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?

@JenniferBooth You seem brave, but have you ever had a disaster in public, with teenagers laughing at you? It then becomes harder.

Or they do the maths wrong.

My son was sanctioned, late for appointment due to bus issue on his way back from a job interview (which he got yay)

The maths was completely wrong. They’d worked out a 30 day sanction ‘by accident’.

@Horserider5678 "Generally if it’s only a few days there’s little or no notice period it would be no more than a week!"
Incorrect. Even with only three days service an employee is entitled to their contractual notice, which was obviously one month in this case because that's what OP's DD's former employer paid her when they dismissed her.

I worked with long term unemployed disabled people for many years and some of my clients were bladder or bowel incontinent or had stomas. Several described having very public accidents while at work, being sent home and then having to come in the following day to face the people who witnessed their embarrassment. Very, very difficult.

No way is she applying for that many jobs when you say she sleeps 16 hours a day.

Sweden also have one of the highest tax brackets in Europe, if not the world, to pay for this and other (very worthy) things they do.

The UK cannot continue this way.

It's sad that anyone should feel embarrassed in such a situation. The problem is society's reaction to body matters.

The UK can do better than 7 pounds a month. No one should be sanctioned to the point they cant live.

For God's sake, she CAN live.
She lives at home with presumably everything paid should she be sanctioned.

You don't have the right to bring an Unfair Dismissal claim to ET until you have two years continuous service - not merely after you've passed your probationary period which is typically only three months.

I think t can be argued though in court.

I just read where a woman in ireland was successful in sueing for unfair dismissal, after just one year's service.

The court found in her favour as the employer had broken loads of normal employment practices. He refused to give her a payslip, was one thing he did wrong, i remember.

Are you perhaps being given false information? It seems strange to be fired within three days. What sort of work was it?

1500 job applications in 7 months is about 7 per day. But she's sleeping a large chunk of the day. This is either untrue, or she's rushing through applications. It takes me several hours to apply for a job properly usually. If there are complicated statements to write it can be more.

So she sued for breach of contract in the county court, which isn't the same as making a claim for Unfair Dismissal at ET.

Right but it still shows that an action can be taken before two years employment

But they’ve not done anything wrong. There is no action to take.

Of course they have done something wrong.

The boss was sexist and misogynistic. When the ops daughtet called him out on it, he fired her.

Its disgusting.

She could definitely bring him to court for it.
It depends on how much proof she has, whether i would bring it to court.

She would have to weigh up if there were any witnesses or not. Otherwise its his word against hers

Yes, it’s disgusting but they could fire her after just a few days for any reason. She will never ever prove that she was fired because she was a woman (which is the only shot she would get as a protected characteristics). She can’t afford to bring the claim, and she would lose. Even if she won, she wouldn’t get her job back. She would get paid for a reasonable about of time in which she was then expected to find more work so just a few months pay.

Yes, but not for unfair dismissal (which is what you just claimed about the woman in Ireland) because as I have posted, repeatedly, that requires at least two years' continuous service for a claim to be brought to ET.
A claim for wrongful dismissal (breach of contract) can be brought to ET or the county court and you don't need at least two years' continuous service for that because that's a day one right, but there has to be a breach of your employment contract to bring such a claim and there is no indication that OP's DD has suffered a breach of contract (her employer actually paid her contractual notice of one month).

The DD didnt suffer breach of contract , but she did suffer gender discrimination.

If she has a witness to what the boss said, she could bring him to court.

Employers have been brought to court for less.

No such thing as gender discrimination.

What’s gender discrimination in British law?

It is disgusting, but it's not actionable. Please tell me what action you think OP's DD could bring against her former employer and in which court?

How is there no such thing.

There are loads of gender discrimination / sexual harrassment / age discrimination / race discrimination cases taken against employers.

Extremely callous.

She wasn't a good fit. Who is he to the business?
He may be the CEO of the company. The op said it was only the two of them. It's his word against hers.