Three years ago, Ian was a freelance plasterer and was teaching his skills to students sent from the job centre. Now on Jobseeker’s Allowance, he was placed on a Work Programme run by a private company. Asked to send his CV by email, he was not given the email address, so he hand delivered it. A week later, he found he had been sanctioned for six weeks for not sending the CV by email. Aged 49, he was reliant on his parents for a daily meal, and on friends for small sums of money. In the final week of sanctioning, he had no gas or electricity in winter. He says, “You are treated like cattle in the field with a tag in your ear. The word ‘sanction’ is in every sentence the staff speak.”