My experience of DWP sanctions over 15 years ago hardly compare with those described by my friend Charlotte Hughe @charlotteh71 in her blog: Sanctioned At Christmas https://thepoorsideof.life/2023/12/15/sanctioned-at-christmas/ I thought they were unreasonable and unfair at the time, they’ve got a helluva lot worse since. Nevertheless, both Charlotte and I agree it’s relating my experience.

I was employed temporarily at the DWP HR Centre in Leeds and my manager and most of my colleagues wanted me to get a permanent job. It was my misfortune to be interviewed by the manager of my local Jobcentre, not only didn’t I get the job I was subsequently sanctioned for not applying for another job that would’ve required unreasonable travel time to and from work

The first time I only lost out on a week’s JSA because I failed to reply to a letter I hadn’t received. The notification arrived on a Friday and the phone number it gave was there usual office number, not that or the temporary office they were using which happened to be just across the road from my previous address. To go there in person to reapply meant a 20 minute bus journey which I couldn’t do until Monday, I actually went in on Tuesday. The young lady who interviewed me didn’t see any reason why my application shouldn’t be backdated, but it was because I “hadn’t given sufficient reason for the delay (1 day) in reapplying.”

It’s worth noting in this context that I used to work for the Department of Social Security (DSS) in Australia processing JSA payments. If someone‘s JSA was stopped for failure to reply to letter from the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES – equivalent to Jobcentre+ but a different department) I could restore their benefit with no need to reapply. The cancellation happened automatically, just as my housing benefit was cancelled along with my JSA, but easily restored. I had one awkward phone call when I told someone their benefit had been cancelled and they were so angry that they hung up before I could tell them what to do about it. Of course I didn’t expect people to know that I had been there myself and was able to empathise.

The second time was two months before my 60th birthday when I had been unemployed for over a year and had been notified that I would be eligible to apply for pension credit when I turned 60 (it would’ve been 12m months on JSA and over 55 in Australia but that’s probably changed now as so much else). I was required to apply for a job which I thought would be difficult to get to by public transport even if my application was successful, which I doubted, and I told them I would need to check travelling times. I thought it would be to long, I could’ve had a permanently job in York 3 years earlier if I’d been prepared to spend so much time traveling – 3 hrs traveling to and from work doesn’t leave much time for anything else once you’ve cooked and eaten a meal. It’s doesn’t count as work time, for which you’re paid, but neither is it leisure time that you can spend doing something you enjoy doing!

DWP expect job applicants to spend 90 minutes traveling to a job and calculated that I could do it in 80 minutes. Of course nobody actually did the journey themselves, they worked it out by using Traveline – an app I’d never heard of as I had no internet connection at the time except via my local library. It failed to take into account that if my train into Leeds was even a couple of minutes late, which would be more often than not, it very likely mean me missing my bus connection – especially when you consider the time it takes to exit Leeds Station at rush hour! It also failed to take into account the time it time to travel home – if you have a set time for finishing work there may not be a bus immediately available for your return journey which increases your travelling time.

For two months I was walking the 12 miles into Selby to collect a giro from the Jobcentre to keep me going, I hadn’t got my bus pass yet. This was half of what I would have received on full JSA and had to be repaid. It’s ridiculous to expect people to look for work when they don’t have enough to live on, I couldn’t even claim phone credit as a necessary expense. I needed a mobile phone to receive calls from an employment agency, they wouldn’t even register me without one, but couldn’t even call the Jobcentre if I had no credit and could easily use up what credit I had while waiting for someone to pick up the phone. We still had a phone box up the street then, but even with a free call number (which couldn’t be used on a mobile phone) I still needed change for a call and be prepared to stand for ages waiting for someone to answer. Phone boxes are a thing of the past, it’s now taken for granted that we all have mobile phones. As I said at the start, a lot has changed in 15 years – and not for the better 😠

When I turned 60 I still had to wait a month for my Pension Credit to come through because Jobcentre+ had closed my account but not fully, which prevented Pension Service from processing my claim – which meant many trips to a phone box that no longer exists. As soon as it was granted I received 2x the amount of JSA instead of 0.5x, backdated so I received a very welcome lump sum. I still had to repay the emergency payments I had received, but not all at once.

This is all in the past and I don’t want anything I’ve said to be taken as moaning about what happened to me, I just want to give some perspective on Charlotte’s blog. Please don’t judge frontline Jobcentre too harshly, they’re probably on minimum wages and there’s a revolving door at DWP. You don’t see it, but those on the front desk can be inside one week and out the next while those making the decisions are cosily ensconced in their nook! I’ve been through those revolving doors a couple of times so I have quite a unique perspective.