The Government’s use of benefits sanctions are being randomly applied and leaving the taxpayer out of pocket, a report reveals.

The spending watchdog slams the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for penalising hundreds of thousands of claimants without any knowledge of whether the system works.

In a damning report it says the Department is spending more than £250million a year on administration costs but only saving £135million from withholding benefits.

And the knock-on impact of sanctions is costing at least £35million in hardship payments and putting pressure on other services.

The National Audit Office (NAO) says the use of sanctions is wildly inconsistent with some areas regularly fining claimants while others only imposing a few penalties.

Tim Farron says this shows the department is failing

It says the DWP has no idea if sanctions work or provide value for money.

“The Department has not used its own data to evaluate the impact of sanctions in the UK.

“Possible wider costs include the direct impact on people who get sanctioned, such as financial hardship or depression.

“Supporting them may lead to higher public spending in areas such as local authority funded welfare support. The Department does not know these wider costs and benefits,” the report says.

The NAO says more than 400,000 people had their benefits docked in 2015, some for up to three years.

But it notes that some people are waiting a month to have their sanctions overturned on appeal.


“In particular, the Department should monitor the impacts of sanctions on those who receive them,” the report says.

A Job Centre

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “This report is a Civil Service equivalent of a character assassination. It shows that a failing department is trying to prop up a discredited system.

“The DWP have turned this system in a postcode lottery and means that someone could be sanctioned in one place and not in another for the same thing.

“What is worse is that the government are not assessing the impact of sanctions, using their own data to see what is going on and they are not even tracking the benefits. Ministers need to get a grip.”

Meg Hillier MP, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, added: “Benefit sanctions punish some of the poorest people in the country. But despite the anxiety and misery they cause, it seems to be pot luck who gets sanctioned.

“While studies suggest sanctions do encourage some people back into work, other people stop claiming but do not start working and the Department for Work and Pensions has no record of them. If vulnerable people fall through the safety net, what happens to them?”

Birkenhead Labour MP Frank Field
Frank Field has also slammed the government

Work and Pensions committee chairman Frank Field MP said sanctions were now being applied on a scale unknown since the Second World War.

“The Government is unable to say for sure how much money it has withdrawn in this way.

“Likewise it holds no information on what has happened to large numbers of people who have had their money withdrawn.

“We do not know how many people are being pushed permanently outside the benefits system, for example, leading to some being totally disconnected from both work and welfare, and left destitute,” he said.

A DWP spokeswoman said: “Sanctions are an important part of our benefits system and it is right that there is a system in place for tackling those few who do not fulfil their commitment to find work.

“This report fails to recognise the improvements we have made to sanctions, particularly to help those who are vulnerable.

"The number of sanctions has fallen, and they are only ever used as a last resort after people fail to do what is asked of them in return for benefits.

“We will consider the recommendations, and respond fully in due course.”