Tribunal success!

I expect a few members will recall the problems I had last winter with my local Joke Centre - in the six months leading up to the closing of my JSA claim and switching to Pension Credit I had two sanctions; the first was a four week sanction for missing an appointment, overturned at MR stage; the second was a three month sanction for, allegedly, "deliberately failing an interview" for a job at McDonalds, as a result of which I spent the first 3 months of this year on zero income.

Well, I had the Tribunal hearing for this last one yesterday. What a joke! The DWP didn't bother to send a rep. so it was just me and the Judge, who had clearly made his decision before I even arrived. He was a very pleasant man; we had a nice chat for ten minutes, he asked me a bit about my background and recent history, and at the end he said "I really don't understand why the Job centre would send someone of your age, approaching retirement, and your background for a job at McDonalds. I have no hesitation in overturning the sanction!" Sweet!

A bit of an anticlimax really, I was psyched up for an argument and quite looking forward to crossing swords with the DWP, but I'm not complaining, that's nearly £900 heading for my bank account!

Mega thanks to Mary for all her help

Digger wrote:I expect a few members will recall the problems I had last winter with my local Joke Centre - in the six months leading up to the closing of my JSA claim and switching to Pension Credit I had two sanctions; the first was a four week sanction for missing an appointment, overturned at MR stage; the second was a three month sanction for, allegedly, "deliberately failing an interview" for a job at McDonalds, as a result of which I spent the first 3 months of this year on zero income.

Well, I had the Tribunal hearing for this last one yesterday. What a joke! The DWP didn't bother to send a rep. so it was just me and the Judge, who had clearly made his decision before I even arrived. He was a very pleasant man; we had a nice chat for ten minutes, he asked me a bit about my background and recent history, and at the end he said "I really don't understand why the Job centre would send someone of your age, approaching retirement, and your background for a job at McDonalds. I have no hesitation in overturning the sanction!" Sweet!

A bit of an anticlimax really, I was psyched up for an argument and quite looking forward to crossing swords with the DWP, but I'm not complaining, that's nearly £900 heading for my bank account!

Mega thanks to Mary for all her help

Thanks for the great news!

I was quietly confident the appeal would be allowed!

Wishing you all the very best Digger!

An alleged "Refusal of Employment" (RE) sanction is 13 weeks in length for a first offence.

If a person has savings no Hardship can be claimed so the financial loss can be almost £1000!

Most RE sanctions can be easily challenged.

We are here to help!

Well done Digger

well done digger thats great news to have and be told

cheers for letting everyone know that the letters do work

To expedite payment of c.£900 send a copy of the decision notice to JCP. It can take the Tribunal several weeks to do so.

Just for information.

DWP can challenge any First Tier Tribunal Decision, it has one month to do so.  I have only come across this once with a MWA case, but it wasn't escalated to the Upper Tier Tribunal. It is more common with ESA and PIP decisions.

Great news, congrats Digger!

Well done Digger, it must be catching, I've just won as well, three sanctions in my case, all heard at the same tribunal. Thanks to everyone who helped.

Well done uncreased

uncreased wrote:Well done Digger, it must be catching, I've just won as well, three sanctions in my case, all heard at the same tribunal. Thanks to everyone who helped.

very nice to here that uncreased makes everything that we are doing so much worth it in the end

Well done Digger, the drinks are on you then...