I've made a complaint about my Work Coach

[BobISMyUncle]

and now I've been sanctioned. I couldn't attend an appointment due to lack of petrol and a lack of funds to get there. I receive my Universal Credit on the 10th of each month, and my appointment was made (by them) for the 8th. I receive the princely sum of £324 per month. I wrote on my Journal that I could not make this appointment due to lack of money to buy petrol. I received a reply (it was heavy sighing, even in the Journal entry, if that makes sense!) and stated that she would "ring me on this occasion". This appointment is a 23 mile round trip and costs about £5.00
During my phone call, I was told that "you need to manage your money better". Sadly, I'm one of those people who think of brilliant retorts about ten minutes after I need them! Nonetheless, I was still quite surprised at her remark but didn't get the chance to answer as she was determined to move the conversation on. These meetings are mandatory. They must be attended otherwise sanctions will be applied.
Hey Presto! I'm sanctioned. I don't know by how much because the website is down (conveniently?) I can't appeal against the decision because the website is down. I can't do anything. If I call, it's a call centre and nothing is achieved, they appear to be message takers. I would like to talk with someone who has a little empathy. AND! YE GODS! I've missed another appointment! More sanctions coming my way! This, from a Civil Servant. I wonder, how much do I have to live on next month? My work coach suggested that I do care work. I wonder if it's because she will be needing it from her other clients? I am not rubbing my hands in glee because I'm far too busy making room for her in the patio and well tended gardens of my sheltered housing accommodation. LOL! This is funny, but serious. Advice please x

Not Impressed of East Anglia.

That sounds really unfair, the system of sanctions is very punishing. My brother was a work coach for a few months years ago...it was advertised as helping people grow in confidence and improve their lives 🙄 he was disciplined for allowing phone contacts and not sanctioning people...there were I believe actual targets for sanctions. He left as felt it was a cruel system. The people that stay are not the people who should be supporting those who are in tough circumstances. Same as the PIP system, the people who can bear to stay just shouldn't be working in that kind of role.

You sound arsey, OP. Just go to your appointment by bus if you haven't got petrol. And stop making excuses and blaming your work coach just because you don't want to find a job and resent being made to. I see you're too good for care work.

How does one get a bus with no money?

You have been sanctioned because you missed a mandatory meeting.

Bugger all to do with your complaint

Sanctions are disgusting, barely enough money to live and they take more of it away, people have died because of them.

They get a lot of support on here for some reason though.

They get a lot of support on here for some reason though.

It would appear to be because people have ZERO understanding of what it means to live in ill health, with no money actually meaning no money and not a spare thousand (at least) in the bank, and have never, ever tried to take a bus outside a major city..if they've ever even taken one.

And it would appear they think that people are lying when they say how they're treated by people working within the benefits system.

Far easier to believe that people needing (not "claiming") benefits are feckless than that the system they think is good enough for others is actually sub human.

Hang on to the back perhaps?

Yrs ago i kinda went on jobseeker's allowance. I managed to get a job before first payment thankfully but i got enough taste to know its an unfair system. Any one on jobseeker's allowance or similar gets my sympathy

And with councils cutting back heavily on routes, especially, where ARE these magic buses in rural or indeed many less rural areas?

I’m sorry OP. I have no constructive advice but it sounds shit. Ignore the sanctimonious on here who simply can’t comprehend what it is to have no money at all, and/or who need to justify their own good fortune by way of the just world fallacy (if bad stuff is happening to you it must be your fault). Far easier for them to think that nobody needs to be destitute in this country, that the benefits system is firm but fair, than to face up to the fact that it’s not, that they too no longer have a safety net worth the name of things go wrong for them, and that the policies they’ve been voting for for years are lies.

this system is unbelievably cruel. I'm so sorry OP.

Read the OP! The answers are in there

Apologies if this is the wrong thing to say but I don’t understand something…

Why is care work not an option? Can people really turn down undesirable jobs to stay claiming long term?

I love the "just get a bus" comment, when the OP didn't even have £5 for petrol.

Because they've closed a lot of job centres, people often have to travel long distances to their nearest one. Clients in some villages a few miles north of Brighton now have to travel nearly 20 miles to their JC instead of 8 to the town where they used to go. They can at least get a train, at a cost of £9 return.

Those a few miles further east are worse off, although the distance is slightly shorter. They have to get a bus (which only runs every 2 hours) to town A, then another bus to the town where their JC is. The cost was over £11 years ago, and they can't buy an "all day" bus ticket because the routes are run by different operators. Someone under 25 only gets £61 pw, so the fares to the JC take 20% of their weekly income. And it's spectacularly bonkers, because there's another JC in the town where they change buses, but they can't have their appointments there. I've 3 sanctions overturned because work coaches have made appointments that are impossible for the client to get to on time.

The other thing that I find alarming is that some JCs seem to have a culture of treating people like utter shit. My colleagues and I find it's the same few JCs that we're having to deal with time after time, while most of them we rarely have to contact. Work coaches have huge amounts of discretion when it comes to Universal Credit, and there doesn't seem to be any monitoring or consistency in what they will and won't allow. If a work coach had a down on a particular group of people, they could treat them like shit and no-one would notice.

I get why you missed the first appointment, although I think you knew you had an appointment so it was your responsibility to attend, but I don't understand why you missed the second?

Whether or not sanctions are "fair" or whatever, if I was reliant on UC to live I'd put £5 aside and make my appointments come hell or high water.

If she can't afford petrol, how do you think she can afford the bus?

That's if she even lives somewhere with a bus service to begin with, of course.

You what?

23 miles might be achievable on a bike if you're fit and healthy and used to riding 23 miles on a bike. Honestly some of the shit that gets spouted on here sometimes 🙄

This is it. People know sanctions take place, so really it is worth managing your money better and putting aside a fiver to avoid this.

Again someone with no empathy or understanding that for some people it’s impossible to ‘put aside’ money because they simply don’t have it.

A bus 23 miles round trip in my area would cost more than £5.

Not in the OP area though.

Care work is not suitable for everyone. I have a shoulder injury and I dread having to sign on as there are so many jobs I can’t do. Anything that involves lifting/carrying/stretching, so care work/retail/hospitality would all be a no-no.

In the old days of JSA, you could turn down jobs for the first 12 weeks, after that you were expected to take anything.

Care work is also very poorly paid and you are expected to use your own car. They don’t reimburse much for petrol and nothing for wear and tear either.

These people are literally soulless and devoid of morals or empathy. Disgusting individuals, as you generally have to be to work for the job centre/DWP in mine and my friends experiences.

Sadly this is untrue.

I’m not sure how she could pay for the bus fare if she can’t pay for the petrol! Busses aren’t free…