More Christmas Cheer for the Sanctioned.

Jobcentre Work Coach. 

Jobless and disabled people could have benefits stopped on Christmas Eve under ‘tough new sanctions regime’.

The Independent reports.

Jobless and disabled people could be stripped of their benefits this Christmas under a strict new sanctions regime for the festive period, it has been claimed.

In an apparent hardening of the Government’s attitude to welfare, those who miss a job centre appointment, interview or work capability assessment in the immediate run-up to the holidays could now be told the news on Christmas Eve itself.

The Independent had previously reported the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would be running a “business as usual” approach to Christmas this year, and was accused of taking a “Scrooge-like approach” to the season.

In new claims denied by the DWP, the SNP say this will be only the second year the approach has been taken, after a series of unwritten “special operations” were scrapped that previously protected claimants from having their Christmases ruined.

The party said concerns were raised by DWP staff themselves, who told the SNP they were made to call people up with bad news on Christmas Eve for the first time last year, and were unhappy they had to implement the alleged change in policy.

 

And there’s this from Wolverhampton Express and Star.

Homeless at Christmas: We’re a community on the streets – but it’s hard

‘Sometimes the police move me on saying I can’t beg but I’m not on benefits so how am I supposed to get money?

“They won’t give me benefits because I don’t have a home address so it’s a catch 22. If I had a roof over my head I would be alright.”

Scotty Parkin is one of the rising number of people who will find themselves living rough this Christmas.

An Express & Star investigation has discovered that there are almost 2,500 people recorded as being homeless in the Black Country and South Staffordshire – a rise of 13 per cent over the last five years.

Many are forced to sleep rough, including Scott who has been on the streets for a year.

The BBC is going to show a new programme on Boxing Day, mashing together around 3o of Dickens’ characters called Dickensian.

As somebody who’s read his London printer granddad’s complete set of Dickens I am not looking forward to what I will doubtless call a “period soap”.

In case to watch the world of Dickens I only have to walk around the streets of Ipswich and I bet I’ll see some of these sanctioned people.