Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to provide cost of living payments to claimants of Universal Credit that have been sanctioned.

Claimants who are sanctioned but still have an entitlement to a payment of Universal Credit (UC) during the qualifying assessment period are eligible to receive a Cost-of-Living Payment. Sanctions are calculated with reference to the standard UC allowance only. We recognise some of the most vulnerable are those entitled to other elements in UC, such as housing or child costs. If a sanction is applied, claimants continue to receive these other elements.

If a sanction reduces a claimant’s Universal Credit to £0, a ‘nil award’, for the qualifying assessment period they are not entitled to receive a Cost-of-Living Payment. Those with a Universal Credit ‘nil award’ during the qualifying period who weren’t eligible could be entitled retrospectively if a sanction is successfully appealed and could still be entitled to the second Cost of Living payment.

98.9% of sanctions are for failing to attend a mandatory appointment at a Jobcentre and can often be resolved quickly by claimants getting in touch with the Jobcentre and attending their next appointment.

Hardship payments are available as a safeguard to claimants who demonstrate that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs (including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene) as a result of their sanction.