Shocking figures show #Merseyside #jobseekers have #benefits - TopicsExpress

Shocking figures show #Merseyside #jobseekers have #benefits docked nearly 50,000 times Since 2012 Jobcentre Plus bosses have had the power to refuse to pay #JobseekersAllowance (JSA) if they believe #claimants are not trying hard enough to find work. But the #SundayECHO can reveal job centres use these powers in vastly different ways. The branch in Central Street, St Helens , docked JSA payments 5,127 times between October 2012 and June this year, according to the Department for Work and Pensions - DWP. But job centre staff in Old Swan and Park Road, Toxteth, each only wielded their docking powers five times over this same period. Juliet Edgar, from welfare rights group Reclaim, said: “A lot of the time innocent people are #sanctioned for no reason. “People who are claiming benefits don’t have enough money to live on. “They just about manage from one payment to the next, so if your money is stopped it sends you into total and utter panic.” Merseyside’s 26 job centres each issued on average 1,787 sanctions between October 2012 and June this year. This was slightly below the national average of 1,935. The most #sanctions in the country were handed out by a job centre in Luton, which docked payments to #JSAclaimants on more than 10,800 occasions. At the other end of the scale, 11 job centres docked benefits only five times – including the Toxteth and Old Swan branches. Ms Edgar said: “Often sanctions are not made because the claimant has done something wrong. “It’s often nothing to do with the claimant not meeting their commitments, it’s often because job centre staff will want to meet targets for #sanctioning people.” 1981 Toxteth riots