Citizens Advice has called for a genuine yellow card system to be introduced for benefit claimants facing a sanction.
As the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced changes to benefit sanctions policy the national charity says that the culture of ‘sanction first, ask questions later’ must end.
In the last twelve months Citizens Advice helped people with over 10,000 benefit sanction issues.
Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:
“This must be the beginning of the end of ‘sanction first, ask questions later’.
“A fair and effective sanctions regime does have a role to play in the welfare system, but it mustn’t make it harder for people to find a job. New guidance for Jobcentre staff is a positive step towards an ‘intelligent’ system of conditionality which is less punitive and more likely to support people into work.
“A 14 day period to give evidence that a sanction should not be imposed should lead to fewer people being unfairly sanctioned, as they have time to ensure that the Jobcentre has the full picture about their circumstances. However there is still room for a genuine yellow card system, where people are given a warning but are not sanctioned the first time they don’t meet the conditions of their claim.
“While it is good news that hardship payments will become easier to access, it is still worrying that vulnerable people being sanctioned still have to jump through administrative hoops to get financial support. Citizens Advice would like to see a fairer system where there is a limit to how much of a vulnerable person’s benefit that can be sanctioned. This would ensure that no vulnerable person sanctioned while on JSA or ESA is left entirely without income”