Benefit sanctions decrease as age increases

[unclebulgaria67]

Could be a large number of reasons for differences.

 

Could it be that those younger are more likely to be transient, moving between different addresses and jobs, therefore they lose contact with Job Centre.  Whereas those older are generally more settled in an area, they may have a mortgage that needs to be paid and if they are not working,  they need the benefit money to at least pay some of their bills.  

 

In terms of the actual decisions made, I very much doubt age is a factor,  It is mostly a case of whether the claimant has met the terms of their claimant commitment or not.  One of the main reasons for sanctions, is failing to attend Job Centre appointments and then not providing good reason for failing to attend.

[unclebulgaria67]

Do DWP publish such statistics ?

 

Have you looked for statistics on sanction reasons ?

 

Think Parliament ( House of commons committee)  may have published some information, but not sure whether it goes into the details you are looking for.

 

I would think main reason for sanction would be failing to attend appointments and therefore not meeting the claimant commitment. 

 

What reasons for sanctions do you think applied before Covid-19 ?

[unclebulgaria67]

What information have you found which shows DWP had targets for sanctions ?   Can't remember seeing any report about this with any proof this has happened. 

 

Have seen reports saying that most sanctions are counter productive, as they do not lead to a change in behaviour of claimants i.e. they don't suddenly realise they have made a mistake in missing appointments or not bothering to search for work.  

[unclebulgaria67]

6 minutes ago, Foebane72 said:

 

I don't have proof, just heard about claims made in articles I've read in the past, and that was for JSA. These articles would be from around 2012 to 2015 online.

 

See if you can find the articles and post a link.  Most good journalists normally state what the source evidence is that has been found to support the claims made in the article.

 

The JSA amounts are to cover very basis costs including food, so any sanction should be a last resort action, following warnings.   But with JSA, this relied on the claimant going into the Job Centre every two weeks to sign on, providing details of the last two weeks work search.  If they did not turn up for the appointment, then the signing on process may not be completed I would guess and therefore any benefit money would not be processed ?  Is that what happened ?

[unclebulgaria67]

It is your thread and it is up to you to find the information that you want to include on the thread.

 

As you found that one in 15 seconds, no doubt you can find more online articles and perhaps after you have read them, you can offer some analysis.  

 

CAG is a self help forum.  It is not a forum, where you raise a debate and expect others to start doing the work for you