This article draws unashamedly on David Webster’s excellent briefing following the release in February 2014 of sanction statistics for JSA and ESA claimants by DWP. David Webster, who is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow University, also presented very strong and documented evidence to inform the enquiry of the Work and Pension Committee into sanctions in March and November 2013. http://paulspicker.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/david-webster-evidence-to-hc-work-and-pensions-committee-20-nov.pdf
The briefing on which this article is based can be found here:
It
explains in great detail the trends in sanctions, in reasons for
sanctions, in appeals etc. since 1997 which, for David Webster, is
evidence that Iain Duncan Smith is behaving unlawfully on a large scale.
Number of sanctions:
The latest figures released by DWP through its new software
(Stat-Xplore) show that the number of sanctions for JSA and ESA
claimants has reached unprecedented levels. Between 22/10/2012 and 30/09/2013 (49 weeks) 527,574 JSA claimants received a sanction. The figure for ESA claimants over a complete year is 22,840, also a record number. Although the rate of sanctions for ESA claimants is much lower, it is rising and stands almost at 0.,5% per month (compared to 6% for JSA claimants in the 3 months to 30/09/2013).
Length of sanctions:
What has also changed is the length of sanctions. Although ministers
claimed that hardly anyone would be subject to the new 3-year sanctions,
the number of JSA claimants who had received a 3-year sanction rose to
962 by 30 September 2013, up from 700 by 30 June 2013. Claimants’ ‘failures’ such as not attending or being late for advisory interviews, non-availability for employment, which used to attract 1 or 2 week sanction, are now penalised with a 4 week sanction
Reasons for sanctions:
The main reasons for JSA sanctions are failure to participate in
training/employment schemes and not ‘actively seeking work’ while the
majority of ESA claimants are being sanctioned for not participating in
work-related activity (75%), and the remainder for missing or being late
for an interview.
Work Programme: The Work Programme continues to fail JSA claimants,
as contractors have been responsible for twice as many sanctions on the
people referred to them as they have produced job outcomes: 394,759 sanctions and 198,750 job outcomes.
There is also evidence of maladministration of referral forms which has
lead to a huge increase of cancelled referrals. What it means is Work
Programme contractors are making mistakes in their paperwork on a big
scale.
Appeals and reconsiderations: The
success rate of appeals taken to an independent tribunal is quoted as
being 58%, even by the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. This figure
represents an average over 12 months, which fails to reflect the strong
and clear upward trend of successful appeals. Tribunals are now upholding almost 9 out of 10 of appeals against DWP
.
This confirms the evidence that sanctions are applied unreasonably.
Unfortunately,
only about one in 50 sanctioned claimants appeals to a Tribunal – 2.44%
in the latest 3 months. The vast majority of claimants find the process
too difficult.
To conclude, a note added by David Webster to his briefing regarding the role of sanctions in creating destitution:
‘There
is clearly a lot of confusion about the role of sanctions in creating
destitution. The current regime under which sanctioned claimants lose
all their benefits and, unless in an arbitrarily defined ‘vulnerable’
group, are not allowed even to apply for discretionary ‘hardship
payments’ for the first two weeks, has been in force since October 1996.
What has changed dramatically in recent years is the number and length
of sanctions. Prior to the Jobseekers Act 1995, sanctioned claimants
were entitled to a reduced rate of Income Support or Supplementary
Benefit as of right from the start, assessed on the normal rules’.
