Tories too "keen" to block benefits help but have no idea what happens to people affected

Wirral MP Frank Field blasts benefits sanctions system as 1.5m people see cash stopped over two-year period

Former welfare minister Frank Field has blasted the Government’s system of benefits sanctions after the latest figures showed payments were reduced, suspended or stopped on more than 1.5m occasions between October 2012 and September 2014.

The Birkenhead MP is pushing for a new “yellow card” system which would give people a better chance to explain themselves and not leave them without cash immediately.

The figures show 49,567 sanctions were imposed in Merseyside since October 2012.

Mr Field is concerned that the sanctions regime is “arbitrary” and there are “never the right people to speak up for the unemployed before an impartial group”.

He wants Tory Work & Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to be grilled by MPs on how the system works, and is calling for his department to review its operations.

The veteran Labour MP is alarmed that 668,569 of the sanction decisions led to people going without any money for four weeks, with 373,603 rulings leaving claimants without cash for three months.

He said: “The Government is keen enough to leave people with no money for weeks and months on end, and yet it doesn’t know where a third of people end up after they’ve been sanctioned. Nor does it want to tell us how big the total ‘fines’ are as a result of its sanctions strategy.

“While we can’t be sure how much this might be, it is probably greater than what magistrates make from fining people; and at least in the courts people can actually speak on their behalf against the decision.”

He has written to Mr Duncan Smith with proposals for a “yellow card” system. If a claimant’s explanation was found to be unsatisfactory, he or she would receive a formal warning, with the option for Jobcentre Plus to apply more stringent requirements before a sanction is considered.

The All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry on Hunger, which Mr Field co-chaired, suggested this could reduce the numbers of people relying on food banks.

The Department for Work & Pensions stated that there were 170,000 fewer sanctions in the year to September 2014 than in the previous year. It claimed that “more than 70% of claimants say they are more likely to follow the rules if they know they risk having their benefits stopped.”

Mr Duncan Smith said: “The vast majority of people on benefits want to work - and take up all the support on offer to move into a job. We can see this from the record numbers of people in work and falling unemployment.

“But where people don’t play by the rules: don’t accept the support on offer, or refuse to take work, it’s only right that there should be consequences.

“Sanctions are a key part of the contract we have with jobseekers. We must not forget that it is hardworking British taxpayers who fund the welfare system, and we have a duty to them to ensure their taxes are spent fairly.”


http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/wirral-mp-frank-field-blasts-8680002

IDS- what a cock

He sure is and his actions have brought misery to so many people who need help and have seen it withdrawn for the most ridiculous of excuses.

Yep, even people who are having double organ transplants:

Linda Wootton: Double heart and lung transplant dies nine days after she has benefits stopped

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/linda-wootton-double-heart-lung-1912498

IDS, a man who lied on his CV, lives rent free in father-in-laws huge mansion. I wish there was a hell so he could rot in it.

risingsun wrote:Yep, even people who are having double organ transplants:

Linda Wootton: Double heart and lung transplant dies nine days after she has benefits stopped

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/linda-wootton-double-heart-lung-1912498

IDS, a man who lied on his CV, lives rent free in father-in-laws huge mansion.  I wish there was a hell so he could rot in it.

Don't forget his £29 breakfasts paid for by the taxpayer.

Haul him back to Edinburgh and put him on trial in Edinburgh Castle for crimes against humanity.