To this is absolutely insane! Universal Credit Sanction

She needs a routine, getting up at a reasonable hour, eating 3 meals, job hunting, going for a walk, online yoga/exercise, downtime watching tv /reading and going bed at a reasonable time.

with regards to not being successful are her applications up to scratch, is she being diverse in her job choices is she getting feedback from interviews?

the sanctions aren’t t personal if she’s not up for job hunting /appointments she needs a sick note.
it’s so much because she didn’t rearrange her appointment. She knows not to do it again.

I think that the commitments a claimant needs to make are deliberately high to make it a shit experience all round. It’s black and white, isn’t it? Miss an appointment, show up late, don’t have proof of job searches and you’re sanctioned.

1500 jobs is a mad amount, and only two interviews? I haven’t had an entry level job for years, but is the market really that bad? Insane.

You do know a lot about her circumstances, so I’m curious about why you don’t know much around this missed appointment.

Your DD needs purpose. Stop enabling her. Get her out of bed, get her to volunteer or give her jobs around the house and work on a plan for financial security in the future.

She's young, she lives at home and has options.

The jobcentre is right to sanction her for not attending- nobody gets paid if they don't attend work. So lessons learnt, onwards & upwards!

I thinks it's a fair sanction. It's free money, a handout. Why should she be entitled to more free handouts when she can't get out of bed to attend an appointment??

Please stop using the mental health card, we all struggle with our mental health at times and still have to work 40 hours a week. Its bollocks quite frankly, I have had the shittest of years with 2 deaths, and a serious health diagnoses, I still go to work.

Instead of complaining about her not getting more 'free handouts' whilst she is in bed 14-16 hours a day, how about you use that 'complain energy' into helping her mental health. Which will actually help her long term.

How is her diet? Full of fruit and vegetables and eliminating processed foods and sugars? Are you encouraging her to exercise? Walking every day? Walking with her? Is she on the right anti depression meds? Is she taking them regularly? Are they working? Is she seeing a counsellor in person? Online? Finding a hobby?

Are you exaggerating @ThisIsInsane ?

Unfortunately this happens a lot. Imagine how those who live alone and have rent & bills to pay suffer.
that said if shes sleeping that long each day are you sure shes applying for 50 jobs a week? Seems a bit odd to apply for 1500 jobs and not get a job out of it - doesnt add up.
Are you sure shes not just saying that?

@ThisIsInsane Sorry OP, but these are the rules. When claiming UC you have to sign a "Claimant Commitment" and one of those commitments is that you will attend appointments with your DWP work coach. The DWP doesn't just sanction someone willy-nilly - they assess each case individually to determine if a "good reason" exists for missing an appointment i.e. due to illness, caring responsibilities, or other unforeseen circumstances. If your DD had given them a good reason for missing the appointment, they wouldn't have sanctioned her, but it sounds like she was just a no-show. You could help your DD by trying to challenge the sanction, but this involves providing evidence to the DWP to support her claim of having a good reason for missing her appointment, but it doesn't sound like she'd have any such evidence. This is a hard lesson learned and hopefully she won't do it again (because the sanctions get worse for repeat offences).

She wasn't happy in her first job so left for another job and they let her go after three days...she's applied for loads of jobs (from bed?) and doesn't keep on top of her UC comitments. Dont think UC is at fault here.

i know this isn’t the point but where on earth do you live that she’s applying for 50 jobs A WEEK?
That cannot be right!

I think as well that the likelihood is that it’s entirely because she’s living at home that she didn’t follow up on the appointment. If you are living at home and know you aren’t going to be evicted or run out of food, the motivation is going to be a lot lower. People who live alone have to go to the appointments because they are in the shit otherwise.

Also no area in England has over 1500 jobs in 6 months to apply for

She can claim Recoverable Hardship Payment to live off for the month. Not ideal as it has to be repaid (taken monthly from UC) but will give her something to live off.

This doesn't add up. Nobody gets a 30-day sanction for their first breach.

A universal credit meeting is seen the same as going to work you cant just not turn up. If you dont turn up to work you lose pay and get in trouble if you dont turn up to a universal credit meeting you lose money and get in trouble.

So hiw are they expecting her to gey to job interviews with no money.

Anyway regarding mental health if she sleeping that much maybe there is something going on for her can you encourage her to call the GP? She may need some support meantally. Maybe she isn't in the right place at the moment. She may be able to get a sick note from gp to tide her over and possibly back dated to over ride the sanction. People wwith epression/mental health cant always do things when they should because it feels to much.

She should appeal the sanction - the majority are overturned on appeal. It'll take time though.

Focus energy on helping her do that kicking off won't help.

"Imagine if she was living on her own and had no support!" Like many that are sanctioned

This is the thread that people need to be pointed in the direction of when they keep posting crap nonsense about how loads of people are on benefits because they can’t be bothered to work.

I, and others repeatedly say how harsh the system is and how claimants have to show they are looking for work to claim. Any excuse to cut you off and they do as this post shows….

Definitely go with her to the appointment. Complaining probably won’t do much but that’s because the system is set up in a certain way with punitive measures.

A sanction for missing an appointment is 7 days, plus however many days she took to get back in touch with the jobcentre. When she missed the appointment she’ll have been asked for her reason in her journal. I’m guessing she didn’t give a reason and got in touch after 23 days once the sanction was applied. Unfortunately missing appointments without good reason is sanctionable. She mustn’t have given a reason when they asked. Although the jobcentre can support with job search and training the onus is on the job seeker to ensure they are doing their job search. A lot of the appointments will just be the Jobcentre checking she has done her job search.

She wouldn't have lost a whole month's money for one missed appointment unless, as well as missing it, she didn't then contact them quickly to rebook. The responsibility is hers to do this same as if I didn't show up at work and didn't make contact, there would be repercussions. This is what she agreed in her commitments in order to receive benefit.

She needs to discuss with her coach what help she needs as she is the one doing the work searching for 99.9 percent of the time. If she is applying for that many roles and not getting interviews, looking at her application process is a good place to start.

1500 job applications since Christmas is insane. Am I wrong that that’s over 200 a month (250?) and 8ish a day seven days a week?!

She can’t be tailoring her application each time.

I’d suggest she does far fewer but puts a lot more time/effort into each one. One or two a week with lots of care over it/them.

Hi op, I claim a small amount of UC so have some experience of the system. This is standard procedure unfortunately. She will have ticked a box to agree to commitments - which include attending all appointments - when she signed up. Not attending an appointment will result in a sanction, this is one of the rules which she will have had to agree to.

@thelakeislehas given some good advice as to handle the situation.

Plenty of people (I’m not saying this is you) believe (consciously or subconsciously) that the welfare state is overly generous. Often it is not until they gain some first hand experience of it that they realise this is not the case.

All the best to your DD, it’s horrible being unemployed. I hope she manages to find a job soon.

Problem is that how can you administer the whole system if people can just not show up for appointments without any repercussions? Fair enough, perhaps your daughter has a genuine reason (which they haven’t been made aware of?), but if there were no sanctions then how many people do you think would take the piss? It sounds like this is not just one sanction but two, one for missing an appointment and then one for not arranging another quickly?

The government website says for the ‘lower level’ sanctions bit: ‘These sanctions last from the date of the appointment until the day before you contact us to arrange a new one.’ So I’m guessing she didn’t contact them for a month or what? If she did contact them immediately then I agree the penalty seems harsh.

But if you’re on UC and not working I imagine it’s assumed you have ample time to arrange and attend an interview to continue getting your money. If her health is preventing her, then she needs to see a GP and explore disability/unfit to work options instead.

I would also ask at her UC appointment for some help with her application and interview technique if she has genuinely got only two interviews from 1500 applications. Have there really been 1500 feasible jobs for her in your area in 6 months? That seems a phenomenal amount.

Are you sure she has applied for 1500 jobs in 6 months thats 250 jobs a month thats a lot of jobs in your area.

Be very careful at the job centre. The staff are very prickly and will accuse you of abusive language at the drop of a hat.

Go with the “can you explain/is there anything my daughter can do” approach rather than anything accusatory.