Universal Credit and ESA Sanctions: Your Rights and How to Challenge

You can only be sanctioned for failing a requirement that actually applies to you. What you must do depends on your conditionality group:

• ✓Full work search: expected to look for and be available for work, the most requirements and the most sanction risk.
• ✓Work preparation: expected to take steps to prepare for work (for example if you have Limited Capability for Work).
• ✓Work-focused interview only: a lighter set of requirements.
• ✓No work-related requirements: people with LCWRA (UC) or in the ESA Support Group, carers, and some others, you cannot be sanctioned for work-related requirements because you do not have any.

• ✓Higher level: for the most serious, such as leaving a job voluntarily without good reason, being dismissed for misconduct, or refusing a job offer.
• ✓Medium level: for not being available for work, or not taking all reasonable action to find work.
• ✓Low level: for not attending or taking part in a required activity such as training or a work-preparation task.
• ✓Lowest level: for not attending a work-focused interview where that is the only requirement.

The sanction reduces your standard allowance for a set period. Higher-level sanctions last longest and can be increased for repeated failures. Your housing and child elements are not sanctioned.

There is no sanction if you had a good reason (called "good cause" for ESA) for what happened. There is no fixed list, the decision-maker must consider all your circumstances. Reasons that are commonly accepted include:

• ✓Illness, a health condition, or a disability that affected what you could do.
• ✓A caring responsibility or a family emergency.
• ✓Transport problems or an appointment you could not move (for example a hospital appointment).
• ✓A mental health condition, anxiety, or difficulty with letters and phone calls.
• ✓Not receiving or understanding the instruction, or being given conflicting information.
• ✓Bereavement, domestic abuse, or homelessness.

If a sanction means you cannot meet your basic needs, or those of your household, you can apply for a hardship payment:

• ✓It is worth about 60% of the amount your standard allowance has been reduced by.
• ✓You usually have to show you have tried to cut back on non-essential spending first.
• ✓It is recoverable, the amount is normally taken back from your future Universal Credit.
• ✓You generally need to apply each assessment period the sanction applies.

• ✓Ask for a written explanation of exactly what you are said to have failed to do, and when.
• ✓Request a Mandatory Reconsideration, normally within one month, setting out your good reason and any evidence.
• ✓If that fails, appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal; a tribunal will not normally increase a sanction, so the risk of appealing is low.
• ✓Keep meeting your other requirements and apply for a hardship payment in the meantime.
• ✓Complain to the Jobcentre and, if needed, your MP if you were treated unfairly.

See how to request a Mandatory Reconsideration and our benefits appeals guide.