Benefit Sanctions Will Apply For Bad Weather Finds FOI
Many thanks to the Welfare News Service.
This article titled Unemployed Face Benefit Sanctions If Bad Weather Prevents Them From Getting To Jobcentres and written by Steven Preece was first published by the Welfare News Service on 5 January 2014 and has been reproduced here with permission.
A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) by Plaid Cymru has discovered that jobseeker’s could face benefit sanctions if bad weather (including snow) prevents them from attending a Jobcentre appointment.
Plaid Cymru asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) whether exemptions would apply to the policy of applying benefit sanctions against unemployed people who fail to attend Jobcentre appointments due to poor weather conditions (such as snow), or other unforeseen circumstances.
In reply, the DWP confirmed that poor weather was not taken into account when deciding whether a benefit claimant should be sanctioned, but that the final decision is always left to the discretion of individual Jobcentre managers.
Unemployed people will undoubtedly feel a sense of fear and unease at the prospect of having their benefits stopped, just because snow may have prevented public transport from operating efficiently and on-time, causing them to be late for a Jobcentre appointment or signing-on day.
The revelation comes after a report in the Guardian newspaper in December of last year, (2013) where a Jobcentre whistleblower alleged that the entire staff at one Jobcentre were threatened with disciplinary measures if they failed to get enough unemployed people off benefits, or referred sufficient numbers of them for benefit sanctions.
Bethan Jenkins, who represents Plaid Cymru in South Wales, said:
“Plaid Cymru’s inquiries suggest that job centre managers are under no obligation to consider the impact or hardship a sanction may cause, nor the circumstances that may have led to a claimant missing an appointment such as very bad weather.
“A person who is sanctioned might lose benefits for several months, often for what might be considered a trivial reason. Indeed, there have been cases where people have been sanctioned for attending job interviews instead of their signing on days.
“People who have been sanctioned often have dependant children. Denying them benefits will inevitably effect the health of their children.
“It is unacceptable that decisions to sanction take no account of the effects on the individual, or their children. The impact of UK government policies can be seen by the demand for foodbanks trippling over the past year.”
Same Difference 
This is f*****g outrageous!!! So if they themselves can’t make their appointment or cancel the clients appointment due to adverse weather. Does that mean they too get sactioned!!! Or even blamedbfor the weather so bad you couln’t make your clients appointment?! YOURE NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE, YOU ARE FIT FOR WORK! YOUR FIRED!!!!
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Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN POLITICAL JOURNAL.
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Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
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Not so different ethics to the nazi final solution. There moto on the enterence to the. Forced labour amd death camps was “work sets you free” with housing being slashed migration of the poor will start to “getto’s. Just give us all. Benifit scrounger lables to stich on to our clothing ban us from shops food banks only remove our kids and allow the sick and disabled to die.
Who the hell voted to live in a phsycopathical society ?
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There are factual errors here. Jobcentre managers don’t decide on sanctions – decision makers do. I don’t know whether that was a DWP error, Plaid Cymru or here, but errors like this make me call into question the rest of the article.
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timid little thing, mouse!!!!
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The sanctions applied for missed appointments are laid down by the DWP, not Jobcentre managers. The DWP decided that sanctions should not take into account extenuating circumstances such as extreme weather. Morally and rationally they should – but they don’t. For the DWP to wash their hands of such irrationality by claiming that the final decision lays with “the discretion of individual Jobcentre managers” is farcical when those same staff face DWP sanctions for failing to withdraw benefits regardless of the exact same extenuating circumstances.
The DWP under IDS has morphed into a Victorian caricature that Dickens could have lifted verbatim and put straight onto the page.
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This could mean people risking their lives to get through floods for appointments.
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murder murder murder come’s to mind , wtf are they thinking , Dont they realise how dangerous it is for any one especially the disabled to get to appointments in whether like this and snow ect
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with most transport being halted because of the whether ect
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Reblogged this on lawrencerowntree.
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