End benefit sanctions now

Benefit sanctions – stopping the pittance that people in poverty struggle to get by on – have been around for years. Under the present government however their use has increased horrendously.

Millions of people have been left without money for food or electricity and the use of food banks has soared. This is the legacy of ‘welfare reform’ and it’s top general is Ian Duncan Smith who is conducting a war against the poor.

There are two main groups of people who face sanctions: the unemployed who claim Jobseekers Allowance, and sick and disabled people who get Employment Support Allowance.

The basic rate of both these benefits is a mere £72.40 a week. To stop this paltry amount means individuals instantly going into crisis. No one has any savings on this level of income. Sanctions can last 4 weeks, 13 weeks or longer.

For unemployed victims, there’s a further twist of the knife – they cannot get hardship payments for the first two weeks of the sanction! The punishment is designed to create absolute poverty immediately. Food banks, borrowing or a crisis grant from a local council is the only option. Or, freeze and starve.

Sanctions have been justified by government Ministers on the basis that they encourage people to comply with jobseeking ‘agreements’ or forced training for those not well enough to work. This policy flows from and reinforces the brutal myth of ‘scroungers’. In my years as a Welfare Rights Officer, I have yet to meet one person who enjoys being poor and needs starvation to motivate them.

vulnerable

In reality, it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most from sanctions. In January 2015, the Methodist Church uncovered some shocking statistics through a Freedom of Information request.

People with mental health problems were being sanctioned last year at the rate of 100 per day! In March 2014, almost 4500 who were on Employment Support Allowance because of mental health problems were sanctioned.

Research presented to a parliamentary inquiry into sanctions, according to a Guardian report on 20th Jan 2015, ‘suggests that hundreds of thousands are leaving Jobseekers Allowance because of benefit sanctions without finding employment’. These numbers include people who cannot read or write, or have other difficulties complying with complex and grossly unfair regulations. Sanctions can be appealed against but by the time a case is won the damage is done.

UNITE the union has called for a halt to sanctions and launched an online petition. PCS, whose members work in job centres, have also called for an end to sanctions. Groups like Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions have held stalls outside job centres – offering support to people who have been sanctioned. Advice workers struggle every day to offer what help they can to sanctioned claimants.

The permanent end to benefit sanctions should be emblazoned on the banners of all workers organisations. It is a fight which can be and must be won.

• Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions Facebook page can be found here