Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the reasons given for non-attendance by sanctioned claimants of (a) jobseekers allowance and (b) employment support allowance in (i) Lewisham Deptford constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Lewisham and (iii) London in each of the last five years.
The Department does not centrally collate this information on the reasons given for non-attendance by sanctioned claimants within its statistical datasets.
Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason.
We take a number of steps to make sure our decisions are fair. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.