Dear M Boyce, Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. Please fin enclosed our reply. If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above. Yours sincerely, DWP Central FoI Team ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your right to complain under the Freedom of Information Act If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing [email address] or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team, Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within two months of the date of this letter. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF www.ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us or telephone 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745 -----Original Message----- From: M Boyce [mailto:[FOI #252543 email]] Sent: 07 February 2015 00:20 To: DWP freedom-of-information-requests Subject: Freedom of Information request - The benefit disentitlement trick. Dear Department for Work and Pensions, FOI request: JSA disentitlement as a FIRST resort as opposed to JSA sanction as a LAST resort. In the Gov.UK press release of 6 November 2013 titled: ‘ ending the something for nothing culture’, it states the following: ‘Sanctions are used as a LAST resort and the DWP has put in place a comprehensive monitoring regime to ensure that sanctions are always and only applied where appropriate to do so.’ ‘The decision to impose a sanction is taken by an independent decision maker - and everyone has the right to appeal. Crucially, people are always made aware of their right to appeal BEFORE any sanction is imposed.’ So, that’s what happens if a JSA claimant is SANCTIONED (has a 100% reduction in their JSA imposed by DWP) for missing a JSA interview. But what happens if a claimant is DISENTITLED to JSA ( has a 100% reduction in their JSA imposed by DWP) for missing a JSA interview? Well, here, the cosy, warm little World of Sanction does not apply - the claimants benefit is stopped as a FIRST resort, without warning, and without good reason. In the Decision Makers Guide, Volume 6, Chapter 34: Sanctions: Lower-level sanction 34161 2.1 ‘Claimant fails to participate in an interview at the JCP‘. 34205 ‘Claimants will be given the opportunity to explain why they have not complied with requirements…’ The new sanctions regime came into effect on 22/10/12, and within the sanctions guidelines is a particularly unjustified and nasty little surprise. Under the title : ‘Time to show good reason’ 34211 it states: ‘The time a claimant will have to contact JCP where there is a failure to participate in an interview at JCP is 5 working days’ And then Note 1: ‘From 22/10/12 non-participation in the interview leads to DISENTITLEMENT in ALL cases except where the claimant makes contact within 5 working days in which case the DM considers a sanction.’ What all this means is that if a claimant fails to attend a JSA interview (they simply didn’t receive the appointment letter for example) and they didn’t contact JCP within 5 working days to tell them that they hadn’t received the JSA appointment letter (how could they if they didn’t know about it?) then they will be instantly disentitled to JSA (100% reduction) for up to two weeks - as a FIRST resort. There is no right to appeal BEFORE a disentitlement is applied, unlike when a sanction is applied, although both result in a 100% loss of JSA. Even when you find out that JCP has sneakily and secretly disentitled you to JSA behind your back, then there is also no automatic right to appeal, and no automatic right to request a Mandatory Reconsideration ( disentitlement is like being sent to prison without a trial, except the DWP don’t make you wear an orange jump-suit, at least not yet anyway ).The DWP have stitched-up many thousands of claimants in this way, and that is probably a substantial understatement. Questions: (1) How many claimants have been disentitled to JSA for missing a JCP interview they didn’t know about, and couldn’t know about, leaving them destitute and reliant on food banks? (2) If DWP doesn’t record these figures, then can it explain why it does not do so? Is it because you do not want the public to know the TRUE number of claimants being unjustly deprived of JSA by the DWP? Sanctions are just the tip of the food bank iceberg, unrecorded and unaccountable disentitlement is what lurks beneath. (3) How much money has the DWP saved by unjust disentitlement of JSA claimants? The DWP knows that unjust disentitlement of claimants goes unmonitored and unchecked. This little gem of deception sits almost unnoticed in the current sanctions regime, and because it is not technically a sanction, though it has exactly the same result, it has been designed to fall outside of the ‘safeguards’ built into the sanctions regime. Very crafty DWP. Yours faithfully, M Boyce ------------------------------------------------------------------- Please use this email address for all replies to this request: [FOI #252543 email] Is [email address] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests to Department for Work and Pensions? If so, please contact us using this form: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_request/new?body=dwp Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. 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