Benefit sanctions statistics to April 2020

Requirements

If you do not meet one or more conditions of your benefit claim without good reason, your benefit could be stopped or reduced. This is a benefit sanction. However, not everyone that is initially referred for failing to meet the conditions of their claim will receive a sanction. Where a claimant’s benefit is reduced, the claimant may be eligible for a hardship payment. Further information about the sanctions process, source of these statistics and the publication rounding policy can be found in the background information and methodology documents . Statistics covered in this bulletin include data for sanction decisions during the initial period of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Although legislative changes to temporarily disapply work-search and work availability requirements came into effect on 30 March 2020 (in response to the pandemic), some sanction decisions for these types of failures could have been made later than this date because decisions are often made and processed af