Published:  3rd August 2020

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 current system:

  • Evidence shows that sanctions are counterproductive at getting people back into work
  • Sanctions can have discriminatory effect on certain groups, such as care leavers, single parents, and domestic violence survivors
  • The proportion of sanctions that are challenged is relatively low – this suggests there may be many potentially strong cases for appeal that are left unchallenged

The four strategies for civil society to tackle the problems with benefit sanctions are:

#1. Press the DWP for more and better data

#2. A review of the legality of the scheme

#3. A forum for sharing frontline experiences

#4. An information campaign on claimant commitment & challenging sanctions

Please take a moment to share this strategy with your colleagues and email us at sanctions@publiclawproject.org.uk if you want to get in touch about what we are currently doing and how we can take the ideas of this strategy forward.