PLEASE SHARE THIS IMPORTANT PROCEDURAL ADVICE ABOUT JC SANCTIONS. Much has been made of the new process one has to follow if you wish to appeal a Jobcentre sanction. This is as a consequence of changes made by the government, and the onus for taking action has placed upon the customer, rather than the Jobcentre staff being pro-active. Please note that this relates to sanctions only, not benefit award decisions, and, to a certain extent, is focussed around Work Programme decisions. It may be useful to note that certain aspects of the regime are set in law, and are outside the control of those making decisions. For example saying I forgot about the appointment is defined in law as not being a good reason (on its own) for not attending an appointment, no matter how sincere and genuine you are. However I forgot because my wife was in labour should be accepted as good reason. Similarly, the periods of sanction are also set in law, and again, the Decision Maker has no discretion in how long a period of sanction should last. If you wish to challenge the decision to sanction your benefit, you will either contact Jobcentre plus (JCP) face to face or by telephone. A this point you should be given a basic explanation of why you have been sanctioned. This person is NOT an expert in the sanction process, and CANNOT change the decision, they are explaining WHY you have been sanctioned, they are not in a position to justify any actions taken by Decision Makers. If you still disagree with the decision, let us say that you did in fact attend an appointment that you are being accused of not attending, you should then be offered a DETAILED EXPLANATION. At this juncture, you cannot ask for the appeal process to start, as previously happened, when you would have been given a form to request a reconsideration. If you accept the offer of a detailed explanation, your details will be passed to a Decision Maker and they will contact you by telephone. The purpose of this call is to offer a clearer explanation of the decision only, from the perspective of the original Decision Maker, and it is not intended that the decision can be overturned at this point. HOWEVER, if you can provide additional information at this time (you may be asked to provide it by email, fax etc) and the decision could be overturned, The Decision Maker should do so once in possession of the information. So, in the failure to attend scenario above, if you can say I did attend, and I have a signed letter from the provider you should be asked to forward a copy of the letter to the decision maker, the quickest way being by attending at the Jobcentre and they will fax it to the DM, who will then overturn the decision. Note, the Decision Maker will not overturn a decision just on your say so. If following the detailed explanation, you still disagree with the decision, your details will then be passed to a Dispute Resolution Team, who will look at the whole decision again in a MANDATORY RECONSIDERATION, and may ask you for further information, or thy will consider any additional evidence you have provided. If at the point of the first call/visit, you chose not to have a detailed explanation, your details will be passed to the same Dispute Resolution Team, who will conduct the same MANDATORY RECONSIDERATION as mentioned in the previous paragraph. If the Dispute Resolution Team overturn the original decision they will write out to you and let you know. If the decision remains unchanged, they will, again, write out to you telling you that the decision still stands and they will give you information, including a reference number, telling you how YOU can arrange a full-blown appeal, with the appeals service. You will note that, at each step, you the customer has to take action, and decide what to do, rather than JCP automatically progressing your dispute at each stage. I hope this, although a high level view of the process, is of help to readers. The ray of sunshine to which I refer relates, in the main, to Work Programme sanctions, although I believe similar glitches have occurred in other streams. ALWAYS, ALWAYS dispute a decision, whether you are guilty or not!!!! When cases reach the Dispute Resolution Teams, they will examine the case, and one of the things they look at is whether a copy of a particular form has been included in the case papers (the ones DWP hold). This is essentially a form which tells you that you have been mandated to take part in a scheme, and the consequences of not participating etc. This is because if the case gets to the tribunal court, the court will want to see this evidence to make sure you have been adequately informed of all your options. Without this form, they cannot prosecute the sanction in court, and consequently the decision is immediately overturned by the Dispute team, whether the sanction is justified or not!!!!!!! Currently the sanction process does not call for a copy of this form to be included in case papers, so many, many cases that go to the dispute team are simply being overturned on this technicality. Info kindly supplied to ATOS Miracles for sharing everywhere.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:22:30 +0000
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