Unfair Universal Credit sanctions must be reformed once and for all
4 min read
The government has a rare opportunity to address one of the most harmful elements of the Universal Credit regime.
Sanctions have long been a highly controversial aspect of Universal Credit. Evidence suggests they push people further away from sustainable, well-paid work, rather than closer. Now, new evidence from Central England Law Centre (CELC) and Public Law Project (PLP) suggests that, as well as being disproportionate, harmful and counterproductive, many of these sanctions are being imposed inappropriately.
Universal Credit sanctions, involving the deduction of money from a claimant’s Universal Credit payment, are applied by the Department for Work and Pensions when it decides that they haven’t undertaken a work-related activity, such as attending an interview with a work coach. The penalties are severe, with the DWP deducting 100 per cent of someone’s standard allowance for the duration of the sanction. This is more severe than the average criminal fine. In 2024, the median court fine was £283. In contrast, the average sanction for a claimant over 25 would be £524.
This week, while hosting a launch event for PLP and CELC’s research report, I heard from Monikda, who spoke about her experience of being sanctioned. She said that she came to the UK as a refugee, in search of a better life after surviving domestic abuse. Unfortunately, Monika faced further struggles as a result of her interactions with the current sanctions system.
Monika was sanctioned because she struggled to evidence the steps she had taken to look for work in the way required by the DWP.
As a single mum of three children, the impact of the sanction meant she had to prioritise making sure her children were fed rather than eating herself. She was left feeling stressed, depressed and anxious, and was left unclear about what had happened until a social worker became involved through her children’s school and explained. With the social worker’s help, she was referred to the Central England Law Centre, which supported her to successfully challenge her sanction.
Sanctions should not lead to struggle, be that financial, mental or otherwise. Monika's case is not an isolated one. A recent project by the CELC and PLP has been providing casework support to individuals who want to challenge sanctions, alongside researching the trends emerging from that casework.
It found people being sanctioned, not for repeated failures to engage, but for first-time ‘failures’ often for circumstances or reasons outside of their control. It included people dealing with the challenges of digital exclusion, language barriers, and unexpected health emergencies.
Concerningly, it also found that sanctions are routinely imposed inappropriately; more than 4 out of 5 (89 per cent) of cases that reached appeal were overturned in favour of the claimant.
Due to inadequate scrutiny upfront, these incorrect sanctions were only identified at the final appeal stage, at severe cost to individuals and presumably to the DWP itself.
Last month, the government published the consultation responses to its Pathways to Work Green Paper. The paper includes proposals to extend some sanctions-backed conditionality to people who currently cannot be sanctioned due to their disability or health condition. The paper states that sanctions will be used as a last resort, and that ‘safeguards’ will be in place to protect the most vulnerable.
However, as evidenced by PLP and CELC’s report, under the current system, sanctions are not used as a last resort, and the current safeguards fail to protect people from the harm sanctions cause.
The answer is therefore not simply to strengthen safeguards. No amount of checks and balances can address the significant risk that comes from removing 100 per cent of someone’s standard allowance. What is required is fundamental reform. Now is the time to make it.
The government has committed to reviewing Universal Credit to “take stock of [its] core structures and policies” so that it contributes to its objective of tackling poverty and making work pay. That review can and should include a review of the current sanctions regime.
In addition, the proposals in the Green Paper raise serious concerns about the risk of imposing further sanctions. However, as part of the wider proposals, there is also an opportunity. The government must return to the key elements of Universal Credit legislation. It is a rare window in a busy legislative timetable to revisit and address the aspects of the regime that drive some of the greatest harm.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett is a Labour peer.
