Boundaries That Punish the Poor

The UK state loves to talk about “modernisation”. Online claims. Digital services. Remote

work. But for people on Universal Credit - and for people on licence reporting to probation -

daily life can still be dictated by lines on a map that feel fossilised.

The problem is not that boundaries exist. It is that the system treats them as sacred, even

when they make no sense on the ground. Greater London itself was created in 1965, pulling

together boroughs and districts that had previously sat in different historic counties. The result

is a city where your postcode can sit in one borough, your nearest public services in another,

and your actual routine - work, school, caring responsibilities - spread across three.

Jobcentre Plus offices are still organised around local allocations. Government guidance tells

people to use the official postcode search to find their nearest Jobcentre Plus, and says the

address you deal with will also be on the letters you have been sent. In practice, many

claimants are assigned to a specific office and told to attend work-coach appointments there.

Miss an appointment, and Universal Credit can be reduced through a sanction if you do not

complete the work-related activities you agreed.

This is where the catchment logic turns nasty. If your allocated office is two buses away, or a

90-minute trip for a distance that looks small on a map, the burden does not fall evenly. It falls

on people least able to absorb it: those with empty Oyster cards, unstable housing, poor

health, or limited English. A “simple appointment” becomes a half-day operation. Being late

becomes likely. And the system reads lateness as attitude.

Probation runs on the same geography. Since unification in June 2021, the Probation Service

has been organised into 12 regions containing 108 Probation Delivery Units (PDUs), and

delivery falls within PDU boundaries. If your reporting office is chosen for you - based on

where you live, where you are placed, or where the service decides you belong - moving to a

nearer office is not automatic. Specialist advice services tell people to put requests to change

probation area in writing and ask for a written response. That alone shows the power

imbalance: the person under supervision has to ask permission to make life workable.

Officials will say this is about workloads, risk management, and consistency. Fine. But the

world has moved. Appointments are booked on central systems. Case files are digital. Work

is triaged. Staff cover absences. The state already expects claimants to manage online

accounts and respond quickly. It can handle one basic reality: people attend the office they

can physically reach.

This is not a “nice to have”. It is access to rights and compliance with conditions. When you

force someone to travel past the nearest Jobcentre, to reach the one their postcode has been

pinned to, you are not supporting them. You are stress-testing them. And when the penalty for

failing that test is a sanction, or a breach, a boundary line stops being admin. It becomes

punishment.

Sources: GOV.UK “Contact Jobcentre Plus” (DWP); GOV.UK “Universal Credit sanctions”; GOV.UK “Universal Credit:

your claimant commitment”; UK Parliament Written Question 191324 (27 June 2023) on Probation Delivery Units; Unlock

“Changing probation area”; Encyclopaedia Britannica “Greater London”.