1.4 Evidence from Trussell Trust foodbanks: Case studies
Trussell Trust foodbanks consistently report that more people are coming to them as a result of sanctioning, and that many of these sanctions appear to be unfair. We asked foodbanks to provide specific examples of this, a selection of which are listed here (see
survey for more):
Client from Clay Cross Foodbank:
"Genuine mistake … I had two appointments booked in different places – work assessment and work capability assessment. I went to one and was immediately penalized for not attending the other. It is a Friday afternoon so I don’t know where else I can turn before the weekend.”
Suzanne, Renfrewshire foodbank:
Suzanne’s husband used to be a clinical nurse but suffered a nervous breakdown and couldn’t work, she was then made redundant whilst pregnant. They lost their house and car just before the baby was born.
Living on benefits with Suzanne caring for her children and her husband, her husband was then sent two dates for the same ESA appointment, so the family contacted the benefits office who told them to go to one and not the other. After attending the correct appointment and not attending the other, their benefits were sanctioned as he ‘hadn’t turned up’. They were reduced from £100 pw to £50 pw for their family of four. After 1.5 months, they had not had any contact about the status of their appeal or time frame for their sanction.
They had a 15 year old son and an 18month baby. They had also been hit by removal of the spare room subsidy, as they have 3 bedrooms (extra £40 to pay).
Suzanne’s mother had Parkinson’s, and Suzanne was her carer. She walked 4 miles every day to her house, which when she’d not had a meal in weeks was ‘exhausting’.
“I have gone without to feed my kids, and would go without again. It’s heartbreaking to open the kitchen cupboards and struggle to feed my boys. I never thought I’d be in this situation. I used to take people to foodbanks when I was a social worker. It is nice to have someone offering real help”
The couple appealed the sanction, and – after threatening legal action – the sanction was overturned and the payments backdated. The family had been through an incredibly difficult time and needed to use the foodbank whilst they appealed the decision. They lived on £50 per week for three months. It caused both parents to suffer high levels of stress and anxiety, and made simple tasks like paying for transport to take their son to school immensely difficult.
Further examples of sanctions from Renfrewshire Foodbank:
1. Gentleman who missed appointment due to being at hospital with his partner who had just had a still born child.
2. Gentleman who carried out 60 Jobsearches but missed one which matched his profile. Attention was given to that one and the other 60 ignored.
3. Young couple who had not received any letters regarding an appointment which was thus subsequently missed. Their address at DWP was wrongly recorded. They were left with no money for over a month.
4. Several cases of being a few minutes late due to bus delays. These people expressed to us how when they are on time they often are left waiting long periods before being dealt with. 5. Gentleman who had secured employment and due to start in three weeks. He was sanctioned in the interim period because JCP told him he was still duty bound to send CV to other companies. He was left without money for those 3 weeks.
6. Young man who was homeless and awaiting HGV driving documents told he had not done adequate Job search
7. Young man who only completed five searches when it should have been more. His words, 'It has totally broken my spirit'
8. Young man with learning difficulties wrote, 'My money keeps getting stopped for some reason and I don't know why'
9. Young man who secured employment but in the interim was sanctioned for not looking for work. The money he was denied prevented him from being able to pay travel to the job which he then lost. The system of sanctioning actually cost him the job instead of supporting him to maintain it.
York foodbank:
A gentleman had an appointment at the job centre on the Tuesday, was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack that day, missed the appointment, sanctioned for 9 weeks.
Wokingham foodbank:
Mother of three in tears as she asked for food for her family. Sanctioned because she failed to attend an interview that the DWP had cancelled.
Durham Foodbank:
Sanctioned for failing to attend a course despite being there.
Sanctioned for failing to complete job search diary despite being present (confirmed by jobcentre) at jobcentre job search sessions.
Sanctioned for insufficient detail in job search reports - second JCP officer could see no problem with records.
Sanctioned for not applying for enough jobs online - library was limiting access to computers to 30 minutes a day due to cuts in their opening hours.
Cromer and District Foodbank:
A gentleman who requested permission to attend the funeral of his best friend; permission declined; sanctioned when he went anyway.
Two individuals in the past few months, both diabetics, sanctioned, unable to buy food - one became ill and sent by GP to hospital.
Two young men (unconnected) presented - both told of having no food because of sanctions; both were on treatment for mental health problems; both said their tablets had to be taken with food to be effective .....no food, no tablets ..... worsening mental health results.
Several sanctioned because allegedly had not sent in required forms - only to find after some weeks that they HAD been sent and received.
One man sanctioned for attending a job interview instead of Job Centre Plus - he eventually got the job so did not pursue grievance against the JCP.
Mid-Norfolk Foodbank:
One case where the claimants wife went into premature labour and had to go to hospital. This caused the claimant to miss an appointment. As we operate in a rural area claimants are reliant on buses which can be delayed. No leeway given.
Sparkhill Foodbank:
Examples: being ill; going to a funeral; childcare responsibilities - all of which they have let the Job Centre know in advance. A recent example: client being sent off for training but this coincides with their time/day to sign on so when client attends the training (after having confirmed with the JCP that this is ok), they are then sanctioned despite being told to attend training instead.
Farnsworth and Kearsley foodbank:
A more recent example is of someone who missed an appointment because he has learning difficulties and his advisor had written his appointments dates down in a random order instead of chronologically and he didn't realise.
Bridgend Foodbank:
A client recently told us that he failed to attend an interview as his father died in hospital that day...he was summoned to attend one week later...the day of his father's funeral. One week after that he was sanctioned for missing two appointments and was given a voucher to attend our Foodbank. He left saying "at least you people could see that my head was all over the place".
