Benefit Sanctions Forcing People To Use Food Banks, Study Confirms

Benefit sanctions, whereby social security claimants have their payments stopped for at least a month as a punishment for breaching jobcentre rules, are a key driver of hunger and food bank use, according to a study carried out by Oxford University academics. The study, which mapped official sanctions data against food bank referral figures, concluded that a “robust link” existed between increases in the number of benefit sanctions handed out and rising numbers of adults receiving food parcels. It found that every three-month increase of 10 sanctions per 100,000 of the population over a four-year period was associated with around five more instances of adults being referred for charity food parcels, suggesting a “strong, dynamic relationship” between the two. Read more on the Guardian website.

Former DWP Staff Go Rogue to Help Benefit Claimants

Three disgruntled former civil servants have been inundated with pleas for help after they set up a website offering emergency advice to welfare claimants who believe their benefits have been wrongly docked.  The three women behind the website, who all worked for the DWP, allege that many Jobcentre staff are instructed to veto a set proportion of claims. The allegation is strongly denied by the department.  In the last few days it has gone viral and the women have been bombarded by claimants accusing the DWP of unfairly cutting their benefits. On one day last week the website, www.jobseekersanctionadvice.com, received 200 messages, half from people protesting against being wrongly penalised. Read more on the Independent website.

UC Confusion Risks Driving Large Landlords Away From Housing Benefit Tenants

Confusion over how rent arrears will be tackled under Universal Credit has prompted almost four in 10 larger landlords to reduce the number of properties they let to welfare recipients, research from the British Property Federation (BPF) has revealed. The BPF said that landlord groups, NGOs and Government should all act to reduce the uncertainty of the impact of the Government’s flagship welfare reform after it found that 39% of landlords with more than 10 properties were intending to reduce the number of properties they let to those on housing benefit, when the change comes in. Universal Credit is designed to offer greater protection to landlords from rent arrears, but the BPF said that the result of its survey meant that this message was not accepted by many landlords. Read more on the BPF website.

Benefit Claimants Will Find It Harder To Rent, Warn Landlords

People on welfare are likely to find it harder to rent unless the government offers greater certainty over when housing benefit will be paid to landlords, the Residential Landlords Association has claimed. The RLA is warning that the government’s refusal to define when a landlord can secure direct payment of benefit to them when a tenant is in default on their rent will encourage letters to exclude claimants. Read more on 24dash.