Recommendation 36

HM Government Not Addressed

Recommendation DWP should set out the evidence in support of its new sanction approach, what involvement disabled people had in developing it, and what plans it has to evaluate it. It should also provide its most recent evidence on the impact of sanctions on disabled claimants, including on their mortality, as well as any lessons it has learned from the suspension of the conditionality regime during the coronavirus pandemic. It should also set out in response to this report the action it has taken in response to our predecessor Committees’ reports from 2015 and 2018 on benefit sanctions and their impact on disabled people and people with health conditions, including their recommendations that some groups should be exempt from sanctions and that DWP should explore options for non-financial sanctions and that it explores options for a warning to be issued for a first sanctionable failure. In particular, it should explain what it has done to engage claimants in provision and conditionality, as it undertook to do in 2018. It should commit to reducing the number of disability benefit claimants who are subject to conditionality and decrease the value of sanctions. The Department should only impose sanctions when all other avenues have been exhausted. Response The Committee’s 2018 report on benefit sanctions recommended that certain groups of claimants in the Health Journey be exempt from conditionality and sanctions. In the Government’s response, the Department committed to explore a Proof of Concept (PoC) for a voluntary-first approach. This voluntary first approach (now known as Tailoring Up) is designed to better engage claimants on the Universal Credit Health Journey, or those claiming Employment and Support Allowance. Mandatory activities can still be applied if the work coach considers that this is necessary to appropriately support the claimant into or towards employment. This approach was developed following a PoC run in 29 Jobcentre Plus sites from September 2019 to February 2020. Small scale qualitative feedback from staff was positive and indicated that this approach increased their ability to build rapport and trust with claimants; increased claimant engagement and delivered improved quality of tailoring and personalisation. Claimant views were not evaluated due to lockdown. Implementation of this new approach was rolled out nationally in January 2021, alongside the reintroduction of employment support for this group of claimants. Assurance activity will continue whilst the approach is bedding in. Early signs indicated claimants were receiving regular interventions using the resourced time in a more flexible way, which was more aligned to the policy intent. As with all our policies, the Department will continue to monitor and review the effectiveness of the tailoring up approach. There are already conditionality exemptions for those with the most severe health conditions; and all claimants have their commitments tailored based on their personal situation. There is no evidence or analysis on the impact of sanctions on disabled people. The Department also committed in the Government response to look at processes to give claimants a written warning, instead of a sanction, for a first sanctionable failure to attend a Work-Search Review. Before assessing the merits of extending such a system, we are under-taking a series of small-scale proof of concepts of this warning system. However, we have had to pause this work in order to prioritise support for an increased number of claimants owing to the pandemic. We are aiming to restart this activity in due course. What has DWP done to engage claimants in provision and conditionality The Green Paper proposed ways to improve the design of the benefits system and posed illustrative ideas to generate discussion. During the consultation we heard from disabled people and their representatives about the approaches to consider to improve the system. We are now analysing the responses and detailed proposals will be brought forward in a White Paper in mid-2022, setting out how we can better enable people to live more independently and take up work where possible.