Well done to the social security advisory committee for standing up to its political masters in pointing out the lack of evidence that the benefit sanctions regime is having any impact on changing attitudes to work (Review of benefit sanctions urged amid concern over regime’s effectiveness, 27 July). Your report notes “widespread political support” for sanctions. That’s sadly accurate, fuelled by a consistent campaign to stigmatise benefit recipients through the rightwing media. The Green party, however, has been speaking out against these benefit sanctions since their inception.
They’ve clearly been utterly inhumane and, of the hundreds of thousands of people sanctioned in the past year, they’ve hit the most vulnerable – particularly those suffering from mental illness and affected by learning disabilities – the hardest. The horrific death of David Clapson is just one example of many of the impacts. The advisory committee speaks in dry bureaucratese, but speaks the facts. This is one more area in which evidence-based policymaking, combined with common decency and humanity, is sorely needed.
Natalie Bennett
Green party leader
• From my experience of involvement in a local food ministry, I’d suggest that benefit sanctions, rather than encouraging recipients to get work, causes them hurt, hunger, demoralisation and a general lack of motivation, none of which is conducive to finding immediate employment.
Helen Owen
Thurnscoe, South Yorkshire
• Of course benefit sanctions work. The savings to the Treasury, at a conservative estimate, are nearly £1bn a year, about the same as the government said it would cost to make the recipients of million-pound estates exempt from inheritance tax.
Gareth Pritchard
Daventry, Northamptonshire
.jpg?w=600)
