I am a deputy head of a junior school in a deprived city area and
I’m having a lot of problems with the effects of benefit
denial/sanctions on my pupils’ and their respective parents’ please
allow me to elucidate. Almost every day we are having to deal with
the effects of so so-called welfare reform and when I had to deal
with another extremely distressed parent today – who’s been
sanctioned for not looking for enough jobs – it was the last straw,
so my questions are:
Q1. Do you realise the effect that your sanctions and refusal of
benefits are having on the most vulnerable in our society?
These are some examples of the disruption caused to me and my
colleagues by the DWP because you have refused benefits to parents.
a) Children A’s mother came in the school and explained her husband
had been sanctioned on JSA and she had no money for the electricity
(she was on a pre-pay meter) to launder her two children’s
uniforms, nor did she have money for food.
b) Child B had to move home because of the bedroom tax, the parent
couldn’t move B into a school nearer to their home as they were
full to capacity, so they have to travel on a bus to school,
recently he couldn’t come to school because of benefit sanctions,
the mother said they had no money for food and the DWP said they
weren’t allowed any whilst her partner was on sanction.
c) Children C’s father is disabled, however, he recently lost his
benefits because you said he’s no longer disabled, children C’s
mother was beside herself with stress as she explained to the head
how her husband had had all his money taken off him and was denied
benefits for appealing against the decision, the situation became
that dire for this particular family that I had to get social
services involved to help them.
d) There’s dozens of cases I can relate to you, however, today was
the last straw when a single parent told me her daughter had been
absent because the sole fell off her only pair of shoes and she had
no money because of sanctions to buy another pair.
Q2 Why have we i.e. teachers’ got to be social workers because you
are denying benefits? Do you realise the devastation you are
causing to the most vulnerable because of sanctions, etc? Because
it’s a proven fact:
• Parents’ can’t feed their children or put clothing on their backs
• Take them to school due to lack of money
• We can’t find school places for families constantly on the move –
we have refused a lot of families a school place that moved because
of the bedroom tax.
• Our social workers’ are frazzled and overworked because we have
to keep asking for their help for our pupils whose families are on
sanction.
Q3 Are the DWP going to pay schools for the disruption you are
causing parents’ and the whole teaching profession?
Q4 I realise your motto is make work pay and the taxpayer shouldn’t
have to fit the bill for those that don’t want to work,
notwithstanding this, I and my colleagues are taxpayers and you are
making our lives very stressful and our jobs much harder with your
draconian measures and teaching isn’t the only profession to be hit
by problems caused by sanctions/denying benefit (a neighbour of
mine is a paramedic who recently had to attend to a
diabetic-disabled person that hadn’t eaten for 3 days because he’s
disability had been stopped and he’d no money and this isn’t an
isolated case) so my question final question is why are you
needlessly sanctioning people? And have you any idea what effect
you’re having on
(i) Children?
(ii) The teaching profession?
(iii) The medical profession?
(iv) Social Workers?
What do you think this is costing the taxpayer? And society in
general?
Yours faithfully,
This is a real freedom of information request from
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/the_effects_of_sanctions_on_the
Please copy and send to your MP, House of Lords, local/National newspapers/TV-blog it and anything else you can think of…
This is one of the most shocking things I’ve read. I feel sick even reading it.
Well done for communicating this. The message has to get through; it HAS to break the wall of silence and denial put up by the media (you can bet if it was rich kids going wanting things would most assuredly be different).
As far as I am concerned, the DWP are murderers. Starving children? This is Britain not the third world!
we didn’t write it a deputy head teacher did. It is from a public FOI he made. However I’m sure you’re right that spelling, grammar and syntax are so much more important than children starving or missing school because their parents have no money after having their benefits taken away.
As a deputy head of a school, I would have thought you would have given a lot more care to your spelling, grammar and syntax before posting this.