Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether benefit sanctions will continue to be applied by her Department during the period of the new national covid-19 lockdown from 5 November 2020; and if she will make a statement.

In March 2020 we switched off conditionality requirements so that we could concentrate on processing the unprecedented number of new and existing claims.

From the 1st of July, we reintroduced Claimant Commitments as we were able to again tailor reasonable requirements asking claimants to prepare and look for work where it was safe to do so in line with social distancing rules. These commitments will be amended as necessary to account for any new lockdown guidance.