In its latest report, the Public Accounts Committee says that unexplained variations in the use of benefit sanctions are unacceptable and must be addressed.
In Disability Rights UK’s response to the DWP, Health and Disability Green Paper “Improving Lives” we noted that, although the DWP has safeguards in place to go some way towards protecting vulnerable ESA claimants (people with mental health conditions, learning difficulties, conditions affecting cognition) from inappropriate sanctions, there are currently no relevant DWP statistics collected.
We also raised concerns about the financial hardship of imposing sanctions when there is little evidence of their effectiveness in getting disabled people into work. In recommendation 23 of our response to the Green Paper, we call for sanctions to be removed.
Summary of the Public Accounts Committee report
“The Department for Work and Pensions uses sanctions to encourage people to meet conditions for receiving benefits.
We know that sanctions encourage some people into work but sanctions have increased in severity in recent years and can have serious consequences such as debt, rent arrears and homelessness.
It is, therefore, important that the Department uses sanctions carefully and protects vulnerable people from unnecessary hardship.
There is an unacceptable amount of unexplained variation in the Department’s use of sanctions, so claimants are being treated differently depending on where they live.
The Department has poor data and therefore cannot be confident about what approaches work best, and why, and what is not working. It does not know whether vulnerable people are protected as they are meant to be. Nor can it estimate the wider effects of sanctions on people and their overall cost, or benefit, to government.”