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Sanctionable Failures: Universal Credit’s failing sanctions regime and the harm it causes

One of my concerns about such a high success rate of this type of appeal is the cases where the claimant doesn't appeal.

The report recommends the current sanction regime should be revoked entirely or fundamentally reformed to ensure sanctions are applied as a genuinely last resort measure, only after clear warning, and make sanctions less severe.

What do you think?

Why has in-work poverty risen?

In Britain, the headline relative in-work poverty rate steadily rose from 13.4% in 1994–95 to 18.4% in 2019–20. In the latest data (covering 2023–24), the in-work poverty rate stood at 18.0%.

In this article the Institute for Financial Studies (IFS) summarises a new research paper, published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, which explains why the in-work poverty rate increased in the quarter-century prior to the pandemic.

Surprisingly, the effect of tax and benefit reforms between 1994–95 and 2010–11 was to reduce in-work poverty by 2.5 percentage points. Reforms over the 2010s – when benefits and taxes were both cut – increased in-work poverty by 1.9 percentage points.

The trouble with understanding issues like "relative" poverty is that increases in the income of a non-working group like pensioners can push up the "relative" poverty line.

The figures don't reflect recent changes in the…

Posts relating to POVERTY, giving an opportunity for general discussion to help with Continuous Professional Development.

Do NOT ask for or share advice regarding current case work..

Posts relating to Social Security Tribunals, giving an opportunity for general discussion to help with Continuous Professional Development.

Do NOT ask for or share advice regarding current case work..

PR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (UC) [2023] UKUT 290 (AAC)

While they underpin our legislation, it is unusual for Human Rights to be cited in appeals. It is even more unusual for such appeals to be successful.

In this case the appellant argued their rights under Article 14 had been breached. Upper Tribunal Judge Wright more than agreed, citing Section 6: (Acts of Public Authorities) when saying:

 "Indeed, section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 placed an additional obligation on the tribunal to deal properly with this argument."

In allowing the appeal he did not remit the case to be heard again by a FTT but made the decision that ought to have been made in the first place.

I retired from the Department for Work and Pensions in 2019, spending my last few years in a team that handled appeals against decisions on entitlement to benefit.

I "presented" many appeals at First Tier Tribunals, explaining the decision and responding to any questions asked.

I usually found the tribunal judges to be knowledgeable about procedures and supportive towards claimants. However, since I got involved with REACH Advocacy, it's been interesting to see how often Upper Tier Tribunals find fault with how decisions were arrived at, or were not properly justified, so "revert" the case back to be heard again.

While not aimed at discussing Tribunal Procedures in detail, I hope this group is useful in raising general awareness of the fact that tribunal procedures exist, and helps increase understanding of "points of law" on which an appeal to the Upper Tribunal could become possible.

Article 6 starts off with:

An opportunity to discuss the REACH Advocacy SVQ in Human Rights-based Advocacy.

Accredited by the SQA at SCQF Level 7, it's full of information on how Human Rights underpin our legislation and influence the policies of organisations responsible for delivering services to us.

You'll be able to use appropriate techniques and strategies, giving you more confidence in achieving positive outcomes or achieving those outcomes more quickly.

Please note: this is not an area for candidates to discuss the award or to raise questions after starting work on it.

The Forum pages are being removed in 2026, but Wix is already moving everything to Groups.

This is an opportunity for all of us to get to know what can be achieved by using the website to engage with people who sign up to hear more from us or to pass on information to us.

I'd like to see everyone making at least one contribution to at least one of the groups and to share your experience.

I'm concerned that, in my case at least, the Sign Up page has fields to capture user data and an "Already a member, Log In" link, but no button to submit info for new users!

Welcome to our group REACH Digest Discussion! A space for us to connect and share with each other. Start by posting your thoughts, sharing media, or creating a poll.