JOBCENTRE staff labouring under the Tories’ new sanctions regime cut off Scots’ benefit payments nearly 900,000 times last year, a new report has claimed.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) pleaded in a report yesterday for an urgent overhaul of the draconian scheme.

It estimated that 898,000 sanctions were levied against benefit claimants over the past 12 months — ostensibly for failing to meet requirements such as attending jobcentre meetings or doing enough to find work.

But the rate of sanctions for those on jobseeker’s allowance has more than doubled since 2010 and grassroots activists have long warned of sanctions imposed over administrative errors or impossible demands.

One man featured in yesterday’s report saw his benefits reduced to about £11 a week after he failed to attend an interview with a work programme, despite producing a doctor’s certificate to say he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was not fit to travel.

A survey of Citizens Advice Bureau advisers also cited in the report found that 60 per cent had found people were not being told about the sanctions until the money simply stopped coming.

Ninety-seven per cent said they had seen cases where penalties had been applied without taking into account the claimant’s reasons for noncompliance.

The same proportion said they had spoken with clients who were going without meals, gas or electricity after being sanctioned.

CAS chief executive Margaret Lynch said the report offered “a stark warning” for policymakers.

“Being sanctioned means your benefit money is stopped, from a minimum of a week to as long as three years,” she said.

“That is the money that you live on — the money that you use to heat your home, feed and clothe yourself and your family, pay your bills, pay for travel, to get to the jobcentre and to look for work.”

A DWP spokesman insisted sanctions were only used as a last resort.

“If someone disagrees with a decision made on their claim, they can appeal,” he said.