People are dying over their benefits sanctions ....and they still vote a tory government in.

No guilt here.....How about you?

how do you sleep at night?

how do you sleep at night?

horizontally for me, old skool like

if they hadn't tried to import a new electorate that might vote for them we wouldn't have had x million extra people land on our shores depressing wages across the board but especially for the lower working class who are supposed to be labour's core vote

well if you're not working how can you be working class?

oh I say you're one of those plebs then!

so hopefully the GBP is not too stupid to vote us out of the EU in a referendum

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/03/victims-britains-harsh-welfare-sanctions

ONLY £3.44 in his bank account.

David Clapson was found dead last year after his benefits were stopped on the grounds that he wasn't taking the search for work seriously. He had an empty stomach, and just £3.44 to his name.

Now thousands of other claimants are being left in similarly dire straits by tough new welfare sanctions

David Clapson when he was in the army … he was found dead last year, after his benefits were stopped

We know that David Clapson was actively searching for work when he died because a pile of CVs he had just printed out was found a few metres from his body. The last time he spoke to his sister, a few days before he died, he told her he was waiting to hear back about an application he had made to the supermarket chain Lidl.

But officials at the Jobcentre believed he was not taking his search for work seriously enough, and early last July, they sanctioned him – cutting off his benefit payments entirely, as a punishment for his failure to attend two appointments.

Clapson, 59, who had diabetes, died in his flat in Stevenage on 20 July 2013, from diabetic ketoacidosis (caused by an acute lack of insulin). When Gill Thompson, his younger sister, discovered his body, she found his electricity had been cut off (meaning that the fridge where he kept his insulin was no longer working). There was very little left to eat in the flat – six tea bags, an out-of-date tin of sardines and a can of tomato soup. His pay-as-you-go mobile phone had just 5p credit left on it and he had only £3.44 in his bank account. The autopsy notes reveal that his stomach was empty.

The circumstances of Clapson's death have been scrutinised by many of the groups campaigning for a reform of the government's increasingly punitive (or rigorous, depending on your perspective) sanctions system, by which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stops benefits payments to claimants who have not met the agreed conditions every job-seeker signs up to when they start to claim support. While sanctions have long been a part of the benefits system, and have cross-party support, new regulations introduced in October 2012 have meant that they are being handed out with greater frequency and for longer stretches of time. In 2013, 871,000 people were sanctioned, losing some or all of their benefits payments for a minimum of four weeks, rising to three years in exceptional cases. There are hardship payments for those who are struggling, but only a minority are told about them, leaving many to survive on zero income.

Details of Clapson's death emerged just days after the publication of an independent review of sanctions, the Oakley report, commissioned by the DWP, which acknowledged that while the system as a whole was "not fundamentally broken", it was "clear that this is a system that can go wrong and, when that happens, individuals and families can suffer unfairly". The report concluded that improvements were needed, "particularly for more vulnerable individuals". The government responded by agreeing to make all the proposed improvements. After a period of growing unease about the consequences of stricter sanctions, there appears now to be some official recognition that aspects of the system need to change.

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Gill Thompson is uncomfortable about launching a public campaign, and talking about the way her brother died makes her cry, but she is forcing herself to speak about it because she wants the government to accept that improvements need to be made to the way sanctions are handed out. "I don't want revenge or compensation; I just want lessons to be learned," she says.

She is at pains to describe her brother as someone who had worked for 29 years, anxious to stress that he should not be seen as "scrounger". He spent five years in the army, two of them serving in Belfast, 16 years working for BT and another eight at other companies before he stopped working to care for their mother who had developed dementia. When she died three years ago, he began to look for a new job and was put on the government's new Work Programme, designed to help unemployed people find a job. He completed two periods of unpaid work experience, for B&Q and for a discount store. He told his sister he had enjoyed these sessions, and had hoped to be allowed to do more. He also completed a forklift truck training course. Although he struggled to use a computer, he had been trying to apply for jobs online. Thompson believes he was taking the process very seriously.

But at some point in May 2013, he missed two appointments with the Work Programme office, and was sent a letter informing him that his benefits would be stopped for a month; the last payment was made on 2 July, according to his sister. Six days later he was down to that last £3.44 (which he was unable to withdraw since it was less than £5). He died a fortnight later.

Thompson describes her brother as very quiet and private; he was not someone who liked to ask for help. "I don't know what happened. He wasn't one for creating a fuss. He didn't tell me he had been sanctioned. He was very proud. If I'd known I would have gone over with food," Thompson says. "I could have sorted it out for him."

Gill Thompson for G2.
Gill Thompson: 'I just want lessons to be learned. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian Linda Nylind/Guardian
A DWP spokesman says: "Our sympathies are with the family of Mr Clapson. Decisions on sanctions aren't taken lightly – there is a chain of processes we follow before a sanction comes into effect, including taking every opportunity to contact the claimant several times. People can also appeal if they disagree. Mr Clapson did not appeal or ask for a reconsideration of the sanction or apply for a hardship payment."

The DWP says Clapson was told during a phone call on 16 July that he could fill out a form to request hardship funds. He was sent a letter (dated 15 July) explaining how to apply for them, but his sister found it unopened in his flat. "He was very bad at opening letters. People in his situation are frightened of these letters. They are never good news," she says. Had he opened it, he might have found the language confusing. "We cannot pay you your Jobseekers' Allowance from 28 June 2013," the letter reads. "This is because we recently told you that a decision would be made about a doubt: on whether you failed to comply with the requirements of the scheme to which you have been referred."


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All this happing whilst the secret/shy Tories were popping the champagne corks.

People will still call him a scrounger etc.

5k woudlnt be a problem.

everyone should be allowed a sum for security.
the other amount is only an issue if they are under a certain age and or are on certain benefits.

thats because you have a problem saving?

i was the same when working all me life.....now i dont work (dont claim a penny either) i am pretty good with money.

Nah, its because I have a problem with spending too much to get a better house with a big fat mortgage and keep a wife with a spending habit ! Of course,I paid the b***y rent and life insurance for the family one !

your allowed 6k before any benefits get reduced on a scale from 6k to 16k

if you have 16k you get no benefits.
although if you sign on you get yer state pension accounted for still.

People are dying! If on benefits use their death to condemn the Tories. Scandalous behaviour.

Sacked on the spot? Bit harsh surely. Is it because they are workers in a complex situation trying to sift the chancers out?

This was a British man, single and without family who was an average guy who in modern Britain is an easy target and a casualty of the lies and incompetence of Labour and Conservative governments of the last 40 years.