Welfare

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 […]

How we did it: tracking overpayments to prisoners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Yesterday we reported on how prisoners in Northern Ireland were being paid  £1.94 million in benefits they were not entitled to. In this post Gesbeen Mohammad explains the background to the story. This story began when Help Me Investigate was approached by an individual who was confused by the contradiction between replies to two different Freedom of Information (FOI) requests: This request by […]

Prisoners overpaid £2m in benefits in Northern Ireland

Prisoners in Northern Ireland have been paid £1.94 million in benefits over the last six years, despite not being entitled to them, according to data obtained by Help Me Investigate. And “overpayments” to prisoners – the official term for paying benefits to those in prison – have increased by more than half in the last year for which figures were […]

Prisoner benefit overpayments plummet – but DWP still missing £21m

Benefits paid to prisoners have declined by 96 per cent since 2007 – but almost £21m is still missing because only half the money has been recovered to the Department for Work and Pensions, an investigation by Help Me Investigate’s Gesbeen Mohammad has revealed. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) centralised its benefits database […]

“I take illegal measures to support my family against benefit cuts”

In January 2014, Iain Duncan Smith, Government Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, set out plans for the future of welfare in the UK. In his policy speech ‘Simplifying the welfare system and making sure work pays’ he said: “Our welfare reforms are about ensuring it is no longer more worthwhile to be on benefits than in work.” […]

Magazine: HMI Welfare’s week in #welfarereform

We’ve pulled together another 10 key stories from the last week into a Flipboard magazine. Let us know what you think – and if there are sources or stories we should be including.

15 mental health organisations to follow on Twitter

Shanice Abbott is investigating mental health and unemployment in the Midlands. In a cross-post from her own site, she recommends 15 organisations to follow on Twitter. You can support Shanice’s investigation on Contributoria here. Providing mental health care in Birmingham Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust is an organisation that provides mental health care […]