PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Soical Security Benefits: Coronavirus (8 July 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to publish data on the number of claimants of (a) employment and support allowance and (b) universal credit who have been sanctioned during the covid-19 outbreak.

Asked by:
Jonathan Reynolds (Labour)

During the outbreak of Covid-19, we took the decision to temporarily suspend the requirement for face-to-face Jobcentre Plus appointments for all claimants in UC, New Style JSA and ESA, old-style JSA and ESA, and IS. They continued to receive benefits as normal and they were not sanctioned for not taking part in appointments with Jobcentres.

From the 1st July, we reintroduced the requirement for claimants of UC, NS and Legacy JSA to accept a claimant commitment as part of any new claim and for existing claimants to have an updated claimant commitment in place. Work Coaches will work to ensure that commitments made by claimants are tailored and include easements where appropriate, allowing them to continue to adhere to continuing local and national public health advice in regards to Covid-19 whilst also doing what they can to engage with the labour market.

Sanctions statistics on those people claiming Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit are published quarterly and can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions

Additional breakdowns of the figures can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Guidance for users is available at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

The statistics for February to April 2020 will be published in August 2020.

Answered by:
Mims Davies (Conservative)
13 July 2020