One hundred people a day with mental health problems are having their welfare benefits 'sanctioned'

Rochdale Borough Users Forum
142 Drake Street
Rochdale
OL16 1PU

Open Letter To:

Simon Danczuk MP; Liz Mc Innes MP; Councillor Richard Farnell, Head of Rochdale Labour Group; Councillor Andrew Kelly, Head of Rochdale Liberal Democrat Group; Mark Hollinrake, Rochdale and Oldham Green Group; Councillor Ashley Dearnley, Leader of Rochdale Conservative Group

Dear Elected Representative [s],

Could we the undersigned please take this opportunity to thank you for the excellent ongoing support you have given to people with mental health issues in the past.

Today we would like to draw your attention, if we may, to two pressing issues relating to people with mental health issues in Rochdale, Middleton & Heywood in the hope that you can both pledge your continued support to members of our mental health Service Users community, many of whom face great distress and anxiety over some elements of the governments Welfare Reform process.

Foremost in our minds is our growing concern that the proposed £31 Million pounds in cuts to Public Services at Rochdale Council which will without doubt impact disproportionately on vulnerable people with mental health issues, as well as many others within the wider community, that such cuts will have a massive direct impact upon.

Secondly we are deeply concerned that 100 people a day [1] with mental health problems are having their Welfare benefits 'sanctioned'– stopped for periods of time - by the Department of Work & Pensions [DWP]. These sanctions have a massive impact on people already struggling with periods of unemployment. But as I am sure you will all be very aware the impact on people already struggling with mental health issues can be catastrophic.

We’d like to draw your attention to latest report from New Economy that records the latest DWP sanctions figures made available for the period 22 October until the 31 December 2013. These statistics lists Rochdale Job Centre, Fleece Street as having the third highest rate for sanctioning benefit claimants in the whole of Greater Manchester. Of the 4,078 people being sanctioned at Rochdale Job Centre 40% were sanctioned without being told why these sanctioned were imposed by Claimant Advisers.

Locally the figures break down at:

• Rochdale Job Centre Plus, Fleece Street - 4,078
• Middleton Jobcentre Plus - 1,484
• Heywood Job Centre Plus, Taylor Street – 972

A total of 6534 in all. Across the Greater Manchester, the Manchester East & West area had 24,072 “adverse” sanctions. Of these the majority by far were in the 18-24 year age group totalling 246, 592 individuals. With 91,603 in the 25-29 year old age group.

Most worryingly across the whole of the United Kingdom there were 49,827 disabled people who were sanctioned by the DWP.

We are also firmly of the belief that:

“Sanctioning someone with a mental health problem for being late for a meeting is like sanctioning someone with a broken leg for limping “[2] as well as being deeply worried at the latest DWP proposals to class Sanctioned Jobseekers with mental health issues as NOT vulnerable unless they have an accompanying physical health problem, as described in Welfare Weekly, “Sanctioned Job Seekers with Mental Health Problems are not “vulnerable” says DWP” – Weekly Welfare, 06. VIII, 2015– please see link at: http://www.welfareweekly.com/sanctioned-jobseekers-with-mental-health-problems-are-not-vulnerable-says-dwp/ [3].

Currently people suffering the most severe mental illnesses are likely to receive Employment and Support Allowance [ESA] and it is estimated that 23% of JSA claimants have a mental health condition.

Could we urge you to make public representations on our behalf to Rochdale Council to express our profound concerns at the proposed levels of cuts to services as well as to please ask the Department of Works & Pensions directly what guidelines they have in place to safeguard claimants with mental health issues, and the exact definition they use to identify those local claimants with mental health issues.

Your help with this would be very much appreciated by all of us. We would also very much welcome the opportunity to send a delegation of our newly relaunched Mental Health Campaign Group members to meet with you personally at your earliest convenience that suits you to discuss these serious issues of concern to us. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Rachel Ginnelly - CEO, Rochdale Borough Users Forum Chief Executive Officer
Mick Ayton - Voice Programme Coordinator
Ryan Cowan - Chair, RBUF Board of Trustees
Mike Jones - Vice Chair RBUF Board of Trustees
Daniel - RBUF Technical Assistant
Nisba - Project Assistant for RBUF
Alan Tice - RBUF Member
Steve Tomlinson – RBUF Office Volunteer
Peter Wildman – RBUF Mental Health Trainer / RBUF Rep
Sarah Harper – RBUF Office Volunteer
Larissa Marshall – RBUF Service User
Andrew Wastling - Chair, Mental Health Campaigns Group
Yasmin Kenyon - RBUF Housing & Homeless Rep
Peter Wildman – RBUF Mental Health Trainer / RBUF Rep
Rashida Jordan - RBUF Service User / Volunteer
Donna Homes - RBUF Service User / Blue Pits Band
Richard Outram – Policy & Research Adviser Liberal Democrat Group
Dr. James McCready – OL12 9RZ
Val Puslow - OL10 4SG
Mark Holden - OL11 1JZ
Natasha Kirby – Rochdale Solutions – OL16
Kathtyn Rennie -Rochdale Possibilities
Azfar Mahmood- OL11 1FW
Nick Rogers – M5 4LW
Tony Gill – OL16 5QJ
Mike Moores – OL16 3DN
Michelle Clegg – OL11 2AW
Bill Jacobs – M24 2UU
Susan Turner – REAG/ Cornerstone – OL2 7PY
John Callaghan – RBUF Service User

Appendix:

[1]. “More than 100 mentally ill people a day have their benefits sanctioned “, The Independent – please see link at:
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/more-than-100-mentally-ill-people-a-day-have-their-benefits-sanctioned--gky3O8Nmsl

[2]. http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/rethinksanctions

[3]. “Sanctioned Job Seekers with Mental Health Problems are not “vulnerable” says DWP” – Weekly Welfare, August VIII, 2015 – please see link at: http://www.welfareweekly.com/sanctioned-jobseekers-with-mental-health-problems-are-not-vulnerable-says-dwp/