Report warns of inappropriate conditions on benefit claimants
A new report has warned that job centres are imposing impossible conditions on Universal Credit claimants with complex needs, leading to punishing financial sanctions.
No-one Left Behind, published by the centre-left Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank, said that ‘what may constitute reasonable job search requirements for one person on out-of-work universal credit could be completely unachievable for another’.
‘There is considerable flexibility built into the system which can be applied to positive effect,’ said the report. ‘In practice, however, the reality for too many people is that the system does not treat them as an individual and they find themselves at the sharp end of an often punitive system of conditionality. The consequences of this can be dire or, in the most severe circumstances, lethal.’
‘People who hit rock bottom need time and support to get themselves sorted out, but instead of support, DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] staff often feel like they are judging you, that you have failed and need to be taught a lesson,’ the IPPR quoted Julian Dalley, a support worker with experience of homelessness and rough sleeping.
The report said that because of the power imbalance between job centre staff and claimants short of money, claimants end up agreeing to conditions that require them to spend 35 hours a week looking for work even though they are homeless and have mental health issues.
The report made a series of recommendations, including:
- If a claimant has said in their claim that they have no housing costs, job centre work coaches should try and understand the claimant’s housing circumstances properly as part of the standard first meeting, to help identify homelessness
- Automatically offer advance payments to claimants without savings, so as to cover the initial five-week wait for a first payment
- Introduce reforms so that more claimants are offered ‘easements’ which loosen or remove the conditions on their claim
- Reduce the use of sanctions, particularly where there is a risk of harm to the claimant, and replace the first sanction with an intervention meeting without financial penalties – and ultimately consider the case for abolishing sanctions altogether
- Reform the rules around repayment of debts so that claimants keep a greater share of their payment each month
Photo by Tim Gouw