Universal Credit: Disqualification

(asked on 23rd May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of universal credit claimants in employment that have been sanctioned in the most recent three months for which data is available.


Answered by
Alok Sharma Portrait
Alok Sharma
COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 4th June 2018

Universal Credit provides us with the opportunity to support people to progress, and we are building the evidence about what works, such as through a large-scale Randomised Control Trial.

This trial tested different degrees of in-work support and conditionality to support people to progress. Through targeted work coach support, requirements were agreed to support individuals to take reasonable action to help them to earn more where appropriate. The trial finished on 31 March 2018.

The following link provides figures for the data collected so far on sanctions for in work claimants:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/in-work-progression-trial-update-april-2015-to-october-2016

This shows that up to the end of October 2016, 319 sanctions had been applied to 15,455 trial participants: approximately 2%. This means that 98% of all trial participants were not sanctioned. The trial started on 20 April 2015, so the 319 sanctions cover the time period from the start of the trial to the end of October 2016. The majority of the sanctions that were applied were low level: 92% of all sanctions applied were for failing to attend meetings or phone calls without good reason.

Further statistical information regarding the number of sanctions and suspensions for in-work claimants within the Randomised Control Trial will be published in Autumn 2018.

Reticulating Splines