Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her Department's policy to collect information on the number of individuals subject to a benefit sanction who receive assistance from a food bank during the period of sanction.

Jobcentres have discretion to work with a wide range of partners including food banks, and can signpost customers to food banks where they have asked for details, and where all sources of statutory support have been considered. Jobcentre staff are not required to keep records of the numbers or circumstances of benefit claimants they signpost, and we have no current plans to changes these arrangements.

Sanctions are only used in a minority of cases. 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.