Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people on Universal Credit have been sanctioned while awaiting a work capability assessment; and of those, how many have been subsequently assessed as having (a) limited capability for work and (b) limited capability for work related activity in each of the last 12 months for which data is available; and if he will make it his policy not to subject people awaiting (i) a work capability assessment and (ii) the outcome of work capability assessment to conditionality.

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

Conditionality supported by sanctions has been a longstanding feature of welfare benefit entitlements in the UK since the formation of the welfare state. Access to earnings replacement benefits, for example, is traditionally conditional on recipients being involuntarily unemployed and subject to reasonable work-related requirements.

We will not expect a claimant to take up a job while they have suitable medical evidence, until the outcome of a Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Any work-related requirements are agreed in discussion between the work coach and claimant. These should always be tailored to reflect the impact of the claimant’s health condition, disability, and wider circumstances, ensuring they are realistic and achievable

We exempt people with more serious medical conditions and disabilities, and those who are terminally ill, from any form of conditionality and sanctions. This includes those who have been found to have Limited Capability for Work or Work-Related Activity following their WCA.

In particular circumstances, work coaches can exempt claimants from usual availability and work search requirements for a temporary period by applying discretionary or compulsory easements. These circumstances include temporary periods of sickness.