TOUGH new penalties for benefits claimants are forcing people to rely on food banks, campaigners have warned, after official figures revealed that jobless Scots have had their payments stopped on more than 50,000 occasions.
Statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions yesterday showed 53,270 "jobseeker sanctions" have been imposed since October last year, when a new and tougher system of penalties was introduced.
Benefits were suspended across the UK on 580,000 occasions over the same period.
Under the new regime, Jobseeker's Allowance claimants can have their payments suspended for not trying hard enough to find work, turning down job offers or not turned up to appointments.
Sanctions range from a "low-level" four-week stop on payments for failing to turn up for an interview with Jobcentre staff to a "high level" 13 week benefit ban for quitting a job.
Breaking the rules a second or third time attracts even tougher penalties - up to a three-year suspension in some cases.
Government ministers yesterday hailed the figures as proof they were cracking down on a "something-for-nothing" benefits culture.
But Margaret Lynch, chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland, said: "These figures show more and more people are suffering loss of benefits. If you are relying on benefits as your only source of income, life is hard enough. But to then lose that scarce income altogether - often for a period of months - is simply devastating.
"You can't pay your rent or mortgage, or your fuel bills, or put food on the table so you risk losing your home, or getting into huge debts that you can't repay. And you have to rely on charity, like foodbanks, just to survive."
She claimed many jobless Scots had been penalised for missing appointments they had not been notified about or other "errors in the system".
She added: "These sanctions are one of the main reasons for the rise in people needing emergency support like food banks. It's clear the system is not only too harsh but also deeply flawed."
Of the 53,270 sanctions in Scotland, 4230 were "high-level" meaning an automatic 13-week benefit ban.
The latest official figures show there are 121,800 people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in Scotland.
The new rules were also criticised by Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation think tank.
She said similar schemes in other countries had proved a "blunt and uncertain instrument" in encouraging people to seek work.
She added: "The figures published today show that half a million people face destitution as their benefits are taken away in a bid to mould behaviour and encourage people to take jobs."
UK Minister for Employment Esther McVey said: "This Government has always been clear that, in return for claiming unemployment benefits, jobseekers have a responsibility to do everything they can to get back into work. We are ending the something-for-nothing culture.
"People who are in a job know that if they don't play by the rules or fail to turn up in the morning, there might be consequences, so it's only right that people on benefits should have similar responsibilities."
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