Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress he has made on rectifying benefit sanctions found to have been wrongly applied.

We get the vast majority of decisions right. All decisions are made by independent decision makers based on evidence provided at the time. A sanction will never be imposed if a claimant provides good reason and once sanctioned a claimant has rights to reconsideration and appeal. Hardship payments are also available and vulnerable claimants, including anyone with responsibility for a child, can receive payments immediately.