Together Lancashire in ........ East Lancashire: Benefit sanctions policy An enquiry beyond the Oakley Review

Work and Pensions Committee

Select Committee Press Notice

AN14 2014–15
6 November 2014

For immediate release

NEW INQUIRY

Benefit sanctions policy beyond the Oakley Review

The Work and Pensions Committee has decided to conduct an inquiry into benefit sanctions policy. This inquiry will consider aspects of sanctions policy which were outside the remit of the Oakley Review.

Terms of reference for the inquiry

Submissions of no more than 3,000 words are invited from interested organisations and individuals.

The Committee is particularly interested in:

· Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sanctions, including: whether the current ESA sanctions regime is appropriate and proportionate for jobseekers with ill health and disabilities; and the reasons for recent sharp increases in the number of ESA sanctions;

· Whether particular groups of ESA and JSA claimants (by impairment type; age; gender etc.) are proportionately more likely to be sanctioned than others;

· To follow up the Committee's recommendation for a full independent review, to investigate the purpose, effects and efficacy of benefit sanctions, and to consider the issues such a review would need to take into account, including:

o What are the current sanctions regimes trying to achieve and what evidence is there that they work?

o To what extent are sanctions justified solely as a means of ensuring that unemployed benefit claimants fulfil the conditions of benefit entitlement?

o What evidence is there that benefit sanctions also encourage claimants to engage more actively in job-seeking and ultimately move into employment? How could this be measured?

o What are the wider implications of sanctions in terms of their impacts on claimants?

· What are the alternatives to the current sanctions regimes? For example:

o How might the current system of financial sanctions be altered to make it more appropriate or effective?

o Is there a case for non-financial sanctions?

o What form could non-financial sanctions take?

o Are there examples of good practice from other countries?

Submissions do not need to address all of these points.

The deadline for submitting evidence is Friday 12 December.

How to submit your evidence

· To encourage paperless working and maximise efficiency, select committees are now using a web portal for online submission of written evidence. The web portal is available on our website.

· The personal information you supply will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of attributing the evidence you submit and contacting you as necessary in connection with its processing.

· Each submission should:

o be no more than 3,000 words in length

o be in Word format with as little use of colour or logos as possible

o have numbered paragraphs

· If you need to send a paper copy please send it to: The Clerk, Work and Pensions Committee, House of Commons, 1^st Floor, 14 Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NB

· Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to, in which case a web link to the published work should be included.

· Once submitted, evidence is the property of the Committee. It is the Committee's decision whether or not to accept a submission as formal written evidence.

· The Committee normally, though not always, chooses to make public the written evidence it receives, by publishing it on the internet (where it will be searchable), or by making it available through the Parliamentary Archives. If there is any information you believe to be sensitive you should highlight it and explain what harm you believe would result from its disclosure. The Committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish or further disclose the evidence.

· Select Committees are unable to investigate individual cases.

· Further guidance on submitting evidence to Select Committees is available on the parliamentary website.

Notes for Editors

· In its January 2014 Report, Jobcentre Plus in the reformed welfare system, the Work and Pensions Committee recommended that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) take steps to measure the extent of financial hardship caused by benefit sanctions. It also recommended a full independent review of the current sanctioning system (in addition to the Oakley review which was then being undertaken), as it is being operated across the Jobcentre Plus network (see chapter 4). The Government's response to the Committee's Report was published in April 2014.

· The Oakley Review was an independent review of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) sanctions in relation to mandatory employment schemes, i.e. principally those affecting JSA claimants participating in the Work Programme, DWP's mainstream contracted employment programme. This review was a requirement of the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act 2013 and was therefore limited in scope. It was conducted by Matthew Oakley for DWP and published in July 2014.

· As well focusing on sanctions applied in relation to mandatory employment schemes such as the Work Programme, the Oakley Review was limited to issues around the clarity of communications with claimants and how well claimants understand the sanctioning process, including their options regarding decision reviews, appeals and the availability of hardship payments. The Government published its response to the Oakley Review in July 2014, and has begun to implement some of its recommendations, in particular those around the clarity of DWP's communications with claimants.

--ENDS--

Committee membership:

Dame Anne Begg MP (Chair) (Lab, Aberdeen South), Debbie Abrahams MP (Lab, Oldham East and Saddleworth), Graham Evans MP (Con, Weaver Vale), Sheila Gilmore MP (Lab, Edinburgh East), Glenda Jackson MP (Lab, Hampstead and Highgate), Kwasi Kwarteng MP (Con, Spelthorne), Paul Maynard MP (Con, Blackpool North and Cleveleys), Nigel Mills MP (Con, Amber Valley), Anne Marie Morris MP (Con, Newton Abbot), Teresa Pearce MP (Lab, Erith and Thamesmead), Mr Michael Thornton MP (Lib Dem, Eastleigh.

Specific Committee Information: clarkeja@parliament.uk 0207 219 4835 or workpencom@parliament.uk 020 7219 2839

Media Information: calderg@parliament.uk 020 7219 7556

Twitter: @CommonsWorkPen

Committee Website: www.parliament.uk/workpencom

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