The current system of benefit sanctions has been shown to have a profoundly negative impact on the health, finances and wellbeing of those affected. PLP is particularly concerned with the lawfulness of the benefit sanctioning regime and how it affects marginalised people, especially those with disabilities.

The aims of our benefit sanctions work are to ensure that:

  • Benefit claimants have access to effective legal remedies when poor decisions are made
  • We can identify and tackle systemic problems with the sanctioning system where they result in people being sanctioned unfairly and unlawfully
  • Decision-makers, advisers, charities and individual claimants all know how claimant commitments can be tailored to individual circumstances, and that doing so can reduce the likelihood of sanctioning
Benefit Sanctions: Strategy for civil society
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Benefit Sanctions: Strategy for civil society

Drawing on our conference in early 2020 – Benefit Sanctions: What’s next? – the Public Law Project and the University of York have published a short-form strategy for civil society organisations working to improve the system. Download: Benefits Sanctions: Strategies for Civil Society Benefits Sanctions: Strategies for Civil Society outlines four main problems with the…

Your Universal Credit Claimant Commitment – childcare responsibilities
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Your Universal Credit Claimant Commitment – childcare responsibilities

A Claimant Commitment should help someone understand what the DWP expects from them so they can receive their Universal Credit money. If they ever have a sanction imposed on their claim, their Claimant Commitment should also help them to understand what it is that the DWP think has gone wrong. This is why it is…