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Gizza a job!
Nearly half a million claimants sanctioned last year.
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/nearly-half-a-million-claimants-sanctioned-last-year/
As at September 2012 the JSA claimant count was 1.57 million. The figure has remained fairly consistent over the last twelve months.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
Does that mean that about one third of JSA claimants were sanctioned last year? If so, then that’s astonishing. Or is that too naïve a reading of the figures?
I would imagine that there is an element of double counting, insofar as some JSA claimants will have been given more than one sanction over any 12 month period.
I’ve had a go on the DWP statistical tabulation tool, which I find quite difficult to use, and I can’t see how you can measure this - maybe someone else can advise how it works?
Still sounds like a heck of a lot of sanctions against overall caseload.
You are not comparing like with like though nevip - you would either need to compare against the total number of claims made throughout the year (which as PT says has the complicating factor of repeat claims and repeat sanctions), or compare numbers subject to a sanction on a particular day with numbers claiming on that day.
Thanks both, I hadn’t thought of that. I still wonder what the true figure is though.
i was speaking to a jobcentre employee last week and asked if it were true that each office has a target number of sanctions to give out, which i had heard somewhere. she told me this isn’t policy as such (at least in her office) but if a member of staff hadnt issued one for 6 months (for example) they would be questioned as to why, as “some of the claimants must have done something wrong in that time”
that doesn’t seem like the right approach to me, but then maybe that’s why i don’t work for the DWP
Remember these stories from last year.
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/dwp-confirms-jobcentre-staff-working-to-sanctions-targets/
Tony : the case of your client who failed to attend WFI as he was already on the work programme has happened also to one of mine. I even put on the GL24 that the claimant could not be expected to be in 2 places at once and was damned if he did show or damned if he didnt. The DM refused to revise.
Another client of mine had been on JSA for 3 weeks and didnt know rules. She did her jobsearches but when she informed her adviser she had no CV she got a 2 week sanction for not trying hard enough!
I have no problem with people who cant be arsed getting sanctioned, but we are getting weirder and more vicious sanctions. Our local authority wants us to inform their WRS of ALL JSA sanctions as its getting out of hand.
Nearly half a million claimants sanctioned last year.
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/nearly-half-a-million-claimants-sanctioned-last-year/
As at September 2012 the JSA claimant count was 1.57 million. The figure has remained fairly consistent over the last twelve months.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
Does that mean that about one third of JSA claimants were sanctioned last year? If so, then that’s astonishing. Or is that too naïve a reading of the figures?
I’ve read the DWP press release again and it does say 495,000 claimants were sanctioned and not 495,000 sanctions issued last year, although I accept what other posters above have said when speculating about what the true meaning of the statement is. Personally I think the DWP press release is purposefully written in this way to send out a hardline message and it would be interesting to get hold of the true picture. If it is 495,000 claimants being sanctioned or even 495,000 sanctions issued then it points to something being seriously wrong with the system (which we as WR advisers know already)! I wholeheartedly agree with what Tony said about the standard of decision making in this area and it bears out our experience as well. We don’t get many appeals at all relating to JSA sanctions. I suspect this is because sanction periods are relatively short when compared to the length of time it takes to get the case before a Tribunal. People just put up with it and JobCentre Plus know this, which is probably why there has never really been any proper scrutiny of the standard of decisioin making in this area. This may change however if 3 year sanctions start becoming the norm!
[ Edited: 2 Nov 2012 at 01:10 pm by DoINotLikeThat ]I inform ALL JSA clients that i encounter, or people about to be on JSA due to redundancy or lost ESA appeals, that they must toe the line. My experience of the ridiculous sanctions applied in Sunderland make this pretty much necessary these days unfortunately for the reasons I posted earlier.
I tell the claimants to not only do their jobsearches, but to back it up with free certificates of posting, copies of emails and logging all phone calls made regarding applications. Ridiculous but necessary.
The other day a bloke in the pub told me (he was giving out benefit advice apparently) that the DWP is planning to implant all jobseekers with a microchip and force them to wear a bow tie. The chip will be able to tell when the claimant is lying to the DWP and send the bow tie spinning around like a whirling dervish. Result sanction. Marvelous.
The chip will be able to tell when the claimant is lying to the DWP and send the bow tie spinning around like a whirling dervish.
Self-defeating; I’d never give a job to someone wearing a *clip-on* tie.
(Mutters: What’s the world coming to ... young people these days ... Nanny always said .... )