Shameful act

Benefits sanctions, in which welfare claimants are stripped of their benefits for often spurious reasons and so deprived of their only lifeline, became the hallmark of the previous government’s sinister regime.

 
But the current government has shown no signs of stopping, with the department of work and pensions (DWP) insisting that sanctions change people’s attitudes to work, despite several reports indicating that sanctions can, in fact, be deadly.

 
It was revealed yesterday (August 18) that the DWP produced leaflets featuring two benefits claimants, named Zac and Sarah, who gave positive accounts of their sanctions experiences – except Zac and Sarah were entirely fake.

 
‘Sarah’ recounted how she did not finish a CV that her work coach had instructed her to complete, and was subsequently sanctioned.

 
“I didn’t think a CV would help me,” Sarah was quoted as saying, next to a stock photo of a cheery young woman. “I didn’t have a good reason for not doing it and I was told I’d lose some of my payment.”
Sarah then decides to finish her CV, after which her benefits are resumed.

 
“I’m really pleased with how my CV looks,” she adds. “It’s going to help me when I’m ready to go back to work.”

 
“Zac’s” story, similarly accompanied by a stock photo of a smiling young man, tells of not being able to attend a job centre meeting because of a conflicting hospital appointment.

 
“I had a good reason for not going to the meeting and proof of the appointment,” the dutiful Zac said. “My benefit payment hasn’t changed and we booked another meeting we could get to.”

 
Challenged

 
After being challenged by the specialist publication Welfare Weekly, the DWP edited the leaflet, replacing the stock images with silhouettes. Later on Tuesday evening, however, the leaflets were entirely deleted, with the department stating that the case studies were “for illustrative purposes only.”

 
As the story broke, people took to Twitter, under the hashtag #fakeDWPstories , mocking the DWP for its failed attempt to paint its cruel sanctions regime with a benevolent gloss.

 
This is not the first time that the DWP has been caught out in a botched stab at publicity – late last year, the department was allegedly found to be producing fake tweets praising its own Universal Credit programme.

 
And while Zac and Sarah may have given glowing reviews of the benefits sanctions regime, a growing collection of anecdotes gathering on blogs and national newspapers reveals an entirely different story, with desperate job seekers falling through the cracks after losing their benefits for absurd reasons.

 
Take, for example, a man who found a job that was to begin in two weeks’ time, who was sanctioned for not looking for work while waiting for his new job to start.

 
Or another story of a man who missed an appointment to attend his father’s funeral. Although ‘Zac’ may have successfully kept his benefits by politely notifying his work coach that he’d be missing his own job centre appointment, a man whose father had died had no such luck.

 
Despite giving his work coach advance notice that his appointment would be missed, his benefits were stopped.

 
As UNITElive has previously reported, benefits sanctions aren’t just deeply unfair – they can often be fatal. Even the DWP itself has investigated 60 welfare payments decisions shortly after claimants deaths – the first time the department has acknowledged that sanctions can kill.

 
Research has also shown that skyrocketing demand in food banks can be directly attributed to a rise in benefits sanctions.

 
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner condemned the sanctions regime as the latest DWP blunder came to light.

 
“This is a shameful attempt by Iain Duncan Smith to bend the truth and gloss over the human misery of his cruel sanctions regime,” he said. “In the last two years over 2m people have been sanctioned, often for just arriving minutes late to a meeting or in some circumstances for attending a family funeral.

 
“This has left people destitute and unable to heat their homes or feed their kids,” Turner added. “Iain Duncan Smith should be scrapping his heartless sanctions regime rather than trying to defend them through made up quotes and fictional characters.”

 
Find out more about Unite Community’s campaign against benefits sanctions here.