Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2016 to Question 26169, on social security benefits: disqualification, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that safeguards to prevent the accrual of sanctions are effective.

Priti Patel

The sanctions regime has a range of safeguards for claimants, including ensuring all requirements placed on claimants are reasonable, taking into account individual capability and circumstances, such as health conditions, disability and caring responsibilities.

A further safeguard exists so that sanctions at the same level do not increase in duration when the claimant accrues 2 or more within a two week period. This ensures claimants cannot accrue lengthy sanctions within a short period in between meetings with their work coach. We keep the sanctions process under constant review and use research analysis and insight to improve the clarity of all our products and policies.