anyone who`s clued up on esa sanctions.....
annette kurten
Posts: 39,543 Forum Member
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please.
my friend is in wrag, missed an appointment and was subsequently sanctioned, she`s been trying to get through on £30 a week, she`s in rent arrears due to the extra bedroom penalty, she`s had her limit on food banks, she`s had to sell her cooker to get through and she`s diabetic.
where does she stand legally? can they leave her like this?
i don`t know how long she`s sanctioned for but she`ll be missing the next one too because she won`t have the fiver to get there, i know she`ll get it back but i won`t be around to lend her it and it`s too far to walk [about 9 miles].
any advice would be very much appreciated.
my friend is in wrag, missed an appointment and was subsequently sanctioned, she`s been trying to get through on £30 a week, she`s in rent arrears due to the extra bedroom penalty, she`s had her limit on food banks, she`s had to sell her cooker to get through and she`s diabetic.
where does she stand legally? can they leave her like this?
i don`t know how long she`s sanctioned for but she`ll be missing the next one too because she won`t have the fiver to get there, i know she`ll get it back but i won`t be around to lend her it and it`s too far to walk [about 9 miles].
any advice would be very much appreciated.
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I don't know if this link is any help to you, but it does have a list of how long sanctions last: http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/employment-and-support-allowance/esa-glossary/1482-employment-and-support-allowance-esa-sanctions
Lastly, I'd give the Citizens Advice Bureau a visit/call/email if your friend can - I'm not sure if they will actually be able to do anything, other than offer advice, but it's worth a shot.
Hope she gets it sorted, this sanction stuff is terrible, especially for people who are ill.
she didn`t have the money to get there, i did just look and saw that transport difficulties are a valid reason but i doubt she`ll have been able to contact them over it due to not having any money
i`ll be going round there later with my laptop so i can post from there with the full story.
the other thing is, she really should be in the support group, there`s no way she`s up to working just now but she`s scared to appeal and try to get in support group in case she loses her benefits altogether, is that something that could happen?
i`m really concerned about her, not just because of her eating and keeping warm but because this might well tip her over the edge.
You can only be put in the support group if at least one of the following criteria apply: http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/employment-and-support-allowance/esa-glossary/1353-support-group-descriptors There is a risk that if you appeal you might be found ineligible for ESA, and you can only challenge an appeal decision on a point of law. However, you can reapply for ESA after 6 months from the date of the DWP's decision to find you fit for work, or sooner if your application is based on a new health condition or if a present one has worsened.
Does your friend live in a council house or housing association property? If so she can sign up with Homeswappers and specify that she wants a one bed.
thank you
just as i feared, she`s better off jumping through the hoops rather than trying to claim the appropriate benefit
she`ll not be able to ring them until i get her some credit and i`m skint till thursday.
unfortunately she`s not in a position to exchange with anyone, she is on homelink but she`s been on there since the bedroom fiasco started and has yet to be offered anything as there`s bugger all suitable for her to bid on.
no wonder people are topping themselves over this shit.
edit: i meant to say i know she won`t have known about the phone/home interview thing , so i`ll pass that on, does it apply just to the dwp itself? these are the people who are doing the work stuff [local disability agency].
Thats the only thing I can think of except for the cab/other organisations.
Unfortunately the sanction will last until she attends another interview/work-related activity, or until a successful reconsideration. She might be eligible for a hardship payment. She'll need to talk to the Jobcentre about this.
i can`t ring on her behalf because i don`t have phone credit either, sadly you can`t email them despite their keeness to get everybody applying for shit online. well you can but they don`t reply or acknowledge so i`d imagine it all just goes straight in a big cyber bin. >:(>:(>:(
i`m bloody furious, she shouldn`t be having to sell the cooker to buy food, not with her diabetes, she should be eating proper food and regularly.
i can`t do anything practical for her until thursday.
yes i know its the government, but they are happy to carry out the dirty work.
Beyond that, her options depend on whether she missed a work-focussed interview or a work capability assessment.
If it was a WFI, she needs to ask for a mandatory reconsideration of the sanction, on the basis that she had good cause to miss the appointment. Having no money for fares could constitute good cause, eg if she'd had to spend money on some sort of domestic emergency. If, for example, she has mental health problems that make it difficult for her to plan ahead, make rational decisions etc, this could also help her case. I've also succeeded in challenging a sanction because the client's medication made her so zonked out, she simply couldn't wake up enough to get to the appointment.
If she missed a work capability assessment, they won't reinstate her ESA until she's attended a new WCA appointment. She should contact DWP and ask them to arrange another appointment asap on grounds of hardship.
I have a vague feeling that they should continue to pay 10p per week to keep housing benefit and other passported benefits in payment, but I may be thinking of income support. In any event, she should tell housing benefit about the sanction so they can continue paying her housing benefit. I'll look that up at work tomorrow and get back to you on that point.
Sanctioning people on ESA is crazy imo. Very often, the thing that entitles them to ESA is also the same thing that makes them unable to be organised and keep appointments, so it's really punitive. I've had clients who can't leave the house because of panic attacks sanctioned for not going out to appointments - how crazy is that?
Yes, any one of the nearest Citizens Advice Bureau (see http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm), local council benefits advice unit or community law centre should be able to advise and assist with any challenge to the sanction itself and application for hardship payments, etc.
It is my opinion that Work Programme schemes are in cases destroying people and their life's. The threat of sanctioning is given by some of these inhuman creatures employed at these centre at the drop of a hat, whilst not giving a damn about the implications on someone's life!
I have seen it first hand. Some of the staff at these government agencies lack any empathy, compassion or humanity toward people would attend these schemes. I have seen people in tears - Broken people, after they have been told that they would be reported to staff at the DWA for not attending an interview even when a tragic event had occurred stopping them from attending. I have witnessed job coaches talking to intelligent grown men like children, telling them to be realistic and attend a minimum wage job interview 20 miles away or be reported, even though it financially not viable to do a job that far away, or asking people with suffering mental anxiety, and deemed fit to work by ATOS, to work in calls centres! How utterly demoralising. I detest these schemes. The whole thing is wrong,wrong, wrong!
Regarding what you have said about your friends mh look into regulations 29 and 35, Google is useful hear, look at black triangle!
Hope this helps.
As we can shockingly see and hear here
Benefit Sanctions
Benefit sanctions are supposed to be part of a system helping people back to work. But critics say they penalise the vulnerable and are among the reasons for the growing use of food banks. So how fair is the Government's system of withholding state payments for those who don't comply with welfare rules? Allan Urry hears from whistleblowers who allege some JobCentrePlus staff are setting claimants up to fail in order to meet internal performance targets. Why did a recovering amputee lose his benefits because he didn't answer the phone?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04yk7h6
Why are you opening your post late?
what did you do wrong?
Hey Annette, her local council could help with a Local Welfare Support payment (haven't checked if any other posters have mentioned it)
Here's a random council scheme
http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/advice-and-benefits/benefits/local-welfare-assistance
I think it's £250 limit, she could buy a cooker with it. They maybe able to get the funds to her same day.
It may not be late for the post. Ours rarely gets delivered before 1pm.
Slow postman
Your friend has my deepest sympathies. DWP sanctions are utterly devastating for most people claiming Support Benefits.
My advise would be to get your job centre to refer your friend to the local food bank immediately. Then apply for an emergency discretionary fund from your local council which can issue supermarket store vouchers to cover a period of time. Some food bank will also top up gas and electric cards.
How did it come to this? Who is their right mind thought that stopping someone's support money for up to 3 months was in anyway beneficial to them! It make's me livid.
http://jobseekersanctionadvice.com