Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a diagnosed mental illness have received benefit sanctions in Warrington North in the last 12 months for which figures are available.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Statistics are available on the number of individuals in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance with a primary disabling condition, in the category Mental or Behavioural Disorder, who received an adverse sanction decision. This information is available by constituency and is published on Stat-Xplore at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to extract the relevant information can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

We engage at a personal and individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring the support that we give, and any conditionality requirements to the specific circumstances of the individuals.

We take a number of steps to make sure our decisions are fair. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted. We have a well-established system of hardship payments, available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs, including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene, as a result of their sanction.