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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Patrick Butler Social policy editor

DWP ordered to release ‘sensitive’ research into effects of benefit sanctions

A pedestrian walks past a job centre in London.
Claimants’ benefits can be docked for at least a month for supposed infringements such as failing to search for jobs or missing a meeting with an employment coach. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The Department for Work and Pensions has been ordered to release “sensitive” research into whether fining benefit claimants is effective in getting them to take a job or work more hours.

The internal DWP study was commissioned in 2019 after a cross party committee of MPs concluded that while there was no evidence benefit sanctions incentivised people to get work, they did have a negative effect on claimants’ health and finances.

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