Joint Claim JSA - Sanction, is this correct?

piglet25

I know a couple who have a joint claim for JSA, one of them has received a sanction today and they have both had their payments stopped. Is it right that the claimant who has not been sanctioned is penalised too? I was under the impression that they should be treated as a single claimant in these circumstances, can anyone advise on this please?

Londonsu

piglet25 wrote: »

I know a couple who have a joint claim for JSA, one of them has received a sanction today and they have both had their payments stopped. Is it right that the claimant who has not been sanctioned is penalised too? I was under the impression that they should be treated as a single claimant in these circumstances, can anyone advise on this please?

Have look at this


https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/268176/response/657581/attach/html/3/FoI%202021%20WDTK%20Response%20Perry.pdf.html


Shorter version

Information regarding sanctions for joint claim couples is contained within the
Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (1996), specifically regulation 70. These
regulations are freely available on the internet, and can be accessed via the
following link:
http://lawvolumes.dwp.gov.uk/docs/a11-4001.pdf

piglet25

Thank you x

Laurensalive

This made interesting reading. I personally think sanctions are wrong. Punishing the people who need the money the most. I am sure the government could come up with another way to punish wrong doing on benefits.

piglet25

From what I can see, the partner should be treated as a single claimant in this case as she has not failed to do what she should, I have printed the relevant page out for her to take to the Job Centre to see if it can be sorted out xx
( She is 27 weeks pregnant and not required to sign on or do the job searches - I am unsure if that makes a difference but will post the outcome for future readers with a similar query )

Diary

I may be way off base here but could she not claim income support and add him to the claim? Pregnancy is one of the many criteria for income support.

That would mean no sanctions and no job searches via jcp. In my experience jcp do nothing at all to help with job searches and if he wants a job he could continue job search on his own without any interference and threats of taking their money away. As I said I might be way off the mark and not knowing full circumstances makes it hard to advise on IS.

Londonsu

Diary wrote: »

I may be way off base here but could she not claim income support and add him to the claim? Pregnancy is one of the many criteria for income support.

That would mean no sanctions and no job searches via jcp. In my experience jcp do nothing at all to help with job searches and if he wants a job he could continue job search on his own without any interference and threats of taking their money away. As I said I might be way off the mark and not knowing full circumstances makes it hard to advise on IS.

Another link that shows how to claim IS


However it states


The government determines which kind of people it expects to be actively seeking work and which not. People who the government thinks should be actively seeking work have to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance rather than Income Support


http://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/eligibility-income-support


Why was the partner sanctioned? if they were not actively seeking work then the DWP may decide that they cant go on IS, people should not be able to chop and change benefits to get the one that gives them the most income for putting in the least effort (if indeed that was the case)