Benefit sanctions data to be released for first time on DWP stats site

dwp stat_explore

The Department for Work and Pensions statistics site Stat-Xplore will publish data on sanctions  for the first time next month

The data,  for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sanction decisions, will be released on the site on Wednesday 19 February, according to an email sent to users of the service.

The new data – covering both ‘old’ and ‘new’ benefit regimes – will include breakdowns by local authority and parliamentary constituency of claimants, as well as Jobcentre Plus group, district, and office.

The message adds:

“The statistics will cover both (i) total decisions made (i.e. if an individual has had multiple sanctions decisions made, all of those sanction decisions made will be included in the tables), and (ii) individuals who have had a sanction decision made (i.e. will only ‘count’ one individual in a table defined and produced).”

The message adds that JSA sanction decisions for the ‘old’ regime will then be removed from the DWP Tabulation Tool, will now only be available via Stat-Xplore.

The new data joins housing benefit data already on the site, and visualisations of Universal Credit due to appear on January 22.