Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many benefit claims were subject to sanctions in the most recent three months for which data is available, broken down by parliamentary constituency; how much was the total and average sum of benefit income lost by claimants due to sanctions in each constituency; what was the (1) shortest, (2) average, and (3) longest, length of time taken to challenge a benefit sanction decision in the most recent 12 months for which data is available; and when, and for what reason, the Department for Work and Pensions ceased requiring a case conference to assess the impact of a sanction before any sanction was imposed.

The latest monthly statistics, taken from Stat-Xplore, on the number of Universal Credit full service claimants with a payment that has been reduced due to a sanction, by Westminster parliamentary constituency, for September to November 2022, are provided in the answer I gave to you on 6 March for HL5653.

The information requested for the total and average sum of benefit income lost and parts (1), (2) and (3) is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Sanctions are only ever applied when a claimant fails to meet their agreed conditionality requirements without good reason.