DWP Central Freedom of Information
Team
Annex A
e-mail
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.g
ov.uk
Our Ref: 2015-3671
10 November 2015
Annex A
Dear Phillip Jones,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 29 August 2015. Please
accept our apologies for the delay in responding.
You asked:
“The number of people sanctioned for the calander year, 2013.
Of the number of people sanctioned in 2013, how many:
a) died within 0 to 3 months after being sanctioned.
b) died within 3 to 6 months after being sanctioned.
c) died within 6 to 12 months after being sanctioned.”
It is not possible to make a causal link between a person’s death and their benefit claim.
In answer to your request as a whole, we can confirm that the Department does hold some
information falling within the description specified in your request. However, we estimate that
the cost of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit of £600.
The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for central Government it is set at
£600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in
determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and
extracting the information. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act the Department
is not obliged to comply with your request and we will not be processing your request further.
You may be interested to know the Department publishes Official Statistics on Jobseeker's
Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance sanction decisions and information on
these statistics can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions
The latest set of Official Statistics was released on 12 August 2015 and a summary of this data
can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jobseekers-allowance-and-employment-and-support-
allowance-sanctions-decisions-made-to-march-2015 These statistics cover both:
(i)
total decisions made (i.e. if an individual has had multiple sanctions decisions made,
all of those sanction decisions made will be included in the tables), and
(ii)
individuals who have had a sanction decision made (i.e. will only 'count' one
individual in a table defined and produced).
These statistics also contain a wide set of geographical areas, sanction reason, sanctions
appeals and outcomes and if required this information can be extracted using Stat-Xplore via
the following link:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required from Stat-Xplore can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started---SuperWEB2.html If you have any difficulties extracting the relevant information please let us know.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact us quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
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Your right to complain under the Freedom of Information Act
If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team,
Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within two
months of the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the
Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a
decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF
https://ico.org.uk/