DWP to sanction HB claimants

From Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty

UNIVERSAL DESPAIR

DWP makes the point for a "yes" vote

in Scotland

by announcing "Part-time workers judged to be doing too little to find full-time work face having their benefit for housing costs sanctioned by the government for the first time under universal credit. ‘It is only right that people claiming benefits should be aware that not sticking to the rules can have a consequence. Any reductions to benefits as a result of a sanction are applied to the universal credit benefit as a whole rather than a particular element of it,' say Ministers.

Inside Housing article — DWP: Housing benefit will be sanctioned.

Yesterday The Times published the following letter which I edited from a letter I have already sent you.

It was the lead letter. I became an associate of the Iona Community in the 1990s which, since its foundation on the Isle of Iona in 1938, has been committed to peace and justice.

DEEP DIVISIONS HAVE BEEN EXPOSED BY BOTH THE "YES" AND "NO" CAMPAIGNS

.

Sir, Magnus Linklater (Opinion, Sept 1) is right. Deep divisions have been exposed by both the Yes and No campaigns and opened up wounds which will be hard to heal. The Church of Scotland decided to remain neutral, but influential members of the Kirk deeply committed to social justice, including the leader of the Iona Community Peter MacDonald, are expressing the concerns shared by many of us who work with and for the poorest citizens of England and voting yes.

He said: “I no longer believe the Westminster government is capable of delivering the socially just and equitable society in which I want to live. The British state no longer serves the needs of all its people. Economic policies have favoured the wealthy who have grown richer, and stigmatised the poor and vulnerable who are paying for the failures of the private financial sector.” Even if Scotland votes No the wounds will remain unhealed north and south of the border until confidence of every UK citizen in the fairness of the Westminster government is restored.