Benefit Claimants Sanctions (Required Assessment) Bill

Debate between Chris Law and Mhairi Black

Friday 2nd December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mhairi Black]

I will not take an intervention from the individual because we have all heard enough from her. I suggest that she listen to what the reality is for so many people.

[Chris Law (Dundee West) (SNP)]

The hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins) is right that sticking to the facts is important. My city of Dundee was dubbed sanctions city 2014, and I am frankly ashamed that it still has that title today. Let there be no doubt that we also have the busiest food bank in Scotland. For anyone here who thinks that is a work of fiction or that these are not the facts, I make it clear that the sanctions city of Dundee also has the highest use of food banks in Scotland.

[Mhairi Black]

Like my hon. Friend’s city, my constituency had one of the highest sanctions rates in 2014-15. I have seen that first hand not only because I live there but through this job. I have seen what sanctions do to people. I have seen the spiral that it puts people’s lives into—the downward spin that they cannot stop, because it just gets worse and worse.