This is horrific. People are having their benefits stopped arbitrarily to meet targets. Jobcentre worker: "it's all about stopping people's money. I got put on a performance improvement plan because I don't sanction enough people. I was told I need to get x amount of sanctions by March, about 2 a week."

Check out the performance improvement plan doc at 3'40: written down targets for staff of 8.6 referrals a month (to remove to entire of people's benefits for up to 8 weeks I think).

All under cover of a very successful "strivers vs skivers" message pushed by the coalition and large chunks of the media. It's a bizarre coincidence, though, isn't it? For some reason - I can't possibly imagine what - the number of lazy skivers seems to have skyrocketed since the financial crisis...