DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
Annex A
e-mail: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.
gov.uk
Our Ref: VTR 4349
DATE 6 November 2015:
Annex A
Dear Sue Jones,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 6 October 2015. You asked:
“I would like to know the reasons why sanctions have been applied to claimants. I should also
like to know the following:
How many sanctions nationally in total and how many have been specifically applied to people
claiming ESA year by year from 2010?
What evidence do you have that sanctions "help people into work" or that they are "fair"?
How can sanctions "incentivise" people to find work, when accepted wisdom is that if you
remove people's means to meet their basic needs, they cannot be motivated to do anything
except struggle to survive. Maslow - a famous social psychologist - explains that unless we
meet basic biological needs, we cannot possibly be motivated to fulfil higher level psycho-
social ones. So how do negative sanctions "incentivise" exactly, as claimed by the
Government?
What theory of psychology is sanctioning drawn from, and where is the evidence that it is a
safe and effective policy that works?”
Over the last five years we have seen two million more people in work and the current
employment rate of 73.6% is the record high. This represents a transformation in many
people’s lives; giving families more security; boosting the self-esteem of young people taken
on; and providing hope for those who have been unemployed for years.
Through Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance, the Government
provides financial support while people look for or prepare for work. Claimants are only asked
to meet reasonable requirements, taking into account their circumstances and capability,
including health conditions, disability, and caring responsibilities.
It is right to expect claimants who are able to look for or prepare for work to do so. The
requirements placed upon claimants and the consequences of failing to meet them are clearly
set out in the Claimant Commitment – these include failing to attend an adviser interview,
failing to start an agreed training scheme, and for JSA claimants being unavailable for work or
failing to look for work. ESA claimants cannot be sanctioned for failing to apply for jobs.
The decision to temporarily halt a benefit payment is always thoroughly consequence of a
jobseeker not meeting their requirements without good reason. The requirements and
consequences are clearly communicated with them throughout their considered. It is a claim
and set out in their Claimant Commitment. There are a number of steps in the decision making
process to ensure that our decisions are correct. Independent decision makers consider each
case, including any evidence of good reason put forward by a jobseeker and jobseekers can
ask for the decision to be reconsidered and appeal to an independent tribunal.
DWP research shows that the majority of jobseekers say sanctions make it more likely that
they follow the rules associated with their benefit (72% of JSA jobseekers; 61% of ESA and
73% of Lone Parents on Income Support). You can access the full evidence and findings of
The Jobcentre Plus Offer: Final Evaluation Report here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-jobcentre-plus-offer-final-evaluation-report
International evidence is clear that benefit regimes tied to conditionality get people into work
and sanctions are a key underpinning to this conditionality. Most developed economies attach
conditions to receipt of benefits. Recent European studies (e.g. Switzerland (Lalive et al,
2005), Netherlands (van der Klaauw & van Ours, 2013), Denmark (Svarer, 2011), and
Germany (Bookmann et al, 2014)) found that benefit cuts substantially increase employment
uptake among sanctioned persons.
Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows us to direct you to information
which is already reasonably accessible to you. The Department publishes Official Statistics on
Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) 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 covers sanction
decisions made to March 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 can be extracted from Stat-Xplore: 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/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm
If you have any difficulties extracting the relevant information please let us know.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Strategy 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 freedom-of-information-
xxxxxxx@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 www.ico.gov.uk
