diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c8088a54..f237c46b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 ### Bug Fixes
 - Fix hc.api.views.ping to handle non-utf8 data in request body (#574)
+- Fix a crash when hc.api.views.pause receives a single integer in request body
 
 ## v1.23.1 - 2021-10-13
 
diff --git a/hc/api/decorators.py b/hc/api/decorators.py
index 09885067..c3a41034 100644
--- a/hc/api/decorators.py
+++ b/hc/api/decorators.py
@@ -61,12 +61,12 @@ def authorize_read(f):
     return wrapper
 
 
-def validate_json(schema=None):
+def validate_json(schema={"type": "object"}):
     """ Parse request json and validate it against `schema`.
 
     Put the parsed result in `request.json`.
-    If schema is None then only parse and don't validate.
-    Supports  a limited subset of JSON schema spec.
+    If schema is None then only parse and check if the root
+    element is a dict. Supports  a limited subset of JSON schema spec.
 
     """
 
@@ -81,11 +81,10 @@ def validate_json(schema=None):
             else:
                 request.json = {}
 
-            if schema:
-                try:
-                    validate(request.json, schema)
-                except ValidationError as e:
-                    return error("json validation error: %s" % e)
+            try:
+                validate(request.json, schema)
+            except ValidationError as e:
+                return error("json validation error: %s" % e)
 
             return f(request, *args, **kwds)
 
diff --git a/hc/api/tests/test_pause.py b/hc/api/tests/test_pause.py
index 85e980e8..ffe0d112 100644
--- a/hc/api/tests/test_pause.py
+++ b/hc/api/tests/test_pause.py
@@ -94,3 +94,10 @@ class PauseTestCase(BaseTestCase):
 
         self.profile.refresh_from_db()
         self.assertIsNone(self.profile.next_nag_date)
+
+    def test_it_rejects_non_dict_post_body(self):
+        r = self.csrf_client.post(self.url, "123", content_type="application/json")
+        self.assertEqual(r.status_code, 400)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            r.json()["error"], "json validation error: value is not an object"
+        )