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I am disgusted that @theresecoffey and our government have brought back benefit sanctions. In 2018 the DWP 'sneaked out' a report that highlighted that benefit sanctions do NOT help to get people into work.
Furthermore the system might cost more money than it saves! If you have a growing child your benefit money should not be stopped (some of our parents have had their money stopped due to caring for a sick child at home) -this can't happen in a pandemic.
Sanctions cause anxiety and depression, leading to a vulnerable person taking out an illegal loan from a loan shark -a debt which they might never pay off, forced to borrow more and more, leading to threats and intimidations whilst their children are at home.
@backpackhull was set up due to the evil bedroom tax, the 5 week wait, and benefit sanctions. We have supplied backpacks of food in Hull and Halifax and Selby to young single mothers who have had to go on the game
due to being messed around by the universal credit system. This government are incapable of looking after and understanding the complex needs of a large proportion of our society. We need well funded mental health services, youth services,
more social workers and therapists and services like home start and a re-building of our care system. What makes me most upset is people that say to me 'well they've all got mobile phones they should be able to feed their kids' a lot of families dont have mobile phones,
some of our heateachers have to walk to their house to get a message to them and besides in third world countries people have mobile phones! .The u -turn on holiday vouchers is amazing but we still need to
make sure children are safe and making sure parents arent cruelly sanctioned is, in my opinion the least we can do. The real poverty is hidden. We know some families wont leave their homes when they havent got shoes or haven't eaten.
Its really hard to un-hear the stories I'm told by head teachers- when they catch a child stealing food from the bins behind school or the tiny child that 15 bowls of cereal at breakfast club. At risk families need support, they care about their children but they need help .
Over 3 million people have been abused in this country- we need love, compassion and therapeutic services, we don't need sanctions, especially when they don't work. That is abuse. Some DWP work coaches are great, some aren't but the system doesn't work.
If you have time please write to your MP and sign a petition about this matter. Thank you for reading this. I'm sorry there's no jokes in it! And I'm sorry this is another depressing tweet as everyone really needs a laugh but it's keeping me awake...jokes will be back soon.
