Guidance

Benefit sanctions durations and rate: background information and methodology

Information about the benefit sanctions duration statistics and methodology, including the calculation for the point-in-time rate.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 16 August 2017
• Last updated: 14 November 2023
  Show all updates

  1. 14 November 2023

     The document has been updated throughout to show that the sanctions statistics are now classed as 'official statistics in development'. The latest release of sanctions statistics has been published today (14 November 2023).

  2. 15 November 2022

     Updated the Universal Credit information in the section on Limitations of the statistics. This section now includes new information about cases missing from the Universal Credit caseload dataset. The latest release of sanctions statistics has been published today (15 November 2022).

  3. 16 November 2021

     Information added to the section on sanction rates about a change made to the UC sanction rate definition. The latest release of Benefit Sanctions statistics has been published today (16 November 2021).

  4. 23 February 2021

     Added information about the Universal Credit sanctions statistics - in the section on the limitations of the statistics. The latest release of sanctions statistics has been published today, 23 February 2020.

  5. 10 November 2020

     Revised background information and methodology - updated to support the latest release of sanctions statistics, also published today (10 November 2020).

  6. 6 December 2019

     Published revised version, dated December 2019. Added further clarification surrounding the methodology for calculating sanction durations and rates. Also published HTML version.

  7. 13 August 2019

     Published revised version, now dated August 2019. This has been updated to support the latest release of sanctions statistics (these have data to April 2019).

  8. 14 May 2019

     Published revised version, now dated May 2019. This has been updated to support the latest release of sanctions statistics (these have data to January 2019).

  9. 13 November 2018

     Published a revised version of 'Benefit sanctions durations and sanction rate calculation: explanation of methodology'. The new version is dated November 2018 and has been updated to support the latest release of sanctions statistics (with data to July 2018).

  10. 15 May 2018

      Published a revised version (May 2018) of 'Benefit sanctions durations and sanction rate calculation: explanation of methodology'. Updated information about matching sanctions to payment drops on page 5.

  11. 21 February 2018

      Published a revised version of 'Benefit sanctions durations and sanction rate calculation: explanation of methodology'. The new version is dated February 2018 and has been updated to support the latest release of sanctions statistics.

  12. 15 November 2017

      Published a revised version of 'Benefit sanctions durations and sanction rate calculation: explanation of methodology'. The new version is dated November 2017 and has been updated to support the latest release of sanctions statistics.

  13. 16 August 2017

      First published.

This publication was withdrawn on 13 February 2024

This background information and methodology document is no longer in use. Read the methodology for the benefit sanction duration statistics and sanction rate that is used for statistical releases from February 2024 onwards.

Documents

Benefit sanctions durations and sanction rate calculation: explanation of methodology

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Details

Benefit sanction durations is the length of time that a claimant has a reduction to their benefit due to a sanction.

Read the benefit sanctions statistics.