Benefit Sanctions are unlawful, cruel, unjust punishments on the poor
Welcome to the Unlawful Sanctions website! This website is dedicated to exposing the unlawful, unfair, cruel and criminally unjust financial punishments on our societys poorest people. Whats more, criminals convicted of benefit fraud are sometimes "punished" by applying the same length sanctions to their current benefit claim (instead of jail) that Joe Bloggs, the typical genuine jobseeker is receiving for arriving late to sign on because the bus was late!
Added 04/2011:The Guardian, Unlawful Sanctions and PCS have received evidence about Jobcentre Plus offices setting targets and unfairly forcing sanctions on the disabled, those who speak English as a second language and by race. This violates the Equality Act 2010. Jobcentre Plus denied this before admitting to it. They have attempted to justify it as a “misunderstanding” and has ensured people that it has been resolved.
Why we care
The aims of Unlawful Sanctions
Unlawful Sanctions is a campaign against the unlawful benefit sanctions claimants receive.
We want to:
- Directly challenge the Government regarding these benefit sanctions
- Make sure benefit fraudsters are jailed or denied benefits instead of imposing pathetic benefit sanctions
- Abolish the unlawful benefit sanctions
So, you were made redundant, lost your job or left your job by other means or left university or other education but couldn’t secure a job … whatever your reason for being a jobseeker, regardless of the message the Government puts out about such people, Jobseekers Allowance is a very low benefit to scrape by while you look for employment. You can’t live on it comfortably in rip off Britain!
The Jobseekers Act 1995 which came into power in 1996 (making it 14 years old) outlawed the something-for-nothing benefit culture. Everytime a jobseeker signs on he or she must specify evidence showing that he or she has attempted to seek work. Jobseekers are obligated to register for any "training" to better their job prospects. Jobseekers are even forced to apply for selected jobs issued by an Employment Officer (EO) in the form of a Jobseekers Direction (JSD).
Jobseekers do not have the ability to free choice of labour – if submitted to a job they are expected to take it – regardless if they have a decent enough reason not to. Jobseekers are also required to attend specific dates as requested in writing to a depressing building called Jobcentre Plus. You can’t be a few minutes late but you could be waiting up to an hour to sign on without even an apology.
So lets get rid of any thought that jobseekers are people happy to live off the "dole" – its way below the poverty line and there are only a handful of people who are happy to remain on the dole. These have the common pattern of going through generations via the same families. This is a corruption in DWP and Jobcentre Plus as although the Jobseekers Act 1995 was designed to outlaw this and prevent people claiming who are not "Actively Seeking Employment" (ASE) for some reason these people rarely have any problems with their benefit claims.
Social Security: a right!
Some people may disagree but Social Security has long been an human right. This doesn’t mean a something-for-nothing culture or that people should be able to claim forever.
As far as Jobseekers Allowance goes, this human right has been layered with a conditional criteria to be able to claim. Again it is a human right, everyone has the ability to make an application for Jobseekers Allowance without restriction (whether its denied is another thing though). Even those caught fiddling the system and had been jailed for benefit fraud is freely able to reclaim after prison (how wrong is that?!)
The concern with the unlawful benefit sanctions is it is a loophole around the human right of social security. When you are sanctioned your claim for Social Security doesn’t end – you just don’t get paid. Your Jobseekers Allowance claim is still active and you are still requested to sign on. To most people like me and you can clearly see and understand that it is the point of benefit: to bring in money when you have none. The second aspect is, all offences resulting in a sanction are applied to your future claim thus again you are not denied Social Security (in the present anyway).
If Jobcentre Plus terminated your benefit claim and banned you from claiming for a set period – this would be against Human Rights (including Human Rights Act 1998 and the European ECHR).
It has not been tried that:
a) stopping a payment for a benefit is as good as terminating your benefit claim
b) preventing payment of a benefit for a set period is no different than banning someone from claiming for a set period
We want to take this argument to court – because it is a scam. If it was a business it would have been closed down but because its the public sector not private sector it seems to have been got away with. Its not the Government who loses, its you the taxpayer always!
A poor "jobseeker" isn’t a jobseeker
Just remember: if a person has no income its almost impossible for them to apply for jobs. This delay into finding employment cost the taxpayer much more than if they were claiming for a shorter period. The longer someone is unemployed the less likely they will secure sustainable employment.
Sanctions are unlawful under the Jobseekers Act 1995
Yes, it is true. The Jobseekers Act 1995 clearly states that Jobseekers Allowance (Contribution based or Income based) is paid in a benefit week. So common sense here: if a person commits a sanctionable offence in one week, how can he lose 2 (or more) weeks benefit? Whether or not the person loses out on that specific week or a future week of an ongoing claim is neither here or there – or so it could be argued.
Now
i have being a singel parent [an unpayed fulltime carer] for the last 12yrs to my disabled daugther who has cerebral parsly which means the hours i can be avalable for work is some what all over the place she is lucky to have a part time job but as she only gets the lowest rate of mobilty i have to take her to work an pick her up at night.now that a doubt has arisen on my job seekers agreement as to the hours of work i can do they have stopped my money until a decision is made about how this effects my claim for jsa .so i have applyed for the hardship provision another form to fill in which i didnt totaly understand also no help at all from my jobcentre .this will be my third week now with no money also i find out now from my doctor that ive got high blood presure an possible health problems now myself . it just does my head in that you seem to do the rite thing an get punished for it ………
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complete respect to you, I really hope you can fight the jobentre all the way. The injustice of it all is that you are saving the government thousands in the care for your daughter yet they still find a way to thank you for it by stopping your money. What a hypocritical system we really do have.
The government is forever telling us that carers deserve more support yet they can treat you in this way, it is disgusting.
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im another unlawful sanction i believe, ive been claiming jsa after coming off IB after a failed operation which damaged my nervous system down my right side, i also suffer from lupus and other connected illnesses, i cannot apply for all the jobs on the board, i dont drive or have a licence, and live in a semi rural area where the public transport is not great.
19th august, i was told i needed to record more information, i took this as a warning and said okay, when i got no money the following week, i called them, and i was told to keep phoning between two departments, and i was then finally told a vacancy had been downloaded and i hadnt applied for it, and i had supported a blank joblog which is a lie,they said they had evidence on me but i was not allowed to see it, this year ive only been given one vacancy and i applied for it and got a email saying i was unsuccessful. in the last week ive been given four lots of different information by 4 advisors at this jokeshop, i have appealed but feel im being used cause im disabled, today i have to go and make a hardship loan because ive had no money what so ever since 10th august, im reliant on my neighbour providing me with left overs and meals. no longer will i be taking job advice off these muppets. and ive also penned a letter to my consultant telling him everything and how its affecting me, headaches, nausea, extremely tired, and i just found out know im facing tests for skin cancer. On top of this they make me work 26hours for my benefit. on 2nd september i have an interview for the new work train programme which will be interesting as i no longer trust the jobcentre or its employees.
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Job seekers sanctions, where do i start…. in the past few weeks i left work voluntary as i was asked to break the law…. I claim for jobseekers. all is well until they asked for further info. Which resulted in a sanction being placed for a 4 month period….yes 4 months. However when i challenged the Job centre i found out that i had placed a appeal to this dicision with out doing anything which reduced this 4 MONTH sanction to a 2 month sanction… I applied for hardship and was told that the criteria i needed to meet meant i couldnt recieve a penny for another 4 weeks…. how the hell can a person live on nothing, yes nothing but yet still be expected to sign on every 2 weeks. The government and benefits has gone down the toilet. The lower classed citizen needs to live so give us our basic human rights
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I am recieving jsa and have been told i must do 4weeks unpaid work or my jsa will be stopped are you saying that this against my human rights and if so what procedure can i take against it
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In response to sanctions.
I feel they are a disgrace. I am now on my 2nd one,for in their opinion not actively seeking employment.
The first time was when the person I signed on with couldn’t read my writing (in my opinionh anyyway).
Whenever I filled my work record in and visited a website I would just write checked internet, this was accepted by everyone until I got 1 who wanted me to wriote down the website visited. Not a problem and the next time I done that, then 4 week later I got a lady who started flaffing off about how her colleague told me to be more specific about my job search, I pointed out to her I wrote down the sites visited and she atarted pointing to words she couldn’t read (I admit my handwriting is bad). She then got me fill in this form detailing everything I done for the past 4 weeks to find employment. The form had 2 lines for each 2 weeks to write in and I can’t write small plus they give you the form and a pen to go and sit down and fill it in, no table or something to rest upon. Told me I’d be getting sanctioned, didn’t care what I would do about money.3 days lkater I receive3d letter informing me of my sanction and I could appeal it. I then wrote a letter of appeal detaikling everything I had done, I worked with an organisation which helps you find employment and which my JSA adviser reffered me to, searched the internet almost every day. applied for jobs which I felt I could do or was experienced in( which was very few), visited the jobcentre only once a fortnight because al the jobs are on their website anyway.
The reply I received was unbelievable, they totally disregarded the fact I checked internet daily and worked with this organisation, they were just interested in my jobseeker agreement which I signed when first claimiung JSA, which was contact companies on spec, ask friends and family, visit jobcentre 2- 3 times weekly( which I can’t remember signing to that), and they found 1 job and asked why I never applied for it. After that I never tried a further appeal, what was the point, you can’t win, and I certainly cannot live on £63 a week and to have that taken from you is a disgrace.
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Please have a look at: http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/2010/01/24/actively-seeking-employment-social-security-commissioner-decision/
Although a Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) has to be “in force” actually the law states you must do 3 steps to look for work each week to be “Actively Seeking Employment” (ASE) and neither of them steps has to be whats on the Jobseekers Agreement. If it states you have to contact Jobseekers Direct 3 times a week and use the jobpoints once a week… you may use the directgov website instead.
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Thanks for your reply.
About 6 months ago went to sign on and the woman reffered me to her colleague because |I hadn’t filled in my search record properly/to her satisfaction. She then gave me this little a4 sized piece of paper with only 2 liones to list everything I had done over the past 2 weeks to find employment. I filled it in as best as I could which wasn’t very well as my handwriting has become really bad, have problemn writing small. he told me I would be getting sanctioned, no money, asked what I am supposed to live on, she didn’t care.
When I received the letter informing me of my sanction and my appeal rightI then got the organisation (community employability, Edinburgh)I had been working with to write a letter of appeal detailing what I had done, which included searching online every day. The reply only focuse on what my jobeeker agreement was, Said I agreed to phone 1 employer a week, visit 1 employer a week, ask family and friends, contact jobseeker direct 3 times a week and asked why I hadn’t done that, and they also found 1 vacancy and asked if I applied, if not why not.
I was shocked and bewildered and just left it, thought what was the point.
In am now on a saecond sanction because I never filed my job search in good enough again. I had started writing a word document so they could understand but forgot and had to quickly fill in their one, explained thge sitaation to the guy about my writing etc but he just gave me the same form I was given 6 months ago when I received my sanction. I have now received the letter from DWP informing me I won’t be paid for the period 03/02 to 17/02 because I was not actively seeking employment, despite having went to Ingeus every week aplying for 3 jobs, searching intgernet every day and sending 22 spec letters. ???
Sorry for making this post so long, I am just pi**ed off at JCP assuming everyone is scrounging.
Derek
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Do you have evidence of such?
Keep appealing. The law states 3 steps each week, if you got evidence of applying for 3 jobs at Ingeus (i.e. their joblog preferably an Action Plan or such with an Ingeus member of staff signing it to confirm that is what you did) and evidence of the 22 spec letters (whether you have copies of these on computer, receipt of purchasing stamps (perhaps you did them at Ingeus so you wont have them?) or response from your spec letters (its rare to get all back but hopefully you will have a few which may include the date of your covering letter) it should be adequate to prove you did the 3 steps each week.
Its probable that they will send you a giro before it gets to appeal tribunal (as its bad for statistics!) and even if they don’t you are likely to get the money back although as being sanctioned myself I appreciate this isn’t the point.
If you manage to obtain copies of said documents, if you can contact us via the web form (see http://unlawfulsanctions.org.uk/Unlawful-Benefit-Sanction-Cases.html) indicating your wishes to email them over. We are creating a database of sanction examples… a copy of the sanction letter, evidence proving you are actively seeking employment (ASE) and all major correspondence will be great for inclusion. Remove sensitive details from such documents first of course.
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I appreciate that you are trying to be helpful, but the fact of the matter is that it is the likes of Ingeus and other such partners that cause most people to be sanctioned in the first place. I’m with Ingeus, who have sanctioned me three times within the last six months for not attending appointments that they never told me about, I’v asked to see copies of thes letters but get told they are not on the system, which is nonsence. Appeals have all failed and no satisfactory explination has ever been given. When you receive notification of your jobseekers allowance is says The law states you require at lest £xx per week to live on, so when you are sanctioned and receive nothing, this then must be totally illegal.
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In response to your sanction – Go to Ingenus and ask them to supply a supporting statement and any copies of action plans you have done with them and submit with your appeal – a similar thing happened to one of my customers (yes I work for a third party provider under FND) and I managed to get her 6 month sanction dismissed as we could prove she was actively seeking – hope this helps
=)
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I’m currently on a sanction too from my JSA from which it was delivered from Kennedy Scott (Maximus) but the reason given to the JCP was that i never attended an appointment with them but i have never missed 1 appointment without ringing with good cause so now they have changed the reason to failing to attend a CSCS test centre which is quite a few miles away from where i live and i explained that i could not afford to get there as i dont drive at the moment and out of the blue i’m hit with a 6 week sanction so i appealed 2 weeks ago and have just been told my appeal didnt even get to the people that look at these.. so ive appealed again but this time i asked for the address so i could send it but recorded delivery and they refused! The whole system is a mess… i’m looking for work the same as most people on here, ive recently done 4 weeks unpaid work which was my idea and i worked hard in the hope of being kept on but the company didnt need me but they soon took on more unpaid employees after me! now ive been without any food or gas for over a week now and my bank is sending me letters aswell as my landlord too and the Job Centre’s respose to these was ‘sorry, we cant help’ cant help or dont care? i was very close to getting arrested today.. i’ve been told to go and see the CAB which i will doing on Monday. Just thought i’d to share my experience with everyone … as for Kennedy Scott, ive heard they’v been taken over by G4S now which does not supprise me
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C Whats religion got to do with this?
chill. explain what youre trying to say. Its not wrong what you say but its not right how you say it..
K
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i have just recieved a letter saying i am being sanctioned for 5 weeks. on 6th december i signed on and got refered for a job. i said i may not be able to get there. she said dont worry if you cant get there you dont have to apply. when i got home i noticed that the start time was 7am. this is in a town miles away and i rely on public transport. the first bus gets me into the town for 6.46am but the company is located miles from the bus stop. therefore there is no way i could get there for the start time. so i did not apply. when i signed on on 20th december i got asked if i had applied for it. i said no and explained why. then in early january i got a letter saying there is a doubt on my claim. i filled in the back with my response and sent it off. the week after i started a 4 week work placement. after it finished i was transfered back onto jsa. today i got a letter saying that they will not pay me from 15th feb to 21st march due to not applying for the job.
so now i am going to have to try and reverse it through the appeals process. i am hoping my union representative will help me with it.
any good advice is welcome.
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It isn’t your fault that you are a genuine honest trustworthy claimant. It is great to read of how many people are despite all the bad press of scroungers etc.
I suggest you read the following articles:
* http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/dwp-corruption-lms-directgov-jobs-ripped-apart/
* http://www.workprogramme.org.uk/201101271091/directgov-job-search-under-spotlight.html
Which explains about a theory called the “jobseeker job denial scam trap”.
This is controversial advice at its finest. I give this advice on the understanding that those who wish to execute such ideas into action are genuine claimants who have met the legal requirements for Jobseekers Allowance (JSAg). As I consider you to clearly be a genuine claimant I don’t mind to advise you.
Benefit Sanctions are bolt on legislation to Social Security. Payment can be withheld for an offence – its legal – although in my eyes unlawful. It doesn’t matter if you applied for 10,000 jobs in one Benefit Week or none; if you are accused of an offence such as refusing or failing to apply for a job given to you as a Jobseekers Direction (JSD) then you have lost money on a sliding scale where your other job search activities have no basis on the length of such sanction.
The following doesn’t constitute benefit fraud if you remain Actively Seeking Employment (i.e. doing atleast 3 steps per week) and meeting all other conditions. Like I said, legislation for sanctions don’t deny your ability of a claim, it just holds payment for a set period – during such time your claim remains open. The following doesn’t constitute a “Change of Circumstance”.
Next time you (or any other jobseeker) get asked whether you applied for a job position where you have a genuine reason why you didn’t, lie! This is dishonest but not illegal. If found out for lying they will attempt to add the sanction at their earliest convenience.
Why am I advising genuine claimants to lie?! Well, when the Employment Officer (EO) ask if you applied for a job or not, they aren’t interested in your reasons. This is standard procedure. They do not hold discretion. They have options on their computer system of either “applied for” or “not applied for” (not those specifics words but you get the idea). When you say “No, I didn’t apply for the job because [..]“, as soon as they hear you say “No” (or I didn’t etc.) they select such option. They do not report you for a sanction directly. Other Jobcentre Plus staff pick up these cases and initiate the “Decision Maker” process – “independent” but paid for by DWP.
Saying “yes” saves you a hell of a lot of hassle. Being honest is good but in some cases you might lose your benefit straight away pending appeal (instead of getting the right to appeal before getting sanctioned) which is not worth the hassle.
This is an intentional process (hence I call it a trap) which is why 3 from 4 methods of obtaining jobs get logged by Jobcentre Plus as jobs applied for.
1) Jobs given from Jobcentre Plus EO staff (front line/NDPA etc.).
2) Jobs from Jobseekers Direct (job search via telephone).
3) Jobs from directgov/jobpoints (with contact details).
4) Jobs from directgov/jobpoints which require a call to Jobseekers Direct for information.
This is why many jobs advertised require a phone call for more information – they ask for your NI for a reason!! Decision Makers have targets and there is luck involved in winning cases. Some cases maybe virtually identical with one person win while another loses – its the “Definite Sanction”, large “Maybe pile” and small “No sanction” piles. Many will get pushed through via template decisions notices (i.e. instead of someone focusing by reading your appeal/reasons etc. they will look at system notes maybe glancing at your appeal and go against you.)
Decision Makers have workloads, they need to get through them. For statistics from New Deal (see http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/new-deal-sanctions-exposed/) there were 261 sanctions alone for it each working day. If most of them appeal (say 200) that is a lot of cases to get through without the non-New Deal sanctions taking part.
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Make sure that you submit print offs showing that you can not get there in time by public transport and they should over turn it – JCP staff are being targetted with sanctions to get people off the books and many are becoming sloppy and throwing anything to the DMA office
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“You must always say you applied for the job vacancy”, fair comment, but we are being told that they will check with the employer to find out whether we have applied for a job or not, is this legal?.
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Michael
It doesn’t happen. Don’t think of this as an individual. Each Jobcentre Plus office is responsible for roughly a few thousand people plus… on top of existing work loads it would be too expensive for them to employ a team of people to check up on jobs applied for. As rule of thumb they do NOT check up on you.
There are exceptions, such as LEP vacancies but we are advised they only share information about new starters (i.e. those who get the job). They might also do random checks on people to try and screw them over if they have a grudge on you although its against the Data Protection Act 1998 for the business to disclose information (even on a confirm or deny basis). There is Social Security legislation giving an exemption for benefit fraud investigations but this can only be for investigating about whether you had a job (i.e. and claiming too) for the purposes of building up a case for prosecution and not for a case of benefit sanctions.
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My mother became seriously Ill during the time I was on jobseekers, my father also suffers from dementia and was used to My mother looking after him, so I had to get my priorities straight, my family come first, so had to look after him (My parents live quite far from me) I still stuck to the agreement of applying for jobs and making sure I had my book filled out, however also during this period my Mother passed away. I explained my situation to job centre plus who I thought would have a degree of empathy for my situation, they stated because I “Wasn’t actively seeking work” at this time, she would have to report this to her boss.
I never heard anything, so I assumed everything would be ok when I signed on next, I went to the bank to check if my money was paid in as usual, and there was nothing issued. I called JCP and was told my benefits had been suspended for a 6 month period, no letter no phone call the woman on the ther end was rather cold and callous to say the least, unhelpful too.
I contacted citizens advice I am now on the lower rate jobseekers, which coincidently took 6 weeks to get sorted out, I had to rely on friends and family to get by for that period.
I have worked for most of my adult life and paid taxes, and found myself out of a job due to the current state of the economy, only to be treated like this!
fair enough more needs to be done to target people who are on benefits who shouldn’t be, but they are targeting some of the most vulnerable people in our society, something needs to be done about this, as no one in this country these days should have to cope with poverty nowadays.
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Alex, that is truly disgusting! (I would say shocking but no Jobcentre Plus incompetence surprises me these days)
Did you get a copy of the letter and did you appeal? I will look into this for you.
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I didn’t receive any sort of letter or documentation, just usual jargon about the appeals process.
I have contacted a solicitor, who says I have a very good chance of winning my appeal, my solicitor has also asked me to lodge a complaint about my treatment as well, I have been in contact with my MP, who is also disgusted by my treatment from the very people that is supposed to help us!
There is help out there for people in our situation, don’t let them fob you off either, be civil be calm when dealing with them, the minute you raise your voice or anything, they see that behaviour as “threatening” and call the police, personally I think it’s a misuse of power on their part, but certainly do not give them the ammo to use something like that against you! As it could come up in your appeal.
Yes the staff in JCP can be patronising, but not all are some are actually quite helpful, as the saying goes “there’s always one bad apple”
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i was seperated from my partner over a month ago and had to go onto jsa in order to recieve any benefits i have been sleeping here and there and have no clothes or money for food or rent in order to get a job it legally requires that you have a stable address which i dont therefore i cannot get a job but i have been looking and provided sufficient proof of this but as a result have been given a sanction so i applied for a crisis loan but they denied it i now have to wait even longer i have nowhere to live and no food or clothes apart from what i am currently wearing. they have restricted solicitors from giving me any advice on the matter.
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Currently going through my own sanctions for leaving a job I was forced into by JCP. Originally advertised as full time, it actually turned out to be varying hours on a week by week basis. I resigned after 1 month of not knowing what hours I would be doing. So since the start of february I have been without any money at all and have to rely on my parents for the odd £10 or £20 here and there. I AM STILL WAITING for a result! This is not the reason for my post though. I read the comments regarding the JObcentre checking up on whether you apply with employers or not. I once worked for the Jobcentre in the role of putting the adverts onto the website, and I can tell you that they DO check up. Everytime an employer calls, a list of Jobseekers put forward for the job came up on screen and we had to go through the list with the employer to find out whose applications they had received and whose they hadn’t. This was then noted on the system. Admittedly, we didn’t call employers up to specifically find this information out, but it was asked of the employers whenever they called to re-advertise. So contrary to what it appears you have been told, I can assure you that the Jobcentre DOES check up when it can on those of us put forward for jobs.
Just thought you might be interested.
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I received a sanction (for one week) in February of this year for failure to attend an interview – I asked for a reconsideration and the decision was not changed so am preparing an appeal, which was advised by a Jobcentre member of staff. I have been looking through the relevant legislation and would appreciate some advice.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/509/regulation/2/made
My question relates to section 2 regulation 27A subsection 2(a), (b) and (c). I failed to attend an advisor interview (not a signing day) – I did not inform the jobcentre within 5 days but did have good cause for failing to attend. (I would like to mention that I have had nothing but the full support of the staff at my local jobcentre who have gone out of their way to be helpful and treated me with utmost respect – I am sorry many of you have not had the same experience as it has made an awful lot of difference to me at a difficult time)
Is the fact that I did not inform the jobcentre within 5 working days an absolute reason for upholding the sanction? Even if there was good cause? And is there a section relating to what justifies “good cause” (I noticed a reference to regulation 28A but can’t seem to find it!) I would like to know what sections the decision maker will be referring to before submitting my appeal. Although losing a weeks money has been difficult enough (I have two children to support), it is the loss of the ‘run-ons’ with JSA, housing benefit and council tax benefits that will affect me the most – I have not long qualified for these and am now worried that if I accept a job offer I won’t be able to afford to live during the transitional month.
Any advice would be appreciated and thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences on here.
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Read this: http://www.workprogramme.org.uk/20100325715/jobseekers-targeted-by-even-more-sanctions.html underneath the following heading:
This is DWP policy at work. The regulations were made wrong (probably was supposed to mean the opposite i.e. you must contact within 5 days for any “good cause”). This is not legal sanction.
You do not need “good cause” because the sanction wasn’t legit. If you are sanctioned as per the Act and/or Regs and Jobcentre Plus were right to do so… “good cause” is a defence for reasonable exemption from the sanction because it would be significantly unfair.
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Your Benifit Claim.
If you have a Claim you have a RIGHT.In a free and open society NOBODY can take away your Rights.
You can ONLY give away your Rights.
If You have The Right to Claim do you want to give someone Authority over it?
If someone has authority over your claim they can dictate terms over it.This means they can make rules and give you tasks to do and if you dont do them they can restrict ( cut your money ) access to your claim.
This is how they trick you into handing over authority of Your Claim.
When You REGISTER ; you are handing over LEGAL TITLE of what you are REGISTERING to Acknowledge or TRANSFERING the AUTHORITY to ANOTHER by this PROCESS.
Now what are you told you must do when you seek to claim your right to benifit ?
You have to REGISTER.You register a new claim for benifit.
Now if You have a claim and is your Right,why would you want to give anyone authority over it ?
How to take back Authority over YOUR CLAIM.
Cut off the information below and add your details,name national insurance number and address.
Then simply hand to your advisor next time you sign on. Also sign it.
Please file this with my Claim for Benifit.
I was led to believe that when i made my claim for benift i had to register it. I know now I DO NOT have to register my claim.
I here give you notice that i take back FULL Authority over my Claim, My RIGHT.
I give NO authority over it, nor ANY Authority over me or my PERSON by claiming my RIGHT to benifit.
Now if they ever again tell you your money may be cut for ANY reason say, “On what authority are you restricting my claim ?
YOU have authority over your claim,they need YOU to give them it.DONT…
My email if you need any further help.
Please feel free to contact me.
harryjackson111@hotmail.com
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Here is something else to do every time you get a new jobseekers agreement.
Please file this document with my jobseekers agreement.
Thank You.
For ALL documents served upon me in legalease
Please note,by serving these documents upon me you are excepting responsability,as i do not understand lealease.Nor am i a member of The Law Society.
Before GOD or whatever name YOU have for The Devine I am clean of any blasphemous or evil intent,or trickery of words that may or may not be used in these documents.I sign because i am told i have NO choice or be denied any help i may need.
Please note that by signing this agreement,i am in NO way handing over authority of me or my PERSON to the other party of this agreement.
please feel free to contact me if you need advice.
harryjackson111@hotmail.com
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Hello, I am a journalist for the Guardian looking into the issue of benefit sanctioning. If anyone feels they would like to talk to me in confidence and off the record about their experience of this, I would really appreciate it.
I can be reached on this email: john.domokos@guardian.co.uk
I have asked permission from the site to make this post, and hope it does not bother you that I am posting.
Many thanks,
John
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god damn i hate the DWP and jobcentre.. and general government.. so freakin much
if i ever kill my self u can rest assured im taking as much government crap with me as i can!!!!!
which isnt too unlikely now since i missed ONE job and now they kicked me off JSA for 6 months!!
i know what this is.
theyre trying to create criminals. as i predicted some time ago, theyre moving the boundaries so that, where there was 500,000 criminals of necessity they want 5,000,000.
they want to fuck us off as much as possible, screw us over and wear us down. im pretty sure its coming to a point where theyve made life soooo bad for everyone… and then theyll make it look like theyre riding in on a white horse and say “hey, its ok, weve worked out this wonderful alternative for u” which amounts to us trading in our last collective shreds of dignity, privacy and freedom to hand all control over to these fascist fucking pigs, making us believe we need them to keep us safe and healthy when really these scum of the earth assholes are the LAST THING WE NEED
they say its our fault were in a recession. now im no politician, but as far as i knew everything was fine until a couple of years ago when, out of the blue, “oh noes, were massively in debt as a country all of a sudden! so lets start forcing innocent people into the streets, into suicide and prison, for missing a job application. but if our own high powered government officials rip off the country for thousands and thousands of pounds… well, thats ok guys no big deal but if u can try to pay some of the money back that would look good for the sheeple”
theyre building camps for when we fight back. theyre plotting this. dont be fooled, its not just a recession and its not just money saving and most of all theyre not the complete morons they appear to be, not in the core.
they know EXACTLY what theyre doing to us.
fuck u government, fuck u dwp and fuck u jobcentre!
may u experience first hand the hell u created for others.
oh, and thank you for this website! hehe
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i would like to say that my daughter had been sanctioned for SIX WEEKS. she is 19 years old, was made redundant due to cuts by the government (coalition). it has been a very stressful time. They stated she was being sanctioned due to not seekign a job seekers direction, well, she had applied for over 20 jobs that week and one was “overlooked” as she thought she had applied. When she told the advisor this she slapped a sanction on her, even though my daughter had applied for so many. She appealed but was refused. She has applied for hardship and been awarded this. Due to the stress of this my daughter now has been diagnoed with Alopeica which is a stress related condition.
To top it all off DWP wrote to Housing benefit and council tax benefit to say she was no longer recieving JSA. the very people who keep a roof over her head! They have suspended her claim. My daughter is on the edge of a newvous breakdown. She is 20 years old for crying out loud.
She signs on as normal every two weeks and is still applyign for work. So basically in a nutshell what theyre saying is due to not overlooking one job post when she had applied for so, so many, she must starve and be evicted. it is a complete and utter disgrace.
A VERY UPSET AND WORRIED MOTHER.
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Sharon, I am sorry to hear about your daughters situation. I don’t know if you saw my post above, but I am a journalist for the Guardian, and I want to reveal the effect these policies are having on people.
Would you be willing to talk to me over the phone? I wouldnt publish and details without your and your daughters permission – but it would really help me to talk to more case studies of people effected.
I am on the email address above if you want to get in touch.
John
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Sadly, it doesn’t matter if your daughter applies for 0 or 1000 jobs a week. If you fail to comply with a Jobseeker Direction… its a sanction.
Jobseeker Directions are all scams. Advise her in future to lie to the Employment Officer she speaks to at the Jobcentre if this ever happens again. Even if you have a good reason not to apply, saying no (or anything other than yes) its a sanction automatically. For example, if she ever forgets to apply again… she needs to tell Jobcentre Plus that she had applied and do it first thing after she has been (so she has applied for but after she had been). Jobcentre Plus has to prove you haven’t applied for the position after saying “yes”. Generally speaking they do not have time to check up.
So I don’t encourage anyone to lie fraudulently but it is worth it to save your life line as long as you have good intention (not a guilty mind) and such job has been applied for. It makes little difference whether she had applied before she got to Jobcentre Plus or after as most employers wouldn’t log the time the application was made. Technically, she is expected to apply prior to the appointment, however, Jobseeker Directions are only time sensitive if there is a date specified. If there is no closing date specified then she may decide to apply after she has the sanction. I recommend sending application first class recorded and appeal while noting the fact you had applied, giving the recorded post number.
How long ago was the sanction? If the job position hasn’t closed, you can apply after and you cannot be sanctioned.
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Your daughter needs to go to the JobCentre and book an appointment with In depth enquiries to have a letter from the JCP stating that her JSA is suspended but she is claiming hardship – she needs to take this to housing benefit and they should be able to sort out her hb and ct
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Hi ive been on jsa since December i have a ten yr old son they stopped my jsa and never told me about it till signing on day they said i had an appointment on the 20th of this month and i failed to attend.I replied i had not been notified of this appointment ,Ithen asked my advisor was a letter sent out to me (she repied no you were told on 14thwhen you signed on last, but then checked that on the 14th i had already contacted them for domestic emergency and could not attend that day so how could i have known about the appointment to which she agreed and then passsed me to someone else who said you have got to make a RAPID RECLAIM FOR JSA BUT WONT GET PAID EVEN THOUGH THERE MISTAKE).He then said a letter was sent to me So i asked for complaint form and a copy of the letter His reply we have not got it saved on the data YEH RIGHT .He then passed me to someone else who told me to forget making a complaint and just make a rapid reclaim meanwhile me and my son sit pennyless any advice PLEASE.
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Go to the Jobcentre and ask for a Crisis Loan. As for housing benefit and council tax benefit, go to your council and say you have got “nil income” and can’t pay your rent. You are still entitled to housing and council tax benefit.
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the job center are evil, the people that work there have no idea whats going on, then you have the managers, they know whats coming in, but in general you will rarely speak with these people. a good place to catch these people, is in conferences, were so called employers come to help the needy job seekers, of course this is all setup by the wonderful job center. these are usualy held in local hotels , other,
everything gets sent to contact centers were you are processed by decision makers, if you ask to speak to these people, you are told ” NO “.
you have no legs to stand on with the government, if you want your money comp-lie with everything they say. even if it means lieing, its harder for them to prove you lied than it is to here you in person say “no” potential employers are not going to come along to a job center plus hearing and testified you never showed up.
who are these decision makers? i know there is a contact center in wrexham, there must be others, they are freely distributing our information , so we can freedom of information act them personally.
any hackers reading hack these fucking fascist bastard. get all the info you can on the managers of these contact centers.
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I was sanctioned for attending an interview which i found about on the day of a jobcentre appointment, i phoned the offices and explained and the lasy gave me an appointment for the next day and told me to bring in a copy of the email. When i went in the next day i was told i could be sanctioned and would get the details sent off to the dreaded DECISION MAKER. I was told that i should always put my jobcentre appointments as my main priority! Which is laughable as they would rather i try and reshedule my job interview! I was also told that i should have come in the same day rather than the next and when i explained that i was given the appointment for the next day he just shrugged. He also said that “It didnt look good for me” as the interview was with an Artist who is self employed rather than a company!!! Horrible EVIL fuckers. I am going to appeal the shit out of this crap. This isnt the first time i have seen this happen my boyfriend was also sanctioned twice for the same thing..
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It makes no difference. What an idiot he is. An employer can be a limited company or self-employed sole trader. The only way it can seem a bit dodgy was if you had an interview for yourself becoming self-employed. I would be surprised if it went against you – sometimes the Decision Makers deny an appeal only to send Giro before it gets to Appeal Tribunal (I assume losing is bad for their statistics), however, in this case I think after the inconvenience and stressed caused, that you will be excused. When you were at your appointment the following day, were you asked to fill in a form then?
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I’ve been to sign on today and been given a job to apply for with an agency. The working hours are outside of my JSA agreed hours but the advisor put it down as a match anyway and said I had to apply.
The application has to be made by phone to a “recruitment line” number – 08003160383. When I called it, it went to voicemail and it seemed to be routed to a third party, not the aforementioned agency or the jobcentre. I could only make out the word “Pelham” in the message.
Does anyone know if these calls are recorded or whether the JC has any access to what’s been said during calls to this number?
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I called it this morning and it appears to be Blue Arrow (recruitment agency). The phone dialled a bit dodgy so might have been diverted. Blue Arrow gives this freephone number on their website 0800 08 55 777 and not the one you mentioned. The latter is in Google, the number you had isn’t.
You may have “good cause” as its outside your agreed hours but in all honesty the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) isn’t worth the paper its printed on – and its common for people to be sanctioned when failing a Jobseeker Direction (JSD) because its not compatible with the hours, travelling time or even in the same area of work as listed and previously “agreed”.
They still can take a dim view for any jobseeker who appears to be trying to evade their pressures. You know… they are in “authority”, you are not but you are the “smart” one knowing their rights and the procedure; but its them at the end of the day who has the powers.
Without sounding like I am taking the piss, I assume the voicemail message would be recorded (otherwise would be pointless concept). They might record calls for “training purposes” but I never got alerted to this when I called.
Unless its a number set up by the Jobcentre they wont have access to the details made during any calls with them. They are likely to have an LEP agreement meaning they will share your details had you secured a job with them. Do you have a job reference code for it?
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Hi again,
There is a reference but there’s no LEP prefix or suffix. I’ve worked out that the message was from “The Impellam Group” which seems to be the holding company for Blue Arrow, so I’m pretty sure the call is going direct to them and not via a JC number. Thanks.
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John, you need to post your email address i think mate – its not there
Good luck with your writings. Expose these “great money saving techniques”, that people who support the government in these horrible moves might understand the reality of what they are doing to our society’s most vulnerable!
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