25 January 2018

DWP decides not to trial softer sanctions regime, despite this being recommended by the Commons public accounts committee.

What: A report shows that ministers have decided to go back on their promise to trial handing out warnings instead of benefit sanctions when claimants breach the conditions imposed on them for the first time. It was one of five recommendations made in a report on benefit sanctions by the Commons public accounts committee in February 2017. But DWP now says it will not carry out the trial after all, because of “competing priorities in the Parliamentary timetable”.

Why significant: The DWP sanctions regime has been closely associated with the deaths of many claimants such as David Clapson [see 20 July 2013].