Sanctions the Figures

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation do some interesting work. This is from research work by the Foundation on benefit sanctions. 

Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants received a total of 500,000 sanctions however the majority of people who were sanctioned in 2013/14 received one sanction, but three in ten of those sanctioned received multiple sanctions.

In the year to March 2015 the number of sanctions that were applied to JSA claimants fell to 510,000. This represents a significant decline (43 per cent) compared with the 890,000 sanctions applied in the previous year.

In addition to the number of sanctions that were applied in 2014/15, there were a further 500,000 sanction referrals that did not result in a sanction being applied. Sanction referrals may not result in a sanction for a number of reasons: a decision-maker may decide that the referral was not appropriate, for example, or a claimant may stop claiming before the sanction can be applied.

The first graph shows the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance sanction referrals for each year 2000/01 and 2014/15. The figures are broken down to show the number of sanctions that were applied (adverse sanctions) and the number of referrals that did not result in a sanction, whether because the referral was cancelled, reversed or could not be applied. The figures are for sanction referrals rather than the number of people sanctioned

This graph shows the proportion of people sanctioned a given number of times in the 12 month period to the end of June 2014. In the 12 months to June 2014, 540,000 JSA claimants were sanctioned. The majority (69 per cent) received one sanction. But 170,000 people were sanctioned more than once, 100,000 people received two sanctions, and 35,000 received three sanctions. A further 32,000 received four or more sanctions.