{"id":4514,"date":"2015-06-19T15:45:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T14:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4514"},"modified":"2015-06-19T16:35:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T15:35:07","slug":"only-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4514","title":{"rendered":"Only the beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bConditionality\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in the benefits system \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the idea that claimants must meet certain conditions in order to receive their benefits, or face the consequences\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas been taken to absurd levels by the previous coalition government, as their deadly sanctions regime has so far shown.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd according to a recent report<\/a>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to get much worse.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe New Policy Institute has warned that the rollout of Universal Credit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a welfare reform brought in by the previous government that will roll six benefits into one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c could substantially increase benefits sanctions.<\/p>\n

 
\nLast year, more than half a million people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 686,000\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhad their benefits stopped, with many claimants reporting abusive treatment from job centre staff and sanctions being meted out for the most trivial reasons<\/a>, including being minutes late for an appointment because the queue was so long.<\/p>\n

 
\nEven though the sanctions regime has demonstrably failed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c after all, a high proportion of sanctions appeals are in the end won by claimants \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the present Tory government has vowed to strengthen conditionality under Universal Credit.<\/p>\n

 
\nSanctioned for working<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nSanctions will now be under the domain of both out-of-work and in-work benefits. This will leave some claimants in the chilling, Kafkaesque position of, as blogger Johnny Void has noted<\/a>, facing an in-work sanction for actually going to work<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor those receiving UC, working families who are earning below a certain level (usually 35 hours at the national minimum wage) will be bound by conditionality and so at risk of being sanctioned.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs Void noted:<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnder the new rules part-time workers will have to attend a job interview with just 48 hours\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 notice or their benefits will be stopped. This is likely to mean someone required to take time off their existing employment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at short notice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to attend a job interview somewhere else. If they go to work instead of the interview they could face a sanction. As anyone who has ever had a real job will know, this will place claimants in an impossible position forcing to them to make the choice between risking being sacked or sanctioned.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnder Universal Credit, several benefit payments will be paid out in one sum.<\/p>\n

 
\nVoid shows how an in-work sanction under UC might work in practice. If a claimant working 16 hours a week on the minimum wage earns \u00c2\u0141104 a week, he would get roughly \u00c2\u0141111 per week in Universal Credit for a total of \u00c2\u0141215. If he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sanctioned \u00e2\u20ac\u201c after paying rent and council tax on the cheapest band \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left with little more than \u00c2\u014140 a week for food, clothing, bills and fares to work.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is difficult to imagine how someone could maintain the level of health and hygiene necessary to hold down a job on such a paltry income, unless they stop paying their rent,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Void argues. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHomelessness or unemployment will be the stark choice facing sanctioned working claimants \u00e2\u20ac\u201c although if they leave their job they will be sanctioned again, or possibly disallowed any benefit completely.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nLabour market myth<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe Resolution Foundation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent report on Universal Credit and how it might be improved acknowledged the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire to make the benefits system less complex , but argued that its design is founded on a fundamental myth about the labour market.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt root, UC is a policy shaped by the view that the towering problem facing the UK today is mass worklessness,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 noted Gavin Kelly of the Resolution Foundation<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYet worklessness among non-disabled couples with children has plummeted over the last fifteen years. As things stand UC will end up being a missed opportunity to make in-roads into one of the real social-ills of our time: in-work poverty and the low pay trap.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner railed against sanctions, which he argued are ideologically motivated.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already had years of a failed sanctions regime \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we know that sanctions don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work and they often cut off the only lifeline people have before falling into an abyss that in some cases has been fatal,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat this government has chosen to ramp up a failed and inhumane policy makes it abundantly clear that their motivations are driven only by a sinister ideology that demonises victims of a recession they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve created in the first place.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBeing sanctioned for actually going to work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the implications of this situation beggars belief,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis emboldened Tory government has no interest in making work pay. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only interested in making ordinary, hardworking people suffer by destroying the social safety net and public services in order to line the pockets of ultra-rich corporations through tax breaks and backdoor subsidies.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis assault on the 99 per cent to cynically empower the 1 per cent he said can only be combatted through mobilised action.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most brazen theft of citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll only stop once we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mobilised a citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 movement that stands in solidarity. Tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly march in the first step in doing just that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nJoin us tomorrow (June 20) at the People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly march, which is set to be attended by more than a hundred thousand people. More details can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bConditionality\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in the benefits system \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the idea that claimants must meet certain conditions in order to receive their benefits, or face the consequences\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas been taken to absurd levels by the previous coalition government, as their deadly sanctions regime has so far shown.   And according to a recent report, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to get much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[265,76,231],"wps_subtitle":"Sanctions set to increase under Universal Credit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4514"}],"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=4514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4515,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4514\/revisions\/4515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}