To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of claimants who will not receive the first Cost of Living payment in 2023 following application of sanctions to their Universal Credit.
Answered on
29 March 2023
People who have a Universal Credit claim but their award is nulled (received a nil award) during the qualifying period will not be entitled to a Cost of Living Payment.
The DWP has published an Impact Assessment of the 2023/24 Cost of Living Payments which is available here.
During the qualifying period for the first 2022/23 Cost of Living Payment of £326, an estimated 7,000 households received a nil award due to sanctions.
People are only sanctioned if they fail, without good reason, to meet the conditions they agreed to. 97.6% of sanctions in the quarter to October 2022 were applied for failing to attend a mandatory appointment at a Jobcentre.
These sanctions can often be resolved quickly by claimants getting in touch and attending their next appointment. If someone with no Universal Credit award due to a sanction re-engages with us they may get one of the later Cost of Living Payments.
We will be delivering the means-tested cost of living payments in three separate payments in 2023/24, reducing the chances of someone missing out altogether.