To this is absolutely insane! Universal Credit Sanction

[ThisIsInsane]

Adult DD has had an absolute nightmare trying to get a job since she was fired just before Christmas,

She wasn’t happy in the role previous to that so applied for another, got it, gave her resignation. Three days into the new role, she was told, she wasn’t a good fit and immediately fired. She did absolutely nothing wrong btw.

This has massively affected her mental health. She’s never been fired before or been unemployed.

She has literally applied for over 1500 jobs since then, only got two interviews which she wasn’t successful at.

She missed a UC appointment in June. Not sure what exactly happened but she has evidence of her job search. At every appointment they tell her she’s applying for a lot of jobs and there’s noting they can do to help.

They have sanctioned her UC so she has only got £7!

According to the letter she has been sanctioned for 30 days for a first offence of missing one appointment after 6 months in which they have not helped her find a job!

She has an appointment later today and I’m planning to go with her to complain as she isn’t in the right head space to. I just think it’s totally disgusting! She lives at home luckily but can’t pay her phone bill even!

Imagine if she was living on her own and had no support!

AIBU to think this is extreme and unjustifiable punishment?

Absolutely. The entire system is designed to break your spirit, compared to the Irish system where they use the carrot not the stick and you are given more time and more help to get back to or into work.

My brother has Downs Syndrome and following covid lockdown restrictions, developed severe agoraphobia and couldn't leave his house (as did many of the service users at his daycentre). It took nearly 8 months of specialist therapy before he was able to travel further than 10 minutes away from the end of his street.

He missed a couple of routine medical/specialist dental/social care appointments, and wasn't able to attend his day centre for about 20 weeks, while he waited for MH input from the NHS learning disability/psychology team.... and the vile nasty threatening letters from social services, the local council etc demanding he be withdrawn from everything for missing appointments and not using the care budget put in place for his care package (because he wasn't going out anymore) were horrific.

Thankfully all documentation is handled by his relatives so he didn't have to see it, but it really made me want to get these fuckers in a room and start knocking teeth out. Absolutely evil.

This country is run by psychopaths, with a framework implemented by psychopaths, and the genuine sufferers are attacked repeatedly until they break. The DWP have driven many people with learning disability, autism, depression, anxiety etc to suicide (see the Kir Featherstone case, just one of 16,000 similar cases in the last 15 years where sanctions killed a vulnerable adult)

What do you mean she doesn’t need money because she’s living with OP ? Do you know whether OP is in a position to cover expenses ? How is she supposed to travel to interviews if she has no money ?

Awful? I’ve worked with a lot of elderly disabled people. It isn’t awful. It allowed them a life outside the home. Which is exactly what they are designed to do. Or do you think they shouldn’t have access to things like that and should stay in?

(and obviously plenty of people with bowel incontinence are not elderly, but I didn’t personally work with them. The same applies though; these items are available to allow some life outside of the home).

And how is any of the relevant to the OP? Or even to UC?

Exemptions and alternatives are made for those with disabilities. You wouldn’t be sanctioned.

The OP’s daughter is not in your situation, at all. This has nothing to do with your needs.

Of course she can argue MH reasons. It doesn’t imply anything - many people have MH issues and their GP won’t provide them with a fit note, so they have no choice.

Bowel issues which are not a natural result of aging are not the same thing. At all.

The purpose of having to attend every single appointment is so they can make sure you're not signing on and working cash in hand on the side. That's why they sanction people for not attending.

But also they usually ask you why you didn't attend and give you a day or so to respond with a valid reason. But you can also write in your journal if you're not going to attend and ask to reschedule if the reason is valid. If the reason is depression she will need a doctor's note.

You raise an eyebrow and you respond to the MD with a non-committal "Well, it's not the words I would choose" and you change the subject. If the rest of the people she worked with were nice, how was she know the MD wasn't going to end up leaving the following year? It's always worth trying to put up with bellends in jobs when you are new, as you don't know the culture of the place yet. I mean, if it rapidly becomes obvious that EVERYONE is a bellend, then yeah, look for a new job straight away.

Oh for god sake, just stop it.

That poster is trying to use her issues as a reason that UC have been unfair to OP’s daughter. They have not been.

1. if you have a disability, UC make alternative arrangements.

2. the OP’s daughter does not have a disability.

3. if someone with this particular disability did need to do something outside of the house then there are aids which allow for that. It is not awful to say that. It is awful to act as though talking about disability aids is a bad thing.

The cause of the bowel issues has nothing to do with it. In fact, bowel issues have absolutely nothing to do with this thread at all other than that one poster banging on about them.

oh, and the people I worked with had been disabled for a long time. It wasn’t age related. I just happened to work with the elderly, not disabled due to age but just disabled as well as elderly. Some incontinent due to age, most incontinent due to disability. We didn’t use it as a reason to keep them indoors engage we didn’t think it was awful to discuss medical aids.

I didn’t say it was a reason to keep them indoors. I worked as a disability outreach worker for over twenty years - hugely diverse range of disabilities which have incontinence of both bowel and bladder as a symptom. There are many advances in this area and there are different solutions to different problems, rather than just advocating putting on a nappy and sitting in your own shit. I agree this is nothing to do with the OP but I found your post offensive.

Ah one of these benefit scroungers i read about in the Daily Mail. Mobile 📱 phone! Huh! Except she isn't and they aren't either. This is outrageous of course but the right wing press forget "normal" people run into trouble too.
Ps Don't go in. Just grovel. It's the only way

I was using it as one example of why people with incontinence do not need to be trapped indoors, nor do they need evacuate their bowels on the chair of the job centre, which is what that poster said she would have to do and I found that far more offensive that talking about aids which allow people to leave the house.

My post was not offensive. You took it the wrong way and can’t simply say, “oops, misunderstood.”

Can you all start a new thread about your adventures in incontinence? Not exactly relevant to the OP’s situation, is it.

Agree.

They'd just claim they did it by accident as they were shoved into you by someone else as it was so crowded.

UC are harsh but she missed an apt so case of welcome tp the real world don't miss the appointments don't get the sanction

I left a teaching role in 2013 because of how it had wrecked my mental health and claimed JSA, as it was then from Jan-Aug 2014. I had about 2-3 job interviews a month, and the JC had nothing to offer me in regards to my CV. Once I felt more capable, I joined a couple of employment agencies - Brook Street and Ambitions, I think, and the various temp roles they gave me was enough to tide me over until I got a temp to perm role, which led to another job and now I’m in the third job since that time with the agencies.

Tell your daughter to get signed up with 2 or 3 agencies. They’ll find her work, even if it is not in the industry she might have training or experience in. That’s what they did for me, thank goodness.

But it would likely stop as they wouldn't want further attention. Instead of the victim continuing to be groped until they can get off at the next station.

I agree- not sure why someone’s bowels seem to be derailing the thread. Not remotely relevant

She missed a UC appointment in June. Not sure what exactly happened but she has evidence of her job search Why are you keen on going in all guns blazing without the basic facts of why she missed her appointment?

And if sleeping 14 hours a day, she is clearly not fit for full time work.

If OP’s DD is experiencing MH issues which significantly affect her everyday life then she is considered to have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010. She doesn’t need a formal diagnosis.

She got involved in the gossip that's the problem. My partner hates offices and doesn't get involved. Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. She should have kept her head down she was very naive to say anything.

This tbh. Also many periods of sick leave in a probation period is another red flag to me.

as proud as I would be that she stood up to him, time and place. Head down through probation stick the job out, if he continues, look for something else.

getting a new job is always much easier if you’re currently employed

Being stuck at home in bed will do wonders for her MH.

Maybe she should consider learning a new skill? A lot of people continue doing short courses in other skills to avoid these situations.

the job market seems absolutely dire at the moment. My ds can't even find part time summer work, he is desperate. I applied for a job that I used to do previously and was excellent at and didn't even get shortlisted due to number of applicants so they said ! It's so demoralizing so well done to your dd for trying so hard to find something.