Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in reforming benefit sanctions and in preventing hardship to children and other dependent family members.

Lord Freud

We keep the operation of the sanctions processes under constant review to ensure they continue to function effectively and fairly, to promote positive behaviours. Where we identify an issue, we act to put it right.

Following the recommendations from the Oakley Review and the subsequent report ‘Benefit sanctions policy beyond the Oakley Review’ by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, we have made a number of improvements to the Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sanction systems, particularly around communications to claimants and safeguarding measures for those who maybe vulnerable.

We are now focussing our efforts on continuing with the current improvements in JSA and ESA, to ensure that all the agreed recommendations and improvements can continue to be delivered in Universal Credit.

We also 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.