{"id":13065,"date":"2017-08-18T16:03:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T15:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13065"},"modified":"2017-08-18T16:03:49","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T15:03:49","slug":"abhorrent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13065","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Abhorrent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Tories have imposed benefit sanctions lasting at least six months on nearly 6,000 sick and disabled people, shocking new figures show.<\/p>\n

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Department for work and pensions (DWP) data<\/a> revealed the number of sanctions against people claiming the disability benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in the four years to 2017.<\/p>\n

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Between December 2012 and December 2016, 71,543 out of a total 2.4m ESA claimants were sanctioned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The average length of an ESA sanction, which normally includes stopping a claimant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money, was 28 days.<\/p>\n

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Shockingly, 5,739 sick or disabled<\/a> people had sanctions imposed of 27 weeks or more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another 6,579 people had their ESA sanctioned for between 14 and 26 weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams said<\/a>, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is abhorrent to see the Tories sanction thousands of sick and disabled people for up to six months, depriving them of much needed financial support and causing them further stress.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A DWP official insisted only ESA claimants deemed capable of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwork-related activity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not those with more serious conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c can have sanctions made against them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But deeply flawed work capability assessments mean that many people who are declared fit for \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwork-related activity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 are not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including more than 4,000 people who died within six weeks<\/a> of being deemed capable of employment.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Hardship and stigma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Head of Unite Community Liane Groves said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLife in austerity Britain for many disabled people means hardship and stigma.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFrom being labelled work shy scroungers by the right-wing press to degrading work capability assessments that declare the dying \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fit for work\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, the last seven years of Tory rule has seen the dignity and living standards of disabled people come under sustained attack.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\n <\/p>\n

Groves added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bImposing sanctions on the sick and disabled is part of that attack. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no evidence that sanctions work, so it can only be assumed this is about punishing the most vulnerable in our society for being just that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply unacceptable and Unite demands the government ends its dehumanising sanctions regime immediately.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tories have imposed benefit sanctions lasting at least six months on nearly 6,000 sick and disabled people, shocking new figures show.   Department for work and pensions (DWP) data revealed the number of sanctions against people claiming the disability benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in the four years to 2017.   Between December […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[491,172],"wps_subtitle":"Shock figures show Tories sanction 6,000 sick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13069,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13065\/revisions\/13069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}