A SENIOR manager at the Department for Work and Pensions in Scotland has claimed benefit sanctions are “not the norm” and defended staff, insisting “it’s not about hurting people”.
The UK government department rarely allows the media to interview senior managers responsible for rolling out welfare reforms.
Operations manager Tahira Sharif, who oversees five job centres north of the border, said she and her team have tried to implement the changes “in a supportive way” and their aim is to prevent people being penalised.
But SNP MP Chris Stephens, who sits on the influential House of Commons work and pensions committee, said welfare reforms are a “slow-motion train wreck, with more and more people suffering”.
Job seekers can have benefits cut or stopped if they fail to adhere to a strict Claimant Commitment set out by job centre staff, who are now known as work coaches. Work coaches can make a sanction referral if people are late to appointments or don’t apply for jobs the coach flags up.
The practice has been criticised by charities who work with people facing hardship and was brought into sharp focus by Bafta award-winning film I, Daniel Blake, penned by Scots screenwriter Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach.
Glasgow-based DWP Operation Manager Tahira Sharif is paid around £35,000 a year to manage five job centres in Glasgow, although when asked her salary she admitted: “To be honest I don’t actually look at my wage slip”.
Sharif has been employed by the DWP for more than 30 years and has been involved in the rollout of welfare reforms in Scotland’s biggest city.
She said: “We do realise that not everybody is ready for work so it’s about what support can we give? It’s really like that coach/athlete relationship. We want to make our customers self-sufficient and enable them to help themselves, as well as supporting them.”
Sharif said sanctions are “there for a purpose” and will be used when people on benefits are unable to meet their “obligations”.
She said: “Our aim is not to put anybody into that position. Our aim is to work with the customer. Yes, it does happen however it’s not the norm.
“My staff get a lot of thank you letters. We get thank you cards. I actually hear when I’m out on sites the customers saying thank you very much for the difference you’ve made. These are things I hear when I’m out and about at my sites.
“For us, it’s about doing the right thing for the customer. It’s not about hurting people. It’s about explaining things to people so that they understand what’s happening and why it’s happening. Ultimately our aim is to change people’s lives and get them into work.”
Sharif spoke to the Sunday Herald after new figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed that employment in Scotland has reached a record high and joblessness a record low, with more than three-quarters of working age adults now in a job.
Between May and July, the employment rate rose 1.8 points to a record 75.8 per cent as an extra 49,000 people found work, taking the total to 2,587,000. In the same quarter, the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 per cent in Scotland, the joint lowest since 1975, down 7,000 to 102,000.
When asked whether welfare reforms had contributed to the fall in the unemployment rate, Sharif said: “I think on the back of the welfare reforms they would have because it’s a change that’s there. However, it’s how we’re then delivering that service in terms of our work coaches supporting our customers into work and changing the service delivery to support people. I can’t actually give my personal opinion. We work for the government and we’re here to actually make things better for the customers. We have the welfare reforms and it’s about putting them into place in a supportive way.”
The DWP was criticised recently for a planned programme of job centre closures. Sharif will lose one job centre as part of the changes but insisted it will have no impact on “customers”, despite criticism by the PCS union – which represents job centre staff – the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and the Poverty Alliance. They fear closures will lead to a rise in sanctions because claimants will have further to travel and may be unable to afford the costs.
Sharif said: “It depends where people live, but that might be (the case) in some circumstances. However, it’s always within that travel area. When we move to another site we will provide a first-rate service for our customers. Nothing is going to change.”
SNP MP Chris Stephens said: “DWP staff on the frontline are caught in the middle between citizens angry and confused at what’s happening to them, and the UK Government’s continual attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
“In particular the roll-out of Universal Credit is a slow-motion train wreck, with more and more people suffering as more and more areas are caught in its web. I’ve helped constituents who’ve waited weeks for a single penny from DWP, with no income and no information, sinking into debt and reliant on foodbanks and the Scottish Welfare Fund to survive.
“All the while the training needs of DWP staff have been ignored, with little recognition given to the complexity of Universal Credit and the problems inherent with this disastrous Tory policy.
“As the SNP member of the DWP Select Committee, we’ll be investigating the problems Universal Credit is causing, as well as the Jobcentre closure program across Glasgow, with half our city’s Jobcentres being shuttered. The UK Government must answer for their actions.”
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