DWP Bulletin.  Review of JSA sanctions

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-stakeholder-bulletin-for-national-organisations-nov-2013

Passed me by, but apparently started on 11.11.2013

Independent review of sanctions
Matthew Oakley, Head of Economic Analysis at Which?, is leading an independent review of benefit sanctions for the Secretary of State. The review will look at Job Seekers Allowance sanctions for mandatory schemes such as the work programme, but specifically, sanctions validated by the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act 2013. To inform the review, Matthew is collecting evidence about the whole sanctions process; including sanction decisions, appeals and hardship applications. Collecting information from benefit claimants and representatives is vital to this review. Matthew launched a call for information on 11 November 2013 and would like all interested bodies to contribute by 10 January 2014.

I think this sounds better than it actually is. See recent Work and Pensions Committee Report on the Role of Jobcentre Plus in the Reformed Welfare System, here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmworpen/uc479-vi/uc47901.htm

at Q574 Dame Anne Begg states about the review of sanctions’ remit:

“I have just had a look at the terms of reference, and it is all about clarity of communications. There is nothing in this remit to look at the appropriateness of the sanctions…...”

Must agree with her there…....

Edit for typo

i agree too - i think it’s in response to ‘poundland’ court decisions which held that dwp communications about sanctions were not good enough.

Thought it all sounded a bit too enlightened :-)  Still would it harm to bombard the man?

Doing a bit of research and just found the following re benefit scroungers from 1978!

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9515.1978.tb00127.x/abstract;jsessionid=3500B109CE977C09E25D7E220670129F.f03t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Mr Oakley has previously worked for the Policy Exchange, a right-leaning think tank, as well as a stint in the Treasury working on welfare reforms. From what I gather, he’s quite keen on the use of sanctions as a tool to harry people off benefit and into work, and I wouldn’t hold any hopes for anything too positive coming out of this review.

It would be unrealistic to hope that they would appoint someone impartial! And of course, the results will be fed through the DWP’s statistics mangling unit before being released to show probably that the use of sanctions is fair, justified and just what is needed to get those millions of scroungers back to work!!

further to yesterday’s rightsnet news story -

Scope of independent review of sanctions appears to be ‘narrower than what is required by legislation’, says CPAG

here are links to CPAG’s and NAWRA’s responses -

- http://www.cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/CPAG-response-JSA-sanctions-call-for-information-Jan-14.pdf

- http://www.nawra.org.uk/wordpress/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Independent-review-of-sanctions-January-20141.pdf

Well, I’m eating some humble pie apparently, on the basis of the brief snatches that I’ve read thus far about the findings of Mr Oakley’s enquiry.

“No matter what system of social security is in place, if it is communicated poorly, if claimants do not understand the system and their responsibilities, and if they are not empowered to challenge decisions they believe to be incorrect and seek redress, then it will not fulfil its purpose. It will be neither fair nor effective.

My Review was tasked with assessing whether the current system is functioning as it should. While I found that the system is not fundamentally broken, there are a number of areas where improvements need to be made, particularly for more vulnerable individuals”

Here’s some musings on the Oakley report I knocked up last week for CPAG blog.

Rights (and wrongs) of sanctions

Paul_Treloar_CPAG - 28 July 2014 10:33 AM

Here’s some musings on the Oakley report I knocked up last week for CPAG blog.

Rights (and wrongs) of sanctions

I am unable to view this? Is it just me?

tbidmead - 28 July 2014 10:40 AM

I am unable to view this? Is it just me?

here’s the raw link, see if that works?

http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/rights-and-wrongs-sanctions

Paul_Treloar_CPAG - 28 July 2014 10:42 AM

tbidmead - 28 July 2014 10:40 AM

I am unable to view this? Is it just me?

here’s the raw link, see if that works?

http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/rights-and-wrongs-sanctions

It doesn’t

Not there even if I follow links from CPAG hopmepage, there’s just the headline & no content. No preview text on blogs homepage either, unlike other blogs.

hi there .. both links are working fine for me ...

cheers - shawn

Not working for me.

shawn - 28 July 2014 01:14 PM

hi there .. both links are working fine for me ...

cheers - shawn

thanks Shawn, i thought i was going mad.

i’ve been able to view at work, at home, and on my mobile, so not sure why other people can’t view it? browser compatibility perhaps?