Universal Credit sanction led to miscarriages, drug addiction and jail
In the light of this story, how do Tories justify benefit sanctions, again?
Danielle John, of Wales, suffered a miscarriage at work the day before she was due to attend a Universal Credit interview with the Department for Work and Pensions.
As a result, she was unable to attend the interview and forgot to notify the DWP – justifiably, as any reasonable person would say.
The DWP disagreed.
It seems the decision to take £10.40 per day from her benefit for 229 days – £72.80 per week or £2,381.60 for the whole period – sucked all the hope out of Ms John and she fell back into a life of drugs that she had only recently managed to quit.
She became addicted to heroin again and had eight further miscarriages, according to the Mirror.
That means eight people (at least) have died as a result of the decision to sanction this woman.
And a ninth nearly died – Ms John tried to kill herself at one point.
Apparently the DWP said the sanction was due to eight missed appointments – but Ms John said the appointment after her miscarriage that led to the sanction was the first she missed. There seems to be a slight disparity there!
And now, even though her sanction is over, Ms John is finding it hard to get paid work because she has a criminal record – due to the sanction.
She spent 11 weeks in jail for shoplifting during her time as an addict.
But she is spending her time usefully, volunteering with homelessness organisation The Wallich.
This is a story of one woman’s fall and rise – at least to a level close to where she started.
But it raises a serious question.
How many people, sanctioned off of Universal Credit, have fallen – never to rise again?
Source: Universal Credit hell of mum who suffered eight miscarriages and ended up in jail – Mirror Online
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having watched the program ‘Benefits Britain, and saw what a family with 2 children were left with to live on for a month, 6 pounds after sanctions,left the father with no options but to commit crime to keep his children warm and with light, (food banks to provide sustenance) so after being caught by the long arm of the law, will likely never gain employment again unless some decent hearted employer looks past his sanction related criminal record, this truly make my heart bleed