August 2020 Benefit Sanctions Briefing

August 2020 Benefit Sanctions Briefing
Download: https://mrfrankzola.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/20-08-sanctions-stats-briefing-d.webster.docx
Past briefings https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/briefing/david-webster-university-glasgow-briefings-benefit-sanctions

Summary

" I enclose a Briefing on the newly published DWP benefit sanctions statistics. Key points are:-

     As expected, sanction decisions fell almost to nil in April, when the suspension of new sanctions due to the coronavirus was in force throughout the month. Prior to the coronavirus suspension, the overall picture was of a lengthy decline in sanctions for all the benefits.
    Despite the coronavirus suspension of new sanctions, DWP estimates that there were 36,277 Universal Credit (UC) claimants still under sanction at 9 April, and 25,460 at 14 May. This is because many sanctions are very lengthy, UC sanctions are served consecutively rather than concurrently, and sanctions continue even if the claimant moves into another UC regime where they are not liable to any new sanction.
    The figures for repeat sanctions which were reported in the February 2020 Briefing were affected by an undercount of UC Full Service sanctions and have been withdrawn by DWP. However we do now have corrected figures for UC repeat sanctions for later periods. For the twelve months ending 31 April 2020, out of 202,473 UC sanctions, approximately 142,000 (69.9%) were second or subsequent sanctions imposed on the same individuals, and between a quarter and one third (28.9%) were repeat sanctions imposed on individuals who incurred four or more sanctions during the year. Almost 50,000 UC claimants received two sanctions, 16,827 received three sanctions, 6,926 received four sanctions, and 7,083 received five or more sanctions.
    Amber Rudd’s well-publicised abolition of sanctions longer than 6 months from 28 November 2019 does not mean that no one now spends longer than six months under sanction. On the DWP’s estimates, in the six months since 28 November an average of 1,284 UC claimants per month have been ending sanction periods lasting longer than 6 months. This figure rose to 1,705 in May.
    As a result of the recession caused by the coronavirus emergency there has been a large increase in the number of claimants normally subject to conditionality. Sanctions will have restarted from 1 July, by which time the number of claimants subject to conditionality will have increased to over 3m.
    Total UC claimants reached five and a half million (5.55m) by mid-July.
    The news section at the end of the Briefing reports on sanctions developments including the very critical report on UC by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee."

From: Dr David Webster
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Urban Studies
School of Social and Political Sciences
University of Glasgow

Email: david.webster@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage: http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/davidwebster