Page 51 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

setting claimant commitments and applying sanctions. This means that DWP
cannot fully understand how sanctions and easements are being used and
ensure discretion is being applied fairly. Further, in order to fulfil its public
sector equality duty, the DWP must understand the impact their policies and
practices have on people with protected characteristics. This is very difficult
to do without collecting data. The lack of systematic data collection also
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means that they cannot properly evaluate if changes they have already made
to the sanctions process, or those that we suggest below, are effective. We
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therefore join the NAO, SSAC and Work and Pensions Select
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Committee in calling for the DWP to improve data collection and
evaluation. Specifically, it should collect data on:
a) Protected characteristics of all claimants, in particular UC claimants,
and claimants who are sanctioned. Data on disability should be
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disaggregated by impairment type. The DWP should explore ways to
collect this data, including by learning from practice across other
Government departments and through communicating the value and
purpose of such data to claimants.
b) Setting of claimant commitments and the use of easements.
c) What happens following application of a sanction e.g., do people

128 Equality Act 2010, s.149 requires public authorities in the exercise of their public functions, to have
due regard to the need to (i) eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other
conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act; (ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who
share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and (iii) foster good relations
between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it. Equality
and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Equality Information and the Equality Duty: A Guide for
Public Authorities (2014).
129 National Audit Office, Supporting disabled people to work (HC 1991, 2019) para 25; National
Audit Office, Universal Credit: getting to first payment (HC 376, 2020) para 26.
130 SSAC, The effectiveness of the claimant commitment in Universal Credit (see n. 12 above) p. 34
(Recommendation 4).
131 Work and Pensions Committee, Benefits Sanctions (see n. 11 above) para 52.
132 The DWP does collect some data on protected characteristics of certain claimants. For ESA there
are data available on claimants’ age, gender, ethnicity and medical condition, there are also data on the
age, gender, ethnicity and whether someone has a disability of ESA, JSA and IS claimants who are
sanctioned (as well as the medical condition of ESA claimants who are sanctioned). However, there is
very little information available on the protected characteristics UC claimants– only their age and
gender – for both those on UC and those who are sanction. See Stat-Xplore

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