sanctioned based on subjective decisions

Originally posted by Mary:

Thousands of claimants are being sanctioned based on subjective decisions made by JC officials and which are rubber stamped by the Decision Maker.

It is then for the claimant to prove that s/he applied for a sufficient number of jobs.  The same applies to UC claimants.

However, the upper hand still lies with the claimant, for the following reasons:

1.  The JC official cannot prove how much time you have spent looking for work and how long each application took.  This will of course, vary for every job and the ability of each claimant.

2. From my experience most of the jobs identified by the JC official do not match the claimant's skills, circumstances etc.

3. The JC official fails to provide sufficient detail about the jobs, so the case would never succeed at Tribunal.  UM cases have been won before reaching the Tribunal.

DWP has a devised a very crude tool, which has been was used to sanction UC claimants based on the times specified within the template, which is very wrong and I believe it would not be condoned by any Tribunal Judge.

NB  You can be sanctioned for applying for unsuitable jobs!

It is a minefield, but the template has a proven to be successful.  Claimants only need to show they have taken reasonable steps for their circumstance as well as the prevailing labour market conditions that existed at the time.

The DMG goes on to explain the matters to be considered.  For example, if a claimant has been long term unemployed it is likely there will be fewer opportunities available to them.  However, many JC officials do not take the relevant matters into account due to the pressure to meet internal targets/measures!  :angry:

21634 When determining whether claimants have taken the steps that they can reasonably be expected to take, the DM should consider all the circumstances of the case
.
Matters that must be taken into account are
1. the claimant's skills, qualifications and abilities and
2. the claimant's physical or mental limitations and
3. the time that has passed since the claimant was last in employment and
4. the claimant's work experience and
5. the steps that the claimant has taken in previous weeks and the effectiveness of those steps in improving their chance of getting employment and
6. the availability and location of vacancies in employment and
7. any time during which the claimant was

Claimants who have a good prospect of securing employment are not required to take every step open to them i.e. applying for many jobs

21617 Claimants who have a good chance of getting employment may have many steps open to them that may lead to offers of employment. But they need not take all those steps as long as they take those steps that they can reasonably be expected to take to offer them their best chance of getting employment.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470844/dmgch21.pdf