Speak Out on Sanctions!

This week, the Work and Pensions Committee have launched an inquiry into Benefits Sanctions. We know that this is an area where you all have a lot to say, so we thought it would be great if we could pool all your experience and expertise into one consultation response, submitted by Manchester Advice Alliance. They are particularly interested in:

1. Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sanctions, including: whether the current ESA sanctions regime is appropriate and proportionate for jobseekers with ill health and disabilities; and the reasons for recent sharp increases in the number of ESA sanctions
2. Whether particular groups of ESA and JSA claimants (by impairment type; age; gender etc.) are proportionately more likely to be sanctioned than others
3. To follow up the Committee's recommendation for a full independent review, to investigate the purpose, effects and efficacy of benefit sanctions, and to consider the issues such a review would need to take into account, including:
4. What are the current sanctions regimes trying to achieve and what evidence is there that they work?
• To what extent are sanctions justified solely as a means of ensuring that unemployed benefit claimants fulfil the conditions of benefit entitlement?
• What evidence is there that benefit sanctions also encourage claimants to engage more actively in job-seeking and ultimately move into employment? How could this be measured?
• What are the wider implications of sanctions in terms of their impacts on claimants?
5. What are the alternatives to the current sanctions regimes? For example:
• How might the current system of financial sanctions be altered to make it more appropriate or effective?
• Is there a case for non-financial sanctions?
• What form could non-financial sanctions take?
• Are there examples of good practice from other countries?

If you have anything to contribute on any of these points, email it to rosi.hunter@manchestercab.org
by 5pm on Wednesday 26th November. We'll then compile a joint response and get it sent off.