Benefit sanctions are an abuse inflicted by government as punishment.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/27/benefit-sanctions-food-banks-oxford-university-study Benefit sanctions forcing people to use food banks, study confirms Yet another "study" to report a truth which many of us have known for years! Benefit sanctions, whereby social security claimants have their payments stopped for at least a month as a punishment for supposedly breaching strict job centre rules, are a key driver of hunger and food bank use" This conservative government and the ConDem coalition before them, use benefit sanctions, (most of which are overturned on appeal, but by which time the damage has already been done), as a weapon to attack the poor and most vulnerable people in our society and this abuse by government continues on a daily basis today. Abuses of this severity in application and effect, would not be tolerated in any other part of our social system and any person or persons guilty of perpetrating such abuse would be subject to the severest of penalties available under law. However, since Iain Duncan-Smith introduced this injustice, he and successive DWP Ministers since him, in collusion with a repressive government, have inflicted this punishment on benefit claimants around the country and have avoided any accountability for their actions . A scene from Ken Loach's film I, Daniel Blake, There is ample evidence that the use of this punishment has led to suicides of some or severe health problems in others, which in itself is a reason to condemn the use of sanctions, and those responsible for implementing them as barbaric and obscene. There is a compelling argument for bringing charges against those responsible for imposing this punishment as we would bring charges against any other abusers in our society.