‘Cruel’ benefits system must be overhauled

Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby responds to an MPs report criticizing benefit sanction schemes as 'pointlessly cruel'.

‘The Work and Pensions Select Committee has now joined the long list of agencies, including the National Audit Office, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trussell Trust, who point out that benefits sanctions are ‘pointless and cruel’. This follows hard on the 10 October report by the DWP itself that demonstrates that sanctions have no value in helping claimants into work.

‘About one in ten claimants experience sanctions which can lead to the loss of all benefits for periods typically of three months and in extreme cases of three years. This results in extreme hardship.

‘Sanction tie up a disproportionate amount of administrative time. They do not help fit claimants to get work, other than work on any terms perhaps in the informal economy. They do not build the trust between claimants and DWP workers which is essential if benefits advice and work programmes are to help qualify and support people into jobs.’

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