We need to talk about benefit suspensions

The computer flags your case as suspicious. You try to explain, but you don’t even know what you’re accused of. Months pass, the investigation continues, and you start to build up debt. You’re relying on food banks to survive. You accumulate rent arrears and even lose your home.

It’s a story we’ve heard again and again.

Thousands of people on Universal Credit have had their benefits suspended while they’re investigated for fraud. Some of them come to Citizens Advice for help — and many of them are ultimately found innocent. But in the months while they’re being investigated, we see people pushed into significant hardship. This includes many people in particularly vulnerable circumstances.

We’ve seen the mother of a 3 month old baby forced to go without electricity because she can’t afford to top up her prepayment meter. We’ve seen a man with a lung condition unable to afford to keep his house warm. We’ve seen a disabled woman evicted and forced to sleep on the streets during winter.

This shouldn’t happen. But as it stands, many people are slipping through the cracks. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) either doesn’t identify their vulnerable circumstances, or through the discretion of its officers fails to offer them accommodations or support.

This leaves 2 groups of people suffering:

1. Those who suffer significant detriment due to a lack of funds throughout the suspension process
2. Those who struggle most to engage with the evidence submission process

People in these 2 groups need extra support and protections to make sure they’re not unfairly punished while they prove their benefit entitlement. That’s why we’re calling on the DWP to create a ‘vulnerability criteria’: a list of vulnerable circumstances which would ensure that those who meet the criteria are automatically flagged on the system.

Households with the following characteristics should be automatically flagged and referred for additional support or protection

Our approach is informed by the new protections in place for force-fitting prepayment meters. It involves drawing on information which the DWP mostly already holds about claimants or could collect by providing a way for people to flag their vulnerable circumstances.

The right support

Once their circumstances have been flagged, people should be automatically offered relevant support. For people with language or communication barriers, this support could include things like extra time to submit evidence of entitlement, being allowed to submit evidence in person at the Jobcentre and pre-arranging phone call appointments so they can get the support of a friend or adviser.

For people who would struggle most financially, this support could include not suspending their benefit payments, only suspending them partially, or providing a hardship fund they can apply to during their suspension.

Tackling fraud is important. But with 1 in 10 people who are investigated being found innocent, thousands of people are getting wrongly caught up in the net. This is the part of the benefit system with the biggest repercussions for the people impacted by it, yet it has the least safeguards in place. That needs to change.

You can find our full research and analysis in our report Caught Up in the Net. We provide a more detailed set of recommendations for protecting people in vulnerable circumstances, as well as measures to speed up investigations by making the evidence submission process more efficient.