Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that claimants of benefits who are subject to sanctions know that they may apply for hardship payments; and what is the median time between such applications being made and cash payments being received.

Lord Freud

Where a benefit doubt is identified and the case is being referred to a decision maker, claimants are given information (verbally and in writing) about the doubt in question, what happens next, what they can do if a sanction is applied and the availability of hardship provision. Once a decision is made and a sanction applied, a formal notification is issued to the claimant, which includes information about how to apply for hardship.

The Department does not record information about the length of time it takes to make a Hardship payment following receipt of an application.