Have your benefits been sanctioned (stopped)?

Do you want to get your money back?

Many sanction decisions are illegal because they are unreasonable, malicious, or because they are not in accordance with the benefits regulations. They could also be illegal if you were sanctioned because your jobseekers agreement or claimant commitment was set up to ask you to do things you were bound to fail at.

If you appeal, you could get your money back. Okay, it’s not an instant solution. It takes a bit of time. But look at it this way: if you don’t appeal, and do nothing, you’ll get nothing. If you appeal – and it doesn’t take up much time – you might not only get your money back. You’ll also be sending the DWP a message that they can’t mess with you. They don’t like having to spend time and money defending appeals. You’re less likely to get sanctioned unfairly again. And the more people who appeal, the less likely anybody is to get unjustly sanctioned.

Here’s how you do it:

If you had your benefits sanctioned before 28th October 2013, you can appeal straight to the office that stopped your benefits. Skip to the section on ‘appeals’, below.

If you have your benefits sanctioned after 28th October 2013, you first write, or phone, the office that made the decision, and say you want a reconsideration. There is a new rule that you have to do this before you can appeal. If you write, you need to give your name, national insurance number, address, the date the decision was made, and which benefit you were claiming.

If you can get enough information to prove the sanction was not in accord with the benefit rules (such as the Jobseekers regulations or other benefit regulations), you might be able to get the decision changed at the reconsideration stage. If your claimant commitment or Jobseekers agreement has been fixed by your job centre adviser to be something you couldn’t do, or so difficult to sustain that you were bound to trip over some requirement in it at some point, you could get the decision changed because it is obviously unreasonable. For example, if your job centre adviser told you to apply for jobs or put a CV online when they know you can’t use the internet, or you have difficulty reading and writing, or if they told you to agree to work hours, or sign on, when you have to take your children to school, this is unreasonable. These are just examples. There are other reasons why a decision might be unreasonable or illegal.

Appeals

If you don’t get the decision changed and get your money back at the reconsideration stage, you can appeal direct to the Tribunals Service. You have to appeal by letter or by using an appeal form. You can use the model letter on the back of this sheet. For the north west region, send your appeal to:

The Tribunal Service, 36 Dale Street, Liverpool L2 5UZ.

For other regions, there are Tribunal Service offices in Sutton, Newcastle, Leeds, Glasgow, Epsom, Cardiff and Birmingham.

The DWP should send you two reconsideration notices. You have to send one of them to the Tribunals Service with your appeal.

You can add further information to support your appeal after you get the appeal papers from the DWP, and up to two weeks before your appeal hearing. You need to post new information at least two weeks before the hearing date, or the judge might not get it in time to read it.

Model reconsideration letter

I am applying for a reconsideration of your decision, made on [put the date of the decision] to sanction my Jobseekers Allowance [if you were claiming a different benefit, put the name of that benefit instead]. My reasons for applying are [state your reasons].

Model appeal letter

Set this out in the same way, but instead of applying for a reconsideration, say:

I wish to appeal against your decision, made on [put the date of the decision] not to reconsider the sanction you have placed on my Jobseekers Allowance payments. My reasons for appealing are [state your reasons].

For an appeal to be valid, it has to state the date of the decision you are disputing, the name of the benefit, and your reasons for appealing. The reasons do not need to be long, two or three sentences is enough to begin with.

If you want help with an appeal or reconsideration

• Ask the person or place where you got this leaflet.
• If your local law centre or citizens advice bureau still employs specialist welfare rights advisers, you might get help from them. (Not all of them still have funding for welfare rights specialists)
• Otherwise send a text message to this number: 07743972236

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Sorry Comments Closed

Comment left by carl wrathmall on 20th November, 2013 at 13:41
I was sanctioned on 13th Oct. but my local job centre did not do the reconsideration it is presently in Newcastle.(still no answer) Why is that?

Comment left by nicola heath on 7th April, 2014 at 7:49
hi i got sanctioned,still cant work out why id done more than enough to look for work,so couldnt believe it went to a descision maker i was due to get payed the thursday so they stopped my money before the descicion had even been made are they allowed to do this i was treat unfairly i was told by the lady at the job centre it wasnt my money it was the tax payers,she was trying to catch me out by making out my job search was something id just wrote down,dont fall in to there trap there getting bonuses you know,i said to the woman at job centre hull how can you sleep at night doing this to people especially when there trying.

Comment left by Paul on 5th August, 2014 at 21:19
I've spoken to a few friends and acquaintances who have been sanctioned, strangely enough not by their local Job Centre but by someone in another county. This is lubricous, how can someone you have never met sanction you from the comfort of an office 300 miles away ?. Makes appealing all that much harder...

Comment left by mary alston on 26th September, 2014 at 10:32
i have just been sanctioned without warning when i challenged it i was told that the circumstances surrounding my leaving my last job i was sackced by the manager because i caught him on several occasaions up to no good so he made things up about me and it was my word against his, iam still waiting to hear the outcome

Comment left by jamie goddard on 18th February, 2016 at 14:08
benefit sanction is illegal under section four of human rights act denying right to life there stopping benefit which unables you to buy food that is torture