A woman whose benefits were sanctioned while she was in a life threatening coma claims she had to resort to stealing scrap metal when released from hospital – because she had no money to survive….Read more…
North east fights back
Unite Community members in the north east of England today mobilised in good numbers as part of the union’s biggest ever day of action against benefit sanctions. Protest rallies…Read more…
Benefit sanctions for low-paid workers
In January this year, in a move that received little media coverage at the time, this government introduced secondary legislation that would enable them to extend benefit sanctions to low paid workers who aren’t doing ‘enough’ to earn more money. Sanctions – the withholding of benefits – have been…Read more…
Benefit sanctions are unfair and hurt innocent vulnerable people
Days before the start of the election campaign, a Committee of MPs with a government majority has just published a report worrying that benefit sanctions “do not always” avoid causing severe hardship or hurting vulnerable people. This is an important point. As I’ve pointed out in previous posts,…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: front line Jobcentre workers aren’t responsible for benefit sanctions
Could this be the month when the general public start to worry about benefit sanctions? The Methodist church reported that approximately one hundred thousand children were sanctioned in 2013/14. This followed earlier work revealing that more than 100 p…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: 85 per cent of tax and benefit “savings” have been at the expense of women
Yesterday the Independent Inquiry Into Women and Jobseeker’s Allowance published Where’s the Benefit. Chaired by Amanda Ariss of the Equality and Diversity Forum and co-ordinated by the Fawcett Society, the Inquiry reported important findings about how JSA indirectly discriminates against women….Read more…