The following has been supplied by the TUC:
The government has drawn up plans to withdraw £71 a week from sick and disabled benefit claimants if they fail to take steps to get back into the workplace, according to the Guardian. The paper says a leaked draft of a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) template letter warns sick and disabled claimants they will lose 70 per cent of their weekly employment support allowance (ESA) if they refuse to take part in work-related activities, more than doubling the current penalty. The DWP has also told the Guardian that it is finalising plans which could make unpaid and unlimited work experience placements part of work-related activity. The draft letter, which the Guardian says is expected to be sent to all those in the ESA work-related activity group (Wrag), informs claimants that from 3 December the penalty will jump to £71 a week out of a maximum allowance award of £99.15. Latest figures show that there are just over 340,000 people in the Wrag category and that between 1 June 2011 and 31 May 2012, 11,130 of them have been sanctioned for an average duration of seven weeks. Charities have warned that stripping Wrag claimants of 70 per cent of their allowance risked 'devastating' consequences for people's health, especially since a good number of those currently being sanctioned have little understanding of why they are being punished.
