Chris Hart- Refused Benefits And Left On Crisis Loan Because He Asked For Help With Form

A DISABLED Plymouth job-seeker was refused benefit payments and left relying on a crisis loan because he wanted help understanding a document before he signed it.

Chris Hart, 47, from Plympton, was refused job seeker’s allowance (JSA) and hardship payments because he asked for support before he signed the agreement.

Now Mr Hart’s legal challenge against the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has led to a top judge agreeing that part of the contract signed by out-of-work benefit claimants does not comply with the law.

Judge Christopher Ward said the agreement breached Mr Hart’s rights, because he was told he did not have the right to have the document examined before he signed it.

Judge Ward said: “I do not consider that the section of the jobseeker’s agreement entitled ‘My rights’ is compliant with the law.”

Mr Hart, speaking to the Disability News Service, said: “The fact that I get confused easily, misunderstand and have cognitive processing problems associated with specific learning difficulties means that I am recognised as a vulnerable adult.

“My behaviour can be viewed by the state as problematic, but is typically associated with Asperger’s syndrome.

“I have been arrested, had support withdrawn, lost a job and had repeated benefit sanctions, so entering into an agreement with the DWP that uses my social behaviour as a term of a contract that I’ve not been informed of, most definitely upsets me, and puts me at risk.”

The agreement requires job seekers to say what they will do to find work. But Mr Hart’s impairments mean he finds it difficult to keep jobs without support – his last job ended when the support that had allowed him to work was withdrawn.

He had attended an interview with Plymouth’s Jobcentre Plus in January 2012 to start a new claim for JSA. But he requested support from a DWP disability employment adviser so he could examine the jobseeker’s agreement to make sure he would get the support he needed.

Mr Hart said: “I wanted the right to have my needs considered before I signed that contract.”

But Jobcentre Plus refused, said he was being unreasonable and turned down his claim for JSA.

He was also refused hardship payments by DWP, and was forced to accept a crisis loan instead.

As a consequence he had his housing benefit withdrawn, leaving him heavily in debt.

Mr Hart believes the judge’s conclusions could mean that every one of the millions of jobseeker’s agreements that have been signed could also be ruled unlawful.

Despite disability charities, Citizens Advice and care workers all advising him to sign the jobseeker’s agreement, he embarked instead on a two-year legal battle to have his rights recognised. He lost his first appeal in 2012, but Judge Ward concluded that the ‘My Rights’ section of the jobseeker’s agreement did not comply with the law.

The judge has now asked DWP to explain how the system allows a decision-maker to consider the disability-related aspects of a jobseeker’s agreement.