Natalie Leal

How unemployment sanctions are driving down the claimant count

Hundreds of thousands of sanction decisions last year have resulted in unemployed people being knocked off the claimant count. There were almost 320,000 decisions to stop a person’s Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) benefit for “not actively seeking employment” in 2013. And in the first six months of 2014 a further 125,000 sanctions have been applied, according to the latest […]

The relentless rise of JSA benefit sanctions

  Sanction referrals 2003 – 2013. Data compiled from DWP Stat-Xplore website   There has been a dramatic rise in the number of sanctions against unemployed people over the past decade. The figures, from data compiled from the DWP’s (Department of Work and Pensions) Stat-Xplore website show over 900,000 sanctions were issued in 2013, more than double the number applied in 2009 and almost four times […]

What are benefit sanctions? Explainer

In October 2012 the government made the rules stricter for people out of work and claiming benefits. Since the new rules came into effect more people than ever before have been sanctioned. What does it mean if someone is ‘sanctioned’? Being sanctioned means your money is stopped. People out of work and looking for a job […]

The invisible unemployed: “half of unemployed do not claim benefits” – so who are they?

Originally posted at NatalieLeal.Blogspot.co.uk This chart from a report by Inclusion tells a story. Actually, it poses a lot of questions. At the last count just under half of all unemployed people in the UK were not claiming benefits. That’s almost one million people and it’s going up all the time. But where are these people? How are […]