SNP councillors in Fife are calling for the immediate suspension of benefit sanctions against claimants who have children in their household or who have mental health problems.
SNP group leader Peter Grant has submitted a motion to today’s meeting of the full Fife Council asking councillors to back the move.
He said: “Most people who have never had to claim benefits probably don’t realise just how inhumane the new sanctions regime is.
“If you get sanctioned the welfare state just abandons you for a minimum of two weeks and often longer.
“Just missing an appointment at the job centre is treated like a crime even if you’ve got a good reason.
“One young woman in Fife was sanctioned for going to her mum’s funeral and one man in my own ward missed an appointment because he was talking to employers about a possible job.
“This weekend an SNP MSP told me he was dealing with a case where a woman was sanctioned because she was giving birth when she should have been filling in a form at the job centre.”
Mr Grant continued: “The two groups of people most often hit by sanctions are lone parents and people with mental health problems.
“A thousand sanctions per week are being applied against people who have been assessed as unfit to work because of mental health problems. And 100,000 sanctions per year are against families with children.
“This is not a question of economics or politics, it’s about basic humanity. The state is deliberately taking punitive action against people who are ill, knowing that their illness will get worse as a result.
“Families with newborn babies are being deliberately left with nothing to pay for food and other basic supplies.
“The sanctions regime is hurting the very people who are most in need of help.
“I hope we can get unanimous support on Thursday to send out a message that there should be an immediate end to sanctions against our most vulnerable citizens.”