4 week run on and sanctions.

I am getting a ridiculous amount of people who are receiving mickey mouse sanctions from A4E for the slightest thing.

The good thing (I suppose) is that claimants are getting so sick of the hassle they are getting from JC+ and A4E that it appears to be spurring them on to find work.

The main problem however is that they are being advised by their Jobcentre Plus advisers that they will be entitled to the 4 week run on of HB/CTB if they find work.

What is actually happening is that our Local Authority are saying they cant have their run on, as their JSA was perhaps sanctioned for a fortnight 4-5 months ago or something like that.
The 26 week rule means they have to be in receipt of JSA for that period, and they are treating sanctions (even 1 day) as a break in the claim.

This is leading people into a situation where they will rack up rent arrears/CT arrears as some people have to wait 2 months before getting their first pay packet. They also did not bother to appeal the sanctions months ago as they think “Its a waste of time as we would lose anyway”.

Late appeals are problematic without due cause however if i was to , for example, appeal and win 9 months down the line would the claimant be able to claim the run on retrospectively or will the time limit apply?

This situation is actually leading many claimants to refuse work as they cant afford to live without the run on.

Surely A4E can’t impose sanctions, only DWP decision makers?

A4E and G4S can instruct Jobcentre plus that the clients are in breach of whatever, and JC+ do indeed apply the sanction. They couldnt do so without A4E and G4S asking for the sanction in the first place.
Their was a good bit in Private eye the other week. FOI request found out that G4S requested almost 8000 claimants be sanctioned in the first 6 months of the year due to poor compliance. This is good coming from a company who made a pigs ear of the Olympics and we had to get the army in!