‘Yellow card’ scheme on benefit sanctions dropped because DWP says it’s not worth the extra ‘burden’

Last Updated: May 21, 2018By

Esther McVey: She doesn’t care if a few thousand benefit claimants are wrongly sanctioned because the benefit savings will make her look good among her Tory cronies.

On whom?

Is it just me, or does it seem that the Tory government will impose measures that take money away from vulnerable people at a moment’s notice – but anything that offers protection is said to be too much trouble and binned before it can be examined properly?

The fact that Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field has called “foul” on this one suggests that something isn’t right here.

The DWP says it “appeared to make little difference to the outcomes of claimants” while Mr Field said it “was protecting hundreds of people [out of a trial group of 6,500] from being wrongly sanctioned”, and national roll-out could have protected “many thousands of vulnerable people”.

Who do we believe?

Mr Field. Obviously.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has abandoned plans for a “yellow card” warning system that could have protected thousands of people from having their benefits wrongly “sanctioned”, following a short trial involving just 6,500 claimants.

The trial gave claimants facing a benefit sanction an extra 14 days in which to contest the decision and provide evidence to show why their payments should not be stopped or reduced.

However, the DWP claim the short trial, which took place between April and September 2016, “appeared to make little difference to the outcomes of claimants”.

The department will now explore “an alternative process to give claimants written warnings, instead of a sanction”.

But the Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee chairman, Frank Field, said data from the trial “suggested the scheme was protecting hundreds of people from being wrongly sanctioned”.

“Applied to the country as a whole, that layer of protection could have covered many thousands of very vulnerable people”, he added.

Mr Field called on the Government to devise a new scheme as quickly as possible, to prevent vulnerable people from being “left destitute” and dependent on charity.

Source: DWP drop benefit sanctions ‘yellow card’ scheme because it’s not worth the ‘additional burden’


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No Comments

  1. Jeffrey Davies May 21, 2018 at 7:29 pm - Reply

    aktion t4 hay cards for the poor looks just like that party in the 30s

  2. trev May 21, 2018 at 8:31 pm - Reply

    Just what I would expect of the Department for Worry & Persecution.

  3. Roland May 21, 2018 at 8:47 pm - Reply

    Esther McVey: She doesn’t care if a few thousand benefit claimants are wrongly sanctioned and end up on the streets after all they can summons them £1000 and jail them, then the legal system will make some cash the company that transports them to jail will make so cash and the private jail will make some cash sound a bit like the Work House 1830’s just like Maggy said they would get us there next thing is to make them work and another company can make some cash just they there master the US does.

  4. Pat Sheehan May 21, 2018 at 11:47 pm - Reply

    Any local or central government department that feels the need to resort to quasi football match gimmicks into its workflow for any reason deserves immediate sanctioning! What could improve these organizations together with the essential services they provide is a radical shift away from their warped mind-set, perverted ideology and draconian implementation thereby affording a likely improvement in outcomes all-round as a result. Far too many under-qualified, inexperienced, over-promoted, self-seeking, pole-climbing individuals working in all these areas under enormous pressure to perform in a carefully defined sadistic manner to meet ludicrous targets for absolutely no benefit to anyone other than those on the receiving end of a fat bonus! Damn you all!

  5. Damo May 22, 2018 at 8:00 am - Reply

    It seems like for a large part of the population that there’s just no hope here anymore hence the violence the brutally on the streets no wonder people are getting so f..ked up if your young get yourself in shape get yourself a universal world skill go online all the library’s of the world are online… Get out of here, run go to Canada new Zealand.. Put your back into it and you’ll have a better life than your ever have here under these tories

  6. Florence May 23, 2018 at 10:35 am - Reply

    Perhaps 14 days wasn’t enough time for those sanctioned to find out? One hears many stories where the first they now is that there is no payment. It is also common knowledge that the DWP do not inform people of the right to appeal, plus there is scant support for those who do want to appeal. The famous DWP scam of claiming “a letter had been sent” still is almost impossible for claimants to challenge. And so on.

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