#Benefit #sanctions imposed by @DWPgovuk - in #Scotland alone TOTALING 898,000 - @CitAdviceScot @benefitjustice . Out-of-work Scots had their #benefits penalised on 898,000 occasions last year, a report has claimed. Citizens Advice has called for urgent changes to jobseekers allowance and employment support allowance systems. It said that cuts in payments had left an increasing number without money for #food, #heating or other essentials. It highlights the case of a man in the east of Scotland who had his benefits reduced to about £11 a week after sanctions were applied when he failed to attend an interview with a work programme despite producing a #doctors certificate to say he had been diagnosed with #terminal #cancer and was not fit to travel. Citizens Advice Scotland CAS said in its report: * The rate of jobseekers allowance sanctions has more than doubled since 2010 * 94% of CAS advisors reported an increase in people seeking its help in the last two years because of benefit sanctions * 97% of its advisors reported people going without gas or electricity, or skipping meals, after being sanctioned, with 94% saying people were requesting food parcels * 60% of its advisers reported that people had not been told they were being sanctioned prior to their benefits money being cut. * 97% of advisers said they had seen cases where penalties had been applied without taking into account peoples reasons for not complying with benefit requirements * The first-level jobseekers allowance sanction has risen from one week to one month since the end of 2012 and the maximum duration of a sanction rose from six months to three years. Citizens Advice Scotlands executive Margaret Lynch said: I hope this report will prove to be a stark warning about the changes that urgently need to be made to the sanctions regime. Being #sanctioned means your benefit money is stopped - from a minimum of a week to as long as three years. That is the money that you live on. The money that you use to heat your home, feed and clothe yourself and your family, pay your bills, pay for travel, to get to the jobcentre and to look for work. CAS has called for a public review of the system and, in particular, a change to ensure claimants only lose a proportion of their benefits rather than the entire amount.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 16:03:02 +0000