{"id":5314,"date":"2015-08-19T17:14:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T16:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5314"},"modified":"2015-08-20T10:36:20","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T09:36:20","slug":"shameful-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5314","title":{"rendered":"Shameful act"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sinister regime.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut the current government has shown no signs of stopping, with the department of work and pensions (DWP) insisting that sanctions change people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attitudes to work, despite several reports indicating that sanctions can, in fact, be deadly.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c except Zac and Sarah were entirely fake.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 recounted how she did not finish a CV that her work coach had instructed her to complete, and was subsequently sanctioned.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think a CV would help me,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Sarah was quoted as saying, next to a stock photo of a cheery young woman. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a good reason for not doing it and I was told I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lose some of my payment.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nSarah then decides to finish her CV, after which her benefits are resumed.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really pleased with how my CV looks,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she adds. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to help me when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to go back to work.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bZac\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 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.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI had a good reason for not going to the meeting and proof of the appointment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the dutiful Zac said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy benefit payment hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t changed and we booked another meeting we could get to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nChallenged<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nAfter 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfor illustrative purposes only.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAs 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis is not the first time that the DWP has been caught out in a botched stab at publicity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c late last year, the department was allegedly found to be producing fake tweets<\/a> praising its own Universal Credit programme.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd while Zac and Sarah may have given glowing reviews of the benefits sanctions regime, a growing collection of anecdotes<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nTake, for example<\/a>, a man who found a job that was to begin in two weeks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time, who was sanctioned for not looking for work while waiting for his new job to start.<\/p>\n

 
\nOr another story<\/a> of a man who missed an appointment to attend his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funeral. Although \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Zac\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 may have successfully kept his benefits by politely notifying his work coach that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be missing his own job centre appointment, a man whose father had died had no such luck.<\/p>\n

 
\nDespite giving his work coach advance notice that his appointment would be missed, his benefits were stopped.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs UNITElive has previously reported<\/a>, benefits sanctions aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just deeply unfair \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they can often be fatal. Even the DWP itself has investigated 60 welfare payments decisions shortly after claimants deaths \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first time the department has acknowledged that sanctions can kill.<\/p>\n

 
\nResearch has also shown that skyrocketing demand in food banks can be directly attributed to a rise in benefits sanctions.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner condemned the sanctions regime as the latest DWP blunder came to light.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a shameful attempt by Iain Duncan Smith to bend the truth and gloss over the human misery of his cruel sanctions regime,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn 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.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis has left people destitute and unable to heat their homes or feed their kids,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIain Duncan Smith should be scrapping his heartless sanctions regime rather than trying to defend them through made up quotes and fictional characters.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFind out more about Unite Community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaign against benefits sanctions here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[231],"wps_subtitle":"DWP: Unite slams sham sanctions stories ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5314"}],"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=5314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5316,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5314\/revisions\/5316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}