter to their local MP with an impact statement that would help.

 

Think fo the mailbags

[old bill]

Maybe if everyone sanctioned unfairly wrote a letter to their local MP with an impact statement that would help.

 

Think fo the mailbags

 

Good point. That and a database of incidents MPs could access would, in my view, be effective. It would also give MPs on Select Committees ammunition to fire at IDS and other disingenuous ministers. Although IDS might try to put spin on it, I can see a canny Select Committee member or chair making him feel very uncomfortable. Watching Margaret Hodge tearing an ATOS manager to pieces was a sight to behold. It was like watching a Rottweiller shaking a rag doll in its jaws. Painful to watch, but, oh, so pleasurable at the same time, given the misery ATOS has caused.

[Nystagmite]

Wouldn't the DPA prevent use of such a database?

[old bill]

Wouldn't the DPA prevent use of such a database?

 

Collation of evidence is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, exempt.