Growing Evidence DWP Staff Forced To Impose Benefit Sanctions

There is growing evidence that Jobcentre staff are being pressurised into imposing sanctions against benefit claimants, an SNP MSP has said.

Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) under a Freedom of Information Request, reveal that the number of jobseekers facing benefit sanctions increased from 10% in 2010 to 18% in 2013/14.

Last week, the SNP called for an investigation of evidence suggesting DWP staff are pressurised into sanctioning people.

This followed under-Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell’s appearance at the Welfare Reform Committee in which he failed to address the issue.

Following the meeting, all four SNP members of the committee wrote to Esther McVey, the UK Minister of state for Employment, calling on her to command the Department for Work and Pensions to commission an independent investigation into evidence suggesting DWP staff are pressurised into sanctioning.

A recent PCS survey reveals how 82% of staff questioned felt that they were under pressure to refer people who could be sanctioned.

Inclusion Scotland’s Director of Policy Bill Scott has also told of DWP staff who have been warned that they will be disciplined because they have not imposed enough sanctions...

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Re-elected Con-Dems could cost £9 billion

Coalition strategy on low pay could cost the taxpayer £9 billion more over the next five years if the present Government is re-elected, according to research verified by the House of Commons Library.

The analysis of official figures suggests that would amount to an extra £337 bill for every tax-paying family.

The estimate of social security and tax credit spending by 2020 assumes that previous Treasury forecasts for average earnings growth were over-optimistic to the same extent that they were between 2010 and 2015.

The coalition has presided over the largest fall in wages since the 1870s, with working people on average £1,600 a year worse off than in 2010 and those in full time work £2,000 a year worse off. The number of people earning less than a living wage has rocketed from 3.4 million in 2009-10 to 4.9 million...

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Benefit Sanctions Will Cause A Deterioration In Health And That’s OK Says DWP Rule Book

Originally posted on the void:

Physical punishment is now built into the benefit system with sanctions both known and intended to cause a deterioration in health says the DWP rule book..

The shocking fact was revealed by Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group who was giving evidence to Work and Pensions Committee’s sanction enquiry this morning.  Graham ended her evidence by pointing out a chilling extract from the DWP Decision Maker’s guidelines referring to whether a claimant who has had their benefit stopped should be entitled to a meagre Hardship Payment for the first two weeks of their sanction.

According to the rules, it would be “usual for a normal healthy adult to suffer some deterioration in their health” if they are left with no money to buy food or pay for essential items for two weeks.  A Hardship Payment can therefore only be awarded for this period if Jobcentre staff…

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How benefit sanctions punish people with mental health problems the hardest

Some of the most vulnerable people on benefits are being sanctioned at alarming rates - even when they're in hospital.

Going through the sanctions process is even more stressful for people with mental health issues (posed by models)

It's hard enough dealing with a mental health issue - but it's made much worse if you're not able to work.

David (not his real name) suffers from schizophrenia and receives two types of income support to help him live while he deals with his illness. He was sanctioned twice in 2013 for not attending work focussed interviews and appointments due to his deteriorating health.

He was even sanctioned while he was very ill in hospital, and forced to rely on his family for food.

Caught in a bureaucratic nightmare without any guidance, David was too ill to speak to advisors.

His family explained his situation but received little compassion. They didn't know who to turn to.

The sanctions on his Disability Living Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) were only lifted once Citizens Advice Bureau got in touch and intervened on his behalf.

It's now all too common to hear tales of frustrated vulnerable people unable to access the financial help they need and are entitled to. Too many of them are sanctioned for not fulfilling basic tasks which they just can't do because of their disability.

People with mental health problems are FAR more likely to be sanctioned than someone with a physical injury

If you have depression, you're much more likely to lose your benefits than if you've got a physical condition like a broken leg or bronchitis.

This is what new data released by a consortium of church groups and charities shows.

They looked at the number of sanctions given to ESA claimants with different conditions. Claimants with mental health or behavioural problems have been penalised the heaviest by the new sanctions.



The most common reason for being sanctioned is being late or not turning up for a Work Programme appointment, according to the data released by the Methodist Church, Church of Scotland, Church in Wales and mental health charity Mind.

Yet some of these people have issues like crippling anxiety that prevent them from leaving the house, never mind getting to appointments on time. 

Paul Morrison, Public Issues Policy Adviser for the Methodist Church, said: "Sanctioning someone with a mental health problem for being late for a meeting is like sanctioning someone with a broken leg for limping.

"The fact that this system punishes people for the symptoms of their illness is a clear and worrying sign that it is fundamentally flawed."

The reality of being sanctioned, behind the figures:

• One single male said that he was sanctioned for SIX WEEKS for not attending a meeting that would take him off ESA and onto JSA. He didn't attend the meeting as he didn't know about it - he never answered unknown numbers for fear of harassment from debt collectors.
  He said: "I was given no direction over where to go for help.  I felt so angry, insecure, negative, depressed and beaten. I felt like finding solace in drugs and drink.”
• Another ESA claimant suffering from severe anxiety and IBS cannot always leave their home. They were asked to attend training sessions despite giving doctors' letters to support their claim, and were threatened with sanctions for non-attendance. Frightened they would be left destitute, they attended the training and while there, had an anxiety attack. They had to make their way home while very unwell and frightened: an situation that could have been easily-avoided.
• In one particularly tragic story from 2013 one single mother was sanctioned for not attending a meeting. She wasn't able to find help and the stress became too much for her. She was found hanged in her home two days before Christmas.

62% of people sanctioned have mental health problems

People on ESA with mental health problems are over-represented when it comes to being sanctioned.
Since 2010, the gap between the percentage of claimants with mental health problems and the percentage of sanctions for those who have mental health problems has widened.



Paul Farmer, CEO of mental health charity Mind, said: “We’re very concerned about the number of people having their benefits stopped. It’s unjustifiable that people with mental health problems are being sanctioned disproportionately compared to those who have another health problem.

"Stopping benefits does not help people with mental health problems back into work. In fact, it often results in people becoming more anxious and unwell and this makes a return to work less likely."

Mirror Online

10 empty homes for every homeless family in England

 

635k homes are left empty in England alone. Meanwhile homeless numbers keep rising.

One of the most shocking illustrations of the housing crisis - we have found that there are ten empty homes for every housing family in our country.

Some of these are in between buyers and renters but others are intentionally being held off the market by investors. 

The estimated 635,000 empty properties in England alone are a complete and utter waste of housing when there are so many homeless families looking for somewhere to live. A large number of these (200,000) have been left empty for over six months.

Meanwhile under this government homeless numbers keep rising...

In 2004, the Labour Government set out to halve the number of homeless families living in temporary accommodation by the end of their third term, in 2010. They succeeded in cutting the figure from over 100,000 in 2004 to 48,000 five years later.

The long downward trend in the homeless population stopped in 2011 - in the middle of the economic crisis - and since then it's never really recovered...

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UNUM … know thine enemy

At a time when the main focus of attention appears to be on Maximus, the company taking over Work Capability Assessments, Mo says she hopes this will encourage people to deal with the real villains – UNUM Insurance.

She tells us: “Sonia Poulton now advises [UNUM] are in talks with political parties re: an insurance funded health service – which is the beginning of the end for the NHS, I fear.”
Nigel Farage may be delighted to hear such news; the rest of us should be horrified. Now let’s go over to Mo for further information about UNUM:

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‘Zombie’ Parliament has nothing to do because of Cameron’s self-importance

The cat’s out of the bag – tying Parliament to a fixed term of five years was an “irresponsible” act that has “diminished Parliament in the eyes of the public.

That’s the verdict of former House of Commons Speaker Baroness Boothroyd (who is neither the ‘cat’ nor the ‘bag’ mentioned in the introductory paragraph, thank you very much).

Research has shown that MPs sat for just 44 per cent of weekdays over the past year, and only 11 new bills have been introduced in this Parliamentary session – the second lowest in recent history.


Our MPs are working the equivalent of zero-hours contracts – but being paid almost three times as much as most people in full-time employment. Nice work if you can get it!

The revelation that Parliamentary business on Monday was finished after just three hours has led to revived accusations that the Coalition is now running a ‘zombie’ Parliament – just ticking over until the election, while doing nothing about the serious issues of our times.

Baroness Boothroyd said this time-wasting was “an insult to the Parliamentary system” – and she’s right.
We should all know where to lay the blame, too: David Cameron’s puffed-up sense of self-importance, coupled (disconcertingly) with his insecurity.

After he conned his way into Number 10, Cameron knew his position was precarious, so he set about ensuring that he would have the time he felt he needed to inflict on the nation the damage he intended for (among others) the NHS, the welfare state, the economy and the justice system.

That’s why he made sure that his government could only be removed with a confidence vote that would have to be supported by a large proportion of his own Conservative MPs. This would never happen because Tories love power.

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Young jobless too depressed to leave their house says shock report

Prince's Trust Macquarie report says long-term youth unemployment has caused a mental health crisis

Isolated: More than half of teenagers surveyed say they are scared about life

Thousands of young people are too scared to leave the house, as joblessness fuels a mental health crisis.
More than one in 10 jobless youngsters regularly feel too anxious to go outside, while 46% avoid meeting new people, a report reveals.

The Prince’s Trust Macquarie youth index shows 47% of unemployed young people feel down or depressed “always” or “often”, while more than 30% say anxiety has stopped them looking after their health or eating properly.

Some 50% of jobless youngsters report feeling scared about life.

The Prince’s Trust chief Martina Milburn warned: “Thousands feel like prisoners in their own homes.

“Their confidence has hit an all-time low. When you think about what it would be like trying to look for work while feeling isolated, unwell and unconfident, it’s easy to see why long-term unemployment often becomes a downward spiral.”

It comes days after charity YoungMinds revealed how the Government had broken its vow to look after children’s mental health services by slashing funding by £50million a year.

That is despite one in 10 youngsters having a diagnosable mental health issue.

The Prince’s Trust survey of more than 2,000 16 to 25-year-olds also reveals those without jobs are more than 50% more likely to “fall apart” emotionally.

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NHS: From ‘record high’ satisfaction to ‘breaking point’ within four years of coalition government

The NHS was in excellent shape when Labour left office in 2010; now it isn’t. For this the coalition must take some of the blame

When the newspapers are singing from the same hymn sheet you know something really significant has occurred. And so it is on the NHS, with all of the big papers leading today on yesterday’s disastrous A&E waiting time figures – the worst for a decade.



Predictably, the Conservatives refuse to accept that their reforms and cuts have anything to do with the sharp fall in the performance of the NHS.

And important it is to recognise that this is a sharp fall. Compare for instance, the above image with the following news report from March 2011:



Quite a contrast, isn’t it?

And focusing on A&E specifically, there is good reason for the change in perceptions: since 2010/11 the performance of the A&E service has fallen sharply...

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UN special rapporteur to censure UK government

Rashida Manjoo, the UN’s rapporteur on violence against women, says she was denied access to detention centre

The official report of the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, will censure the UK government for preventing her from inspecting Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.

Manjoo said that the incident was similar to the way Bangladesh blocked her from visiting a notorious refugee camp and India stopped her investigating state-run detention facilities. Manjoo said she hoped that other countries would raise the issue with the UK government of why she was not allowed to enter Britain’s largest immigration centre for women, questioning if there was “something to hide”.

During her two-week tour of Britain in April, organised by senior Home Office officials, Manjoo heard a series of allegations over the plight of female detainees inside Yarl’s Wood, including allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and privacy issues, but was not allowed to inspect the facility at the end of her official visit...

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Tory Councillor Says Food Banks Only Used By Those With Drug, Alcohol Or Mental Health Problems

This Tweet was sent after Casualty recently covered malnutrition caused by benefit sanctioning.



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How Cameron misled on cuts in his Marr interview

PM is giving the false impression that most of the pain lies in the past. 

In January 2010, after George Osborne's promise of an "age of austerity" had dented the Tories' popularity, David Cameron reassured voters that there would be no "swingeing cuts" in the first year of a Conservative government. Today, at the start of another election year, he sought to play a similar role. After Labour's repeated attacks on the Tories for planning "extreme" and "ideological" cuts (that would reduce spending to its lowest level as a share of GDP since the 1930s), he insisted on the Marr show that his party's plans were "moderate, sensible and reasonable". He rejected the OBR's statement that 60 per cent of the cuts are still to come and argued that £12bn of reductions to welfare would limit the damage to departments.

Cameron's pitch may have been politically astute, but it was riddled with evasions. He rejected the OBR figure on the grounds that it ignored the cuts that Osborne had already announced for 2015-16. But while these cuts have been set out, not a single one has been implemented. Cameron is giving the false impression that the pain already lies in the past.

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'Death, depression and crime for people who are out of work' - Kate Belgrave

A few thoughts as we kick into the year. Interviews from people who’ve been sanctioned at the end of the post:

As you’ll no doubt have read, the work and pensions select committee meets this coming week to hear evidence about benefit sanctions, with sanctioning connected to crime and depression.

Okay. I suppose that hearing will at least draw attention to the sanctions problem and the extent of it. It’s the What Next part that I wonder about. A lot of people know how things are. I spent many hours speaking to JSA claimants at jobcentres in 2014 (have posted some of those interviews below) and at least some of those people had complained to their MPs about sanctions and their treatment at jobcentres. Like many people, I can tell you now that there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that stopping jobseekers’ allowance – already a meagre amount of money – to people who have nothing leads to crime and depression. You don’t have to look too closely to understand that that is the whole point of the sanctions/jobcentre/work programme exercise: to push anyone who struggles for work to the edge in one way or another and to terrorise everyone else into tolerating rotten pay and treatment just to keep a job. There’s very little mainstream opposition to that idea. I certainly don’t count this.

Three points of note from 2014:

1) Nobody I met ever got a job or even a job interview through their jobcentre. Not a single person. Everyone I met who found work did so through their own networks, applications and contacts.

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‘Road to Weimar’ image shows Tories can’t be trusted to tell the truth

“It’s a British picture, a British road,” George Osborne told Cathy Newman on Channel 4 News. What a shame he was lying.

“Tory road to a ‘stronger economy’ is in fact a road to Weimar?” she tweeted in (mock?) astonishment on Saturday. “George Osborne told me it was British!”

He was lying. Just like the poster was lying in its three claims (most notably that of halving the deficit, which even drew flak from Tory-loving rag The Spectator.

You can watch the moment again, on Channel 4’s own account of how Osborne’s latest lie was exposed.

The article explains that the photo on the much-lambasted Conservative election poster was taken by German photographer Alexander Burzik in 2008, not far from his home town – Weimar.

This leads to the obvious question: If Osborne was not telling the truth about the origin of the photograph, why should anybody believe he isn’t lying about anything else he says?

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