Benefit sanctions on North Wales job seekers ‘hitting most vulnerable’ – like everywhere else, then
North Wales AM Llyr Gruffydd: He’s right, but he’s very late coming to his conclusion.
This is how the Tories are getting away with their attacks on benefit claimants – everyone thinks it only happens to other people.
People in North Wales didn’t start having their benefits sanctioned unjustly when Plaid Cymru started running its study – the DWP has been carrying on in this entirely scurrilous manner for years, just as it has everywhere else in the UK.
And yet the Daily Post gets to report the Plaid Cymru findings as though it never occurred to anybody that it could happen in North Wales.
I’ve got news for you, fellows: It is happening everywhere in the United Kingdom.
You probably know somebody who is suffering the effects of it.
You may even be suffering it yourself, and just haven’t been notified (a common DWP dirty trick).
Wake up. Your Tory ministers don’t take money from people who deserve to lose it…
Like common thieves, they’ll take money from anybody if they think they can get away with it.
More than 17,000 people in North and Mid Wales had their benefits stopped forcing some to turn to food banks and loan sharks – only for the decision to be later overturned, it has been revealed.
A study by Plaid Cymru revealed 36,905 people were subjected to sanctions on their job seekers allowance (JSA) between 2012-2015 – but 17,596 of those sanctions were overturned on appeal or cancelled due to errors.
Plaid Cymru regional AM Llyr Gruffydd said the system meant often “vulnerable people” were being “left high and dry”.
Mr Gruffydd believes this questions the validity of the penalties, which are applied if claimants fail to complete agreed tasks with Job Centre staff.
Source: Benefit sanctions on North Wales job seekers ‘hitting most vulnerable’ – Daily Post
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How long does it take, on average, for a sanction to be reviewed? It seems from the figures that roughly half the cases are reinstated so those folk, who are already on the bread line, are in dire straights whilst the army of DWP jobsworths dictate their powers over their lives. Why can’t the sanction be reviewed immediately with the managers or area managers to ensure there is fairness in the original jobsworths decision. The high number of reinstatements suggest there is something desperately wrong here with a bent inhuman system operating.
Innocent before guilt was never a strong point of the DWP.
While I’m loath to point out the obvious, the tactics of the DWP require assessing, and each one, starting at the most mundane challenging in the arena of last resort, the courts. It would take some almighty funding to do this (Mr Bill Gates!). Legal successes have been welcoming, but they are a scatter-gun approach that don’t affect the foundation of the DWP’s assault. This is a war, and professionalism is called for. Casualties are mounting, children suffer and lose their parents, millions are in poverty, a new approach is needed.
Why are you still calling yourself Sanjit, Brian?