STEWART PATERSON

Political Correspondent

BENEFITS sanctions for Jobseekers lead to severe hardship and people should be given warnings before sanctions are imposed a committee of MPs has said.

In a damning report the DWP has been told it does not understand the full impact sanctions have on people’s lives and it should carry out greater research on how people are affected.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee recommended a trail of a system of first time warnings instead of moving straight to a sanction and denying people money to live on.

It said sanctions lead to debt, rent arrears and homelessness to those whose benefit money is stopped sometimes for several weeks.

The committee found that the typical sanction s lasts four weeks with a Jobseeker Allowance claimant losing £300.

In 2015 there were 400,000 sanctions imposed on people across the UK.

The report stated there was an unacceptable wide variation in the imposition of sanctions across different Jobcentres and DWP hasn’t attempted to find out why some impose sanctions more than others.

The DWP’s claim that sanctions improve people’s chances of seeking and finding work was questioned by the cross party committee.

It stated: “The Department emphasised evidence that sanctions increase employment, but the evidence is also very mixed.”

The MPs found sanctions can lead to short-term and lower-paid work. And that some people stop claiming after a sanction without finding a job.

It warned: “This can create knock-on effects that others pay for, such as using food banks or needing advice from local authorities or charities for dealing with debt.”

Glasgow Homelessness Network gave written evidence to the committee and said for its clients, sanctions had the opposite effect to finding work.

It said: “With estimates of the proportion of service users subject to sanctions as high as 30% in one service, not one example of a person moving into employment was able to be provided.”

Instead MPs were told Sanctions: “Do they polar opposite, driving already marginalised and struggling people further out to the edge”.

The committee concluded: “We know that sanctions encourage some people into work but sanctions have increased in severity in recent years and can have serious consequences such as debt, rent arrears and homelessness.

“It is, therefore, important that the Department uses sanctions carefully and protects vulnerable people from unnecessary hardship.”