A 63 year old woman with several serious medical conditions
had her benefits stopped for ten months after she failed to turn up for an assessment which she had been told was cancelled.
Teresa Geale, from Kent, was already on the bus to the assessment when she received a voicemail message telling her that the assessment centre was running late and her appointment would have to be rescheduled.
She went home, but a few days later received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) demanding to know why she hadn’t attended the appointment.
Despite explaining that her appointment had been cancelled, she was told that she had missed the appointment ‘without good reason’.
As a consequence, her Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was being stopped.
ESA is the primary benefit for people who are unable to work due to illness or disability.
Teresa Geale was receiving ESA due to suffering from a number of medical conditions including osteoarthritis, curvature of the spine and ocular migraines which cause her temporary blindness.
After Ms Geale’s ESA was stopped, she was forced to sign on for Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) instead, receiving only half the amount she had received under ESA.
Mrs Geale took her case to a tribunal, which ruled that the appointment could not have been cancelled – despite her showing the tribunal her bus ticket and screenshots of calls she had made to the assessment centre at the time.
Her case was later taken on by the University of Kent’s law clinic, and an appeal made to a second tribunal. This time, the judge took just five minutes to rule against the DWP, saying that:
"I find it extraordinary that her evidence was not accepted and it has taken this long to overturn the original decision….I trust that the Respondent [the DWP] will reimburse her for her aborted bus fare."
Ms Geale’s case is shocking, but far from isolated.
41,000 ESA claimants were sanctioned between 2012 and 2016.
Claimants – including those on Job Seekers’ Allowance – have been sanctioned for
utterly preposterous reasons including missing an appointment because they were in hospital after a heart attack;
selling poppies; and missing an appointment because they were at a job interview.