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Universal Credit Sanction

tinkerbell2000

Hi everyone,

I’m in need of some help with being on a sanction previously. I want to appeal against but but I’m struggling on how to write a letter, what to include. I feel that the sanction is completely unfair considering my circumstances, I can explain further below.

April 2022 my child turned 1 and I had an appointment booked for the end of April, which is the appointment missed.

There’s multiple reasons behind this

I forgotten my password and called the UC number several times to get it reset - each time they said they did it but I didn’t receive any link. Resulted in not having any access to see when the appointment was for. Making a phone call was very difficult enough, then having to do this a few times was frustrating too.
I had also just moved in my home and had barely any access to internet the signal is close to nothing. Phone calls are very difficult too.
I didn’t have any white goods as I was waiting to be provided by a charity so was going through a very difficult time. Also having postpartum depression/anxiety, C-PTSD and Autism.

I got a job from July to October. It came to an unexpected end, I failed my probation after having some time off with having Covid (and my toddler too). Which is another thing I felt was unfair but I guess it was just the way it went.

So in November/December, after losing my job, I was already having a panic about money with Christmas coming up too.

They decided to put me on a sanction, for missing my appointment in April, 7 months later? With not even a penny to live on, after losing my job. I managed to get an emergency payment but that was a very little amount to get by.

I have absolutely no support from parents / no one I could ask for help. Luckily I did manage to get a food parcel.

After losing my job, being put on the sanction, I was feeling very low. I then had my appointment to go into Job Centre where the lady was really nasty, she had a go at me for missing my appointment in April. Very patronising about my current situation with losing my job too. I wish I had some evidence of how I was treated that day. I didn’t even defend myself due to my inability.

I did submit a reconsideration, I only mentioned the reasons being having no internet access, losing my password and the UC failed to reset it - According to them there’s no record that I had even called!

Now I do want to try to appeal against this, can anyone please help?

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Comments

chiarieds

Hi @tinkerbell2000 - & welcome to the community.

You can ask the DWP to look at this again, which is called a Mandatory Reconsideration, which it seems you have done; I presume the result of this was that the DWP didn't change their minds.

If you wish to appeal this further, then I would also write about the ill health that you had at the time, & that you are autistic & suffer from C-PTSD finding communication by phone or face to face very difficult.

So, in essence you knew that you had an assessment coming up, but didn't know exactly when & were unable to access your journal due to the problems you've mentioned above. Did you not ring to ask the date of this appointment?

tinkerbell2000

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/907222#Comment_907222

Thank you for your reply.

Yes correct they denied the mandatory reconsideration. I didn’t explain myself enough but I didn’t realise it would be such a big battle to reason against.

Apologies just noticed I wrote April 2022 by mistake, this was 2023.

Honestly I don’t think I was aware I had an appointment, it was never mentioned when I called. I was trying to reset my password for just accessing my account, for rent payments, i had an advance i wanted to check etc.

I’ve never been on UC before until I had my child, my job contract ended. So I didn’t really understand how/when my ‘commitments’ began.

I definitely didn’t realise it would straight after my child turned 1. I did look after and as it states, I have no commitment to get a job whilst my child is under 3.

I understand they sanction everyone for missing appointments but just seems more unfair here?

I was really in a bad place in April, I just don’t know how I’m meant to express this.

Also why they choose to sanction me 7 months later? It just doesn’t seem right, unless there’s just a queue of people to get through.

Needhelpandadvice

@tinkerbell2000 My first line of attack would be to mention that it has been seven months since you missed the appointment, and why are they sanctioning you seven months after for.

If you have phone records and dates, if you can take a screenshot of those to prove that you phoned on those dates.

You have a spam/junk folder, it might have gone into that and after ten odd days, the junk is automatically cleared.

I find it a bit odd, that you have a child that was one year of age and yet you are being made to look for work? I was always under the impression that if you are a new parent, especially a single parent, you can take a few years off, I thought that it was until they turn five years of age, someone would be better to advise me on that score.

A land based internet especially a social internet package might be worth looking into, if you have next to no mobile signal, you are going to need something more reliable, especially if they have you looking for work.

You should mention your child and that any sanction affects your child and the ability to feed the child.

Hopefully someone can give you more advise and help, sadly the best person to advise you Poppy has just gone on holiday, so she is not around for the next eleven days, not unless she is a forum addict and keeps checking.

Hope this helps, and hope someone else can give more advice as I honestly know nothing about universal credit.

chiarieds

Yes, I thought 2022 was a typo & likely was 2023. I think all you can do is tell it as it was, as you've done here, & I hope your honesty then works in your favour. Do just say how unwell you were in that April with post-natal depression on top of the problems you already face.

If you don't recall being given a date for an appointment, other than knowing it was later that month, then your issues with being unable to get your password reset, etc may be a valid reason to challenge this here.

chiarieds

Sorry, I disagree with needhelpandadvice - you missed an appointment, & what is needed is if there was a good reason that this occurred. I'd stick to that; being sanctioned months later has nothing to do with giving a good reason. Some of their following comments are incorrect, as you will realise, about when you have job commitments if a single parent of a young child (Under 'If you have children'):

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-your-claimant-commitment-quick-guide/universal-credit-and-your-claimant-commitment

tinkerbell2000

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/907231#Comment_907231

thank you so much, that’s really helpful! 🥰🌟🌟🌟

Adrian_Scope

Good morning @tinkerbell2000 and a warm welcome to the community. 🙂

I've spoken to some of my contacts at another charity and there may be a couple of reasons to appeal the sanction that you haven't explored yet.

Unfortunately, not being able to log in is usually not considered a valid reason unless you can provide evidence that you were unable to manage an online claim, and had made them aware. Additionally, the fact that they didn't text or email you isn't typically grounds for appeal, as it's outlined in the claimant commitment to regularly check your online account. As long as they posted the appointment on your account, it's generally considered that they have notified you.

However there are still a couple of options for you:

First, I'd recommend checking your Universal Credit commitments. You should be able to look back at your previous commitments to see what they were at the time of the missed appointment. If they hadn't updated your commitments to include work coach appointments, they shouldn't be able to sanction you for missing one. Since your child had only just turned one, it's possible your commitments hadn’t been updated yet.

Another option is to review the amount they applied for the sanction. I've seen cases where the wrong amount was sanctioned, which is another reason to appeal. Does the sanction notice specify how much the sanction is per day and for how many days? Sometimes they make mistakes, and in some cases, they've cancelled the entire sanction as a result.

If you can share a copy of the sanction notice and the MR letter (with personal information like your name and address removed), we'd be happy to have a look for you.