The Social Market Foundation is Undertaking a Sanctions Review

The Social Market Foundation is currently undertaking a major research project looking at benefit sanctions in the United Kingdom, updating and expanding the Independent Review of Sanctions that they undertook for Government in 2014.

This research will build on recent reports including the Oakley Review, the NAO report on benefit sanctions, and a wide range of research by academics and representatives of claimants. This project is supported by the Oak Foundation.

Our aim is to produce an interim report in Autumn of 2018, with a final report in Spring 2019. We will also produce a set of key metrics that can be tracked in order to judge whether the sanctions and conditionality system are improving, which we will update over the following two years as new data becomes available.

The UK’s system of conditionality and benefit sanctions forms a central part of the social security system. In recent years, the level of sanctions have been significantly increased – but this escalation in severity has not been accompanied by a similar increase in the understanding of the impacts and knock-on effects of sanctions.

We know very little about the fairness or effectiveness of a central part of the social security system and, in particular, how recent changes and reforms have impacted on this. This project intends to fill those gaps. We are undertaking several strands of research and engaging with stakeholders in the social policy space, including those affected by conditionality.

ABC Note: If you would like to know more about the progress of this project, please contact the Social market Foundation via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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SMF issues call for evidence on benefit sanctions

The Social Market Foundation has issued a call for evidence on the benefit sanctions system in the UK. Academics, policymakers, third sector bodies, claimant representative groups, and claimants themselves are all invited to contribute. The call for evidence closes on Friday September 14th, and can be found here.

More information on the project is available at:http://www.smf.co.uk/making-sense-of-sanctions/

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