Petition · past parliament

End benefit sanctions, punishments to make the poor more poor.

Closed 533 signatures

What the petition asks

The welfare state was invented to support those in need, to support those in need. It should never be used as a form of finacial blackmail. Sanctions make people need more, they make poor people more poor and they victimise the most vulnerable in our society.

it is time we put an end to this.
The evidence to support this is in the fact that use of food banks has risen so dramatically. That homelessness has more than doubled.

There is also the fact that I have endured sanctions myself, where I went weeks without money and had to use food banks myself.

The evidence is everywhere, and has been in the news, there have been studies after studies that have said that sanctions and universal credit are causing more poverty.

It is time to stop using abject poverty as a punishment.

Timeline

19 Oct 2017 Petition opened for signatures
19 Apr 2018 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 533
Status Closed
Opened 19 Oct 2017
Closed 19 Apr 2018

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.