Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the rate of benefit sanctions varied by (1) region, and (2) ethnicity, in the past 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department regularly publishes monthly Universal Credit sanction rate statistics for Great Britain as part of the benefit sanction statistics. The latest statistics to August 2025 are available in table 2.1 of the latest benefit sanction statistics tables, with sanction rates by ethnic group provided in table 7.6.
The UC Sanction Rates dataset on Stat-Xplore can be used to produce the same information in table 2.1 for lower-level geographical breakdowns, such as region.
Monthly sanction rates by region, extracted from Stat-Xplore, and by ethnic group, from table 7.6 of the published tables, for September 2024 to August 2025 are provided in the attached spreadsheet.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government for how long they will remove the right to claim benefits from 18-to-21-year-olds on Universal Credit who do not accept the offer of a work placement through the Youth Guarantee scheme.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Youth Guarantee is part of a new social contract with young people – opportunity matched by responsibility. Young people who can work will be expected to engage with the support offered. If the support is declined without good reasons, existing benefit sanction rules will apply. The Jobs Guarantee is no exception and the full conditionality regime will apply.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the 18-to-21-year-olds on Universal Credit who are offered a work placement through the Youth Guarantee scheme will have a choice over the sector, location, or type of role.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Youth Guarantee is backed by an £820 million investment over the next three years to reach almost 900,000 young people. This includes Youth Hubs in every area in Great Britain and a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, offering a dedicated session and follow-up support to 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit to get them into employment or training. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. In addition, it will provide guaranteed jobs to around 55,000 young people aged 18-21.
With over 350,000 opportunities, there will be flexibility for young people to find roles in different sectors, locations, and professions. To achieve this, we will work with national and local employers and training providers to create a range of high-quality job and training opportunities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that cash payments received through the Crisis and Resilience Fund do not lead to a deduction in a person's Universal Credit payment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Support from the Crisis and Resilience Fund is classed as local welfare provision. As a result, payments received from the Fund will be disregarded as capital when calculating a person’s entitlement to Universal Credit. Given the nature of the provision, it is expected this will be spent within the 12 months of receipt. Any monies from the fund unspent within this timeframe will be classed as capital in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they will ensure the jobs created for the Youth Guarantee scheme for 18-to-21-year-olds on Universal Credit are genuinely new roles which would not otherwise have been advertised.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Jobs Guarantee will provide six months of paid employment for every eligible 18 to 21-year-old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. The scheme will break the cycle of unemployment by guaranteeing meaningful paid employment opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
Appropriate requirements will be built into the scheme, with guidance provided to those delivering the jobs guarantee to ensure that opportunities are high quality, fair and deliver the intended outcomes for young people. In phase one, the Department will deliver over 1000 job starts across six areas in the first six months. To achieve this, we will work with local employers to create a range of high-quality job opportunities.
We will provide more detail on the scheme in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they have in place to ensure that the trial of new interventions within the Youth Trailblazers programme does not affect participation levels in existing employment programmes run by the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector which they have evaluated as effective.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 8 Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, led by Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs) in 7 areas across England, are testing innovative approaches to identify, engage and deliver localised support to young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET. To do this effectively, they are working with a range of local partners including third sector organisations, education and training providers and employers to provide a more seamless offer that provides young people with a clear pathway into training or employment opportunities.
As the Trailblazers are locally led, MSAs have tailored their offer to meet the needs and address the barriers of young people in their area. This includes addressing gaps in provision or opportunities where these are identified as well as reducing any duplication of support.
The Department has also commissioned an evaluation to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the Trailblazers in improving employment outcomes. This will be combined with the Trailblazers own local evaluation and management information, to inform the future design of the Youth Guarantee and clarify the role of local areas in supporting young people.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 12 November (HL11411), why they continue to use benefit sanctions in the light of the finding of the draft report Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes, published on 6 April 2024, that "a sanction leads the average claimant to exit less quickly into pay as you earn earnings and to earn less upon exiting."
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Benefit sanctions form part of a wider approach to social security, acting as both a consequence for those who do not meet their work-related requirements without good reason, and as a deterrent to encourage claimants to continue to comply with their obligations.
The analysis in The Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes: draft report is limited to the impact on those who were sanctioned due to non-compliance with their Universal Credit claimant commitment and excludes any claimants who were not sanctioned. It does not address the deterrent impact of sanctions and therefore does not represent a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of sanctions within the wider social security system.
Our goal is to ensure that all those who can work should be supported to do so. Our work coaches stand ready to help people to get into work or to move closer to the labour market, depending on their circumstances. And we are investing record amounts in supporting customers to overcome barriers to work whether related to health, skills, childcare or other things that stand in their way.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the impact of benefit sanctions on (1) the mental health of claimants, (2) levels of household debt, and (3) food bank use.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We engage on an individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring support to their individual needs. This includes agreeing realistic and structured steps to encourage claimants into, or closer to, work, where appropriate. These conditionality requirements are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain appropriate for the claimant. This would include tailoring to reflect any mental health issues the claimant raised.
When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
The Fair Repayment Rate (FRR) was implemented on 30 April 2025; this meant the overall deductions cap was reduced from 25% to 15% of a customer’s Universal Credit Standard Allowance. Approximately 1.2 million Universal Credit households with deductions will retain more of their award, on average, £420 a year or £35 per month.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of benefit sanctions in supporting claimants into sustained employment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions published a draft report on the Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes, on the 6th April 2023.
The draft report is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-impact-of-benefit-sanctions-on-employment-outcomes-draft-report
And can also be found in the attached document.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 22 July (HL9231), when their review on Universal Credit will be published.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.
The Minister for Social Security and Disability is leading this work and is engaging with a wide range of organisations and people, including those with first-hand experience of claiming Universal Credit, those who support them and those with expertise in the system and how it works. We are hosting workshops, roundtables and focus groups and undertaking research, including a survey of 10,000 customers.
We will continue to work closely with stakeholders throughout this process and will provide an update at an appropriate time.