Thanks again to Johnny Void
Iain Duncan Smith’s mass use of benefit sanctions is driving people to their deaths. But it began under Labour, and was not opposed by most trade unions or charities established to support people living in poverty.
In 2008 the Labour government published a green paper entitled ‘No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility’ (PDF). Gordon Brown himself wrote the forward to the document pledging “tough responsibilities that respect tax payers”for all of those on some form of out of work benefit.
Even for a Government which had already introduced workfare and the despised Work Capability Assessment, some of the measures proposed were shocking. These included mandatory work related activity – a vague term that often means workfare – for both sick and disabled claimants and lone parents with children over 5. Other proposals included a policy that long term unemployed people should be sent on workfare for “as long as needed”. Those with a drug problem would be required to undertake mandatory treatment regimes. Benefit sanctions would be strengthened. A new and privatised ‘Fit For Work’ service would be introduced to encourage people to go back to work quickly if they became ill. And all those currently claiming sickness or disability benefits would be ‘frequently’ re-assessed at the notorious Work Capability Assessments which were being run by French IT company Atos.
Atos were far from the only private company set to rake in huge sums from Labour’s savage attack on the poor. The green paper proposed that private providers would be able to bid for any welfare-to-work service. This was based on a recommendation from David Freud, now better known as Lord Fraud, the current Tory Minister for Welfare Reform.
Except for mandatory treatment for drug users, all of these measure were eventually introduced, some by Labour and some by the Tories. Many of Iain Duncan Smith’s most vicious policies were actually first proposed by Labour.
The consequences of Labour’s welfare reforms were devastating. 52,399 benefit sanctions were inflicted on Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants in March 2010. This was twice the number from just two years earlier and more than the 51,142 sanctions handed out by the Tories in September 2014, the most recent month for which figures are available.
In March 2010 the number of people on sickness benefits who had their benefits stopped for failure to carry out ‘work related activity’ hit a high of 3,673. This is just slightly below the 3,828 sanctions handed out to this group in September 2014.
To hear the current rhetoric from the TUC, you would think that mass benefit sanctions were a Tory invention. TUC General Secretary Frances O-Gradyrecently released a statement saying “Under this government the sanctions system has become a cruel maze in which it is all too easy for claimants to lose cash for minor breaches of rules and random decisions.” This was in response to a report showing the desperate toll that sanctions were taking on lone parents and most importantly their children, As far back as 2008 the government’s own experts, the Social Security Advisory Committee, recommended that lone parents should not face sanctions. The Labour government rejected this advice (PDF).
The TUC’s position is that some sanctions are acceptable. Most charities share the same view. The Labour Party have merely said there will be no targets for sanctions should they win the election. Iain Duncan Smith already claims there are no benefit sanction targets.
Yet again this week coroners found that benefit stoppages had been a factor in two tragic suicides. Leaving someone with no income at all, in one of the richest countries in the world, is inexcusable and inhumane. To do this to people who can’t find a job, when we know there are not enough jobs to go round, is dystopian. In the UK today, if you are poor, then you live under a regime of state inflicted terror.
Jobcentres have no idea what is going on in people’s lives when these sanctions are handed out. They often do not know if someone has a mental health condition, or if they are homeless, a victim of domestic violence, or even just in the midst of a personal crisis. Perhaps they are already desperately trying to avoid eviction by paying off rent arrears out of meagre benefits. Perhaps they are about to have their gas or electricity disconnected. Benefit claimants are already desperately poor. No matter how ‘fair’ or ‘proportionate’ sanctions are claimed to be, no matter how many so-called safeguards are introduced (and ignored), benefit sanctions will always destroy lives. For a small few they will be the tipping point that turns this so-called ‘help’ from the Jobcentre into a potential death sentence.
This is what the TUC and some charities support and it is fucking vile. Benefit sanctions need to be stopped without exceptions. It is way beyond time that those leading the trade union movement, and those in charities that claim to care about people in poverty, were brave enough to take a meaningful stand against the horrifying regime inflicted on those uable to find work. Their current whining from the sidelines is both incoherent and ineffective. Their cowardice makes them complicit in killing people.
On the 19th March the community section of UNITE Union will be holding a day of action against sanctions. This will include protests outside Jobcentres across the UK. Many have been organised by unemployed people themselves and they deserve support. But even UNITE have doggedly refused to answer the question of whether they are opposed to all sanctions.
The PCS Union, who represent Jobcentre workers, have commited to this position, although they refuse to do anything much about it. At the very least both UNITE and the PCS should be ferociously lobbying the TUC leadership to take an urgent stand against all benefit sanctions. It is the very least they could do after all. Now these sanctions can also be inflicted on low paid part time workers. A trade union movement that doesn’t just tolerate this cruelty, but endorses it in some circumstances is worse than negligent. It is a trade union movement that is actively attacking the very poorest working class people. And for that the TUC leadership should hang their fucking heads in shame.
For a list of the protests called so far as part of UNITE’s day of action against sanctions visit their website. Please help spread the word.
Sanctions were in place when I worked i n the benefit office and jobcentre in the 80’s under a Tory government.
When I left the civil service i was judged to have left “of my own accord ” and was sanctioned by having my benefit cut by a third for 6 months. As I left due to ill health I appealed and got the money back but had to wait 6 months for it ‘tho
Sanctions should be scrapped completely. If DWP have cause to suspect fraud then they can use the law but denying people enough to exist on is inhumane. I was always told in the Benefit office that benefits were calculated to be the bare minimum for existence. So how can a reduction be justified?
Far worse is to come with Universal Credit hoovering up many different benefits, even Pension Credit.
NEW PENSIONERS ON AND FROM 6 APRIL 2016
Many of the lowest paid workers (men and women) are out of the state pension payout system, and this will hit the first people retiring from next year on and from 6 April 2016.
They are older than the women born from 1953 who lost state pension payout at 60 from 2013 (not able to retire til 2019 onwards) and men at 65 (raised retirement 1 year between 2013 and 2016 and then retirement age progressively gets older and older).
See who loses all or most of state pension, under my petition, in my WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT section, at:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
PENSIONERS, PART TIME WORKERS, UNEMPLOYED, AND THE NEW PENSIONERS COMING AFTER 2016 – ALL GET HIT BY UNIVERSAL CREDIT
Right now Universal Credit only applies to people who are newly unemployed and living in certain areas of the country.
However, eventually Universal Credit will be brought in for everyone claiming the benefits and tax credits that are being replaced.
Read more at:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/who-is-affected-by-universal-credit
TAX CREDITS AND UNIVERSAL CREDIT
Universal Credit is not just for people who are out of work.
If you’re getting tax credits or help with your rent, then you’ll be moved onto Universal Credit at some point between now and 2017.
Read more at:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/who-is-affected-by-universal-credit
PENSION CREDIT AND UNIVERSAL CREDIT
Universal Credit might … affect you if you’re retired and getting Pension Credit.
As of 6th January 2014 anyone born before 6th March October 1952
qualifies for pension age benefits (Pension Credit and Housing Benefit / Council Tax Support for people of pension age).
Read more:
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Changes-To-State-Pension-Age
UNIVERSAL CREDIT AND PENSION CREDIT AGE
If you reach Pension Credit age and your partner is under Pension Credit age, you might not be able to claim Pension Credit – you both might have to claim Universal Credit instead. The date for this change has not yet been announced.
Read more at:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/who-is-affected-by-universal-credit
UNIVERSAL CREDIT AND EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE
Universal Credit is gradually replacing Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, tax credits and a number of other benefits.
So if you make a claim for them, you may be asked to claim Universal Credit instead.
And if you’re already receiving them, you’ll be moved over to Universal Credit from 2016 onwards.
Read more at:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/universal-credit-for-disabled-people
UNIVERSAL CREDIT AND INCOME BASED EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE
Income-based ESA (but not contribution-based ESA) will move to Universal Credit.
The claims process will be the same one used for ESA.
Under Universal Credit each household will make a claim, rather than each individual.
It’s one payment, paid monthly and based on all your household’s circumstances.
Read more at:
https://www.mssociety.org.uk/ms-support/disability-benefits/universal-credit
UNIVERSAL CREDIT SANCTIONS HOUSING BENEFIT
Housing Benefit sanctions under Universal Credit (Housing Costs Element)
No longer will Housing Benefit be paid direct to landlord, but be inside your Universal Credit benefit given to you.
More at:
https://refuted.org.uk/2014/02/27/housingelementsanctions/
UNDER UNIVERSAL CREDIT
THE HARDSHIP PAYMENTS
BECOMES A RECOVERABLE LOAN
Hardship Payment assessments are far far meaner than JSA means testing
If you get income based Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and get a benefit ban sanction, you can apply for non-recoverable Hardship Payments (HP).
However, under Universal Credit (UC), unlike JSA entitlement, all cash savings and liquid (liquefiable) assets and potential help from family and friends or others are taken into account.
Therefore, a Universal Credit benefit sanction can lead to loss of life savings.
At present no-one getting a Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) Hardship Payment has to repay, but under Universal Credit the Department of Work and Pensions can recover it directly from benefits, through court imposed debt recovery and attachment of earned income.
Read More at:
https://refuted.org.uk/2014/02/12/meanerhardship/
PERMANENTLY SANCTONED UNDER UNIVERSAL CREDIT?
Universal Credit benefit sanctions to last indefinitely, not just 3 years
1) JSA and ESA sanctions
Under the current Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) sanctions regime the maximum benefit ban is 3 years (“156 weeks“) for failures to meet requirements.
Anyone sanctioned can apply for means tested reduced JSA called Hardship Payments. (HP). Under JSA and Employment Support Alowance (ESA) HP is not recoverable.
2) What about Hardship Payments (HP) and Universal Credit (UC)
All Hardship Payments under Universal Credit are recoverable, meaning they are treated like a debt by the DWP.
Therefore if someone gets a 3 year Universal Credit ban and applies and gets Hardship Payments, repayment can be made through Universal Credit.
Put more simply this means Universal Credit sanctions (aka reduced benefits) can effectively last far longer than 3 years.
Read more at:
https://refuted.org.uk/2014/01/27/ucbenefitsanctions/
CONCLUSION
Ask me another, if anyone will be left on benefit or the state pension at all under Universal Credit by cuts and sanctions combined?
Those denied state pension payout since 2013, also lose Pension Credit by the sound of it.
Pension Credit (savings) is abolished for new claimaints retirement age on and from 6 April 2016.
From 2016 guarantee credit part of Pension Credit, becomes far more complex conditionality even for current pensioners.
There is a way to stop all this cruelty leading to penniless starvation for all ages, even babes in wombs of sanctioned mothers.
See how at: https://www.anastasia-england.me.uk