Benefits: Sanctions

Baroness Thomas of Winchester Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Peterborough]

My Lords—

[Baroness Thomas of Winchester (LD)]

My Lords—

[Noble Lords]

Bishop!

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[Lord Freud]

Jobcentre Plus people do have discretion. There is some, although less, discretion for Work Programme providers. We layer up that discretion with decisions from our decision-makers. It can then go to mandatory reconsideration and on to appeal, so there is a system to allow these things to be reviewed very flexibly. On the other point, the decision that older people should get free travel is one which was made by several Governments in the past.

[Baroness Thomas of Winchester]

My Lords—

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords—

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[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the Liberal Democrats have not had a turn in this Question. If we proceed quickly to the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, we might then be able to have a question from the Labour Benches.

[Baroness Thomas of Winchester]

My Lords, would the Minister consider asking the Social Security Advisory Committee to conduct a review of sanctions policy on ESA claimants, as they did for JSA claimants with the Oakley review?

[Lord Freud]

The reality is that the number of ESA claimants being sanctioned is very small—it is running at around 1%—and we look at those cases very carefully. We do not have any plans to look at that specifically at this stage, given that it has steadied out.