What is a sanction?

If you are claiming benefits you will have signed a document called a claimant commitment. This details what is expected of you whilst you claim benefits and what will happen if you fail to meet the expectations. If you fail to meet the requirements a Sanction may be imposed which means that your benefits are stopped for a period of time. The length of time the sanction is applied varies and can be between 4 weeks and 156 weeks.

If you feel the sanction is inappropriate you can appeal against the decision.

Please find Attached further information regarding Sanctions and how to challenge them:

• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) ‘Sanctions’
• Income Support ‘Sanctions’
• Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) ‘Sanctions’
• Universal Credit ‘Sanctions’

Advicenow have an e-learning course available 'How to avoid or deal with benefit sanctions'. Click here to view it.

The course takes approximately 30 minutes to complete depending on how quick you like to work and is available to anybody who wishes to prevent a sanction or find out what to do if they get a sanction. To complete the on line course you will need to register first by creating an account this is very simple and only takes a few minutes, you will be required to provide a user id and password.