It seems from years of experience in such matters that the DWP like nothing more than handing out sanctions during the festive period.
If that isn’t bad enough their reasoning for sanctioning people is mostly totally unreasonable, giving claimants targets that they can’t reach.
In my eyes sanctioning a person is the cruelest thing to do to a claimant. No regard is given as to the health and wellbeing of them either, once the decision is made by their DWP work coach and sent off for approval it’s down to the claimant to appeal the sanction.
Appealing a decision to sanction isn’t easy, it’s difficult and directly impacts their mental and physical health and a direct correlation between the two can be found. Please see my previous blog posts.
Here are some examples of the reasons why claimants have been sanctioned. It’s gaslighting at its worst but hey the DWP has targets to reach.
I’ve helped many people with sanction decisions. You might think that these are made up but they aren’t they’re the real deal.
Sanctioned because claimants father had just died.
Sanctioned because a claimants father had just passed away half an hour before the signing on appointment.
They phoned their advisor up and were told that they had to attend their appointment. The claimant was waiting for the doctor to certify the death.
Sanctioned because their baby died.
A claimant sanctioned because they couldn’t attend their appointment due to their baby dying. They asked their work coach if they could rearrange their appointment but was refused. Instead they were told to bring the death certificate in to prove it.
Sanctioned because a work coach made a mistake.
Sanctioned because a work coach made a mistake in their records for an upcoming appointment. Luckily the claimant had kept the proof on their appointment which was given on an appointment card showing the time and date that they were given to attend
The case of the missing letters
Here’s a very common reason for sanctioning people.
Sanctioned for not attending an appointment that they had supposedly been sent a letter for.
The letter was never sent.
The onus is on them to prove that the claimant recieved it. They couldn’t because they didn’t.
Watch out for this one folks
Sanctioned for attending a job interview.
Sanctioned for attending a a job interview at the same time as a signing on appointment.
They requested that their appointment be changed so they could attend their interview but their advisor refused.
Important to know that they’d also sanctioned for not attending their interview.
It’s a catch22 a no win situation except for the DWP
Any reputable organisation would not threaten to sanction or indeed sanction people for the above reasons. They’d actually care about the people that they help.
The DWP do neither, they don’t even care for their staff and it’s scandalous that they’re allowed to get away with this.
As I’ve previously posted sanctioned rates are rapidly increasing.
It’s important to remember that sanction decisions can be appealed and you must do this.
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