JOBCENTRE staff labouring under the Tories’ new sanctions
regime cut off Scots’ benefit payments nearly 900,000 times last year, a
new report has claimed.
Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) pleaded in a report yesterday for an urgent overhaul of the draconian scheme.
It estimated that 898,000 sanctions were levied against
benefit claimants over the past 12 months — ostensibly for failing to
meet requirements such as attending jobcentre meetings or doing enough
to find work.
But the rate of sanctions for those on jobseeker’s
allowance has more than doubled since 2010 and grassroots activists have
long warned of sanctions imposed over administrative errors or
impossible demands.
One man featured in yesterday’s report saw his benefits
reduced to about £11 a week after he failed to attend an interview with a
work programme, despite producing a doctor’s certificate to say he had
been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was not fit to travel.
A survey of Citizens Advice Bureau advisers also cited in
the report found that 60 per cent had found people were not being told
about the sanctions until the money simply stopped coming.
Ninety-seven per cent said they had seen cases where
penalties had been applied without taking into account the claimant’s
reasons for noncompliance.
The same proportion said they had spoken with clients who were going without meals, gas or electricity after being sanctioned.
