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?

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

@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).

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?

Are you exaggerating @ThisIsInsane ?

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?

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 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.

Yep. That’s how many she’s applied for. Over 1000 just on Indeed.

Job centre has said her CV is great and there’s nothing more they can suggest. Cannot direct to any other jobs. Same thing every time she goes in.

She was commuting to London working in a corporate role. Had an incident where she was threatened with a knife walking to the underground station (in the financial district!) and another just before that where she was sexually assaulted on a packed train. She decided she didn’t want to travel into London anymore so was looking for local jobs she can just drive to.

The one she got waited two months for her notice period. She trained her replacement so couldn’t ask for her old job back. She hadn’t met the MD in new job until starting. It turned out he was a letch and he made a comment about the HR lady getting fatter and more ugly as she walked out of a meeting, and DD said that was really rude. The next morning DD was called in her manager’s office and told she wasn’t a good fit. They gave her a months salary as severance.

She has gone back to looking for roles in London again out of desperation. Got to 3rd and 4th interview state but not successful.

Only think we can see, is she moved company 6 months before she decided to get out of London and now obviously she has a long gap on CV.

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 know this isn't the point, but how on earth has she applied for 1500 jobs since January. That's about 8 a day, every single day.

Stop allowing her to languish in bed all day. Bad stuff happens, go out with your mates, drink some wine, and then get back out there with a positive attitude.

No the sanction is not unfair or extreme. There’s requirements to meet and your DD didn’t meet them. Why did she miss the appointment?
If I don’t go to work because I’m laying in bed or having a hard time I wouldn’t get paid, so why should your DD?

She called the MD rude on the first meet, within a day or two of starting the job?

Whether she was right or not about that, that was beyond stupid of her. How did she think that would end?

Appreciate he had been rude about someone else, but there’s a time and place and it’s definitely not in your first week at a new job where he does the hiring and firing.

If your daughter is spending 16 hrs per day in bed how is she applying for 50 jobs per week? Sorry OP but something just doesn't add up.
Is she qualified to do all '50' of the jobs she applies for? Unlikely, I have been working for 22 years and have bags of experience but I know I would not be qualified to apply for 200+ jobs a month. She is clearly just firing off a cv to anyone advertising so she can 'prove' to the job centre that she is looking for work and even then I doubt it is anything like the numbers she is giving you!
I think before you go storming into the job centre (personally I think she should go alone and sort it herself) you need to be 100% sure your daughter is telling the truth.

Give her a kick up the arse.

1500 job applications, come on now, is that the truth.

How is she sleeping up to 16 hours a day and ranking up so many applications.

This is sensible advice.

@ThisIsInsane Yep. That’s how many she’s applied for. Over 1000 just on Indeed

Does she actually tailor her applications to the job descriptions? Because in theory one can apply for 1000's of jobs by the click of a button wit a generic CV & cover letter.

Matching your skill set with the job description on the other hand is a different ball game.

She really needs to up her game.

Break it down. She’s awake for 8 hours a day. Let’s deduct an hour per day on average for meals, toilet, a shower, dressing, Job Center appointments.

So that’s 7 hours wakened time per day. That’s 49 hours per week that she has available to apply for jobs.

She’s doing roughly one job per hour, every hour that she’s awake, every day for the last 6 months. That hour will need to include finding the job, reading the job specs, taking in the necessary info like location and salary and applying. No breaks.

Hmmm. I think your theory as to what’s actually happening is a bit more realistic.

We live in the Southeast, she’s been applying for jobs up to an hour away driving distance which covers at least 5 decent sized towns and also in the city in London.

I actually don’t think most of them exist which are agency advertised so she’s only applying for employer advertised roles now.

Why the actual hell would I bother lying about that specific detail on an anonymous forum?

She needs to stay busy, volunteer, free training etc... responding to indeed jobs by just sending a CV is not the way to go.

Has she sent letters to targeted companies? Quite a few companies only advertise on their websites only.

She clearly needs to reconsider her job search methodology. You'll be much more helpful talking to her about this than going to complain to the job centre, especially as it sounds likely your DD is not telling you the full story.

Especially not someone who's sleeping 14-16 hours a day. Much fewer and much more focused job applications would be the next step. You can appeal the sanction but it sounds like there may be more to it than she's told you as the period is so long.