[Vicky.]

Sanctions are absolute bull****. I can agree that people who consistently take the piss are..taking the piss, however of 3 friends I know who are (were, in 2 cases, only one is still on) on JSA one was sanctioned for taking her daughter to A+E and missing an appointment because of it. 1 was sanctioned for not receiving a letter about a change in appointment that brought the meeting forward a week, he got the letter the day after the rearranged date ffs...and the other got a sanction for having a house fire over the xmas period, which left him unable to jobsearch effectively for a few reasons, but you would think that after having your house pretty much burn down, you would be cut a little bit of slack, tbh.

So yeah, bullcrap. And yes, targets are horrendous if sanctions are only meant to be given to those who actually deserve them. How can you have a target like this? Quite similar to the targets for getting people off ESA and such.