1. Tracey Herrington EMPOWERING SANCTIONED CLAIMANTS

2. Lisa’s story  Lisa is a single parent with 2 children  Had been on JSA for 2 years and signed a Job Centre Agreement (Claimant Commitment) setting out the steps she would take to look for work and agreeing to apply for a set number of jobs  Lisa started work for 15 hours per week so still had to sign on  Due to her working hours, she was unable to apply for her ‘agreed’ number of jobs  She was sanctioned ‘with no end date’, she was informed by letter of this decision and not given any information re: impact on other benefits and hardship payments despite seeking advice

3. Josh’s story  Josh is 19 years old and has now had 2 sanctions  He was living in a Hostel due to family breakdown  Josh was offered a place to stay with a friend so left the hostel  He informed the Job Centre of this move and provided them with his new address  A letter was sent to the hostel after he had moved out – advising him to attend an appointment with the Job Centre- Josh did not receive this letter  He did not receive his JSA so rang the Job Centre to be informed that he had been sanctioned  Josh appealed but was unsuccessful  Josh is now on an apprenticeship programme but has been informed that he will still be on a sanction should he need to make a JSA claim in the future

4. The Impact: Putting it into Perspective  Imagine this situation was forced upon you by your employer, who decided to withhold a month’s salary because you were late for a meeting, or failed to meet your performance targets one week  How would you cope – imagine your income stopped suddenly tomorrow?