Universal Credit & ESA Sanctions: Levels & How to Challenge

To get Universal Credit you accept an agreement called a claimant commitment, which includes work-related requirements: any work-related activities you must complete to receive Universal Credit. What you must do will depend on your circumstances.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 sorts claimants into four groups:

• No work-related requirements (section 19): the Secretary of State may not impose any work-related requirement on a claimant with limited capability for work and work-related activity, a claimant with regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person, or the responsible carer for a child under the age of 1
• Work-focused interview only (section 20): the responsible carer for a child who is aged 1, who can have a work-focused interview requirement imposed
• Work preparation (section 21): a claimant with limited capability for work, or the responsible carer for a child who is aged 2, who does not fall within section 19 or 20
• All work-related requirements (section 22): a claimant not falling within any of sections 19 to 21, on whom a work search requirement and a work availability requirement must be imposed except in prescribed circumstances

For New Style ESA, GOV.UK says your ESA can be reduced if you do not attend interviews or do work-related activity as agreed with your work coach in your Claimant Commitment, and that this reduction can continue for up to 4 weeks after you restart work-related activities. You will not get a sanction if you are in the support group. If you get a sanction you can ask for the decision to be looked at again.

There are 4 sanction levels, depending on which work-related activity group you are in: lowest, low, medium and high.

The sanction levels, and what each is for:

• Lowest level: you may get this if your only responsibility is to take part in appointments with DWP to discuss work, and you do not take part without good reason
• Low level: most Universal Credit sanctions are low level
• Low level examples, without good reason: failing to attend and take part in work-focused interviews or appointments, provide work-related evidence that DWP has asked for, report work-related changes such as losing pay, go to a training course or employment scheme recommended as part of your work preparation, or take a specific action to get paid work or to increase your earnings
• Medium level: if you do not do enough to look for work or are not available for work
• High level: for certain types of failures to do with paid work

Your payments will be reduced by 100% of the Universal Credit standard allowance rate for each day the sanction is in place, or by 40% if you are aged 16 or 17 or your only responsibility is to attend appointments to discuss work. Extra amounts on top of your standard allowance, such as for children or housing costs, will still be paid to you. You will not have 2 sanctions at once, but sanctions can run back-to-back. You may lose your entitlement to other benefits, such as financial help with NHS costs.

GOV.UK says the daily reduction rates increased from 6 April 2026, and that your daily reduction rate could change if the amount of Universal Credit paid or your circumstances change.

When you might have less money taken off:

• You are caring for young children and people with disabilities
• You are pregnant and your baby is due in less than 11 weeks
• You had a baby less than 15 weeks ago
• You are adopting a child, and it is less than one year since the child was placed with you

A lowest level sanction lasts from the date of the appointment until the day before you contact DWP to arrange a new one, and you must take part in the new appointment.

If you are 16 or 17, a medium level sanction will usually be 7 days, or usually 14 days if you have had one in the past year. A high level sanction will usually be 14 days, or usually 28 days if you have had one in the past year. If you left work or failed to take up a job offer before you claimed Universal Credit there are special rules for how long your sanction will last.

If DWP decides that you had a good reason, your payment will not be reduced. If it decides you did not have a good reason, you may get a sanction. If you are not able to do the things in your claimant commitment, you must contact DWP straight away by adding a note to your journal in your Universal Credit account, or using the contact details provided by your work coach.

GOV.UK gives these examples of when you might not be able to meet your commitments:

• You have a hospital appointment at the same time as a meeting with DWP
• You are unexpectedly ill and cannot do a work-related activity
• A domestic emergency means you cannot go to a job interview

If you cannot pay for your rent, heating, food or hygiene needs because you got a sanction, you can ask for a hardship payment. The support is called a recoverable hardship payment.

To qualify for a hardship payment:

• ✓Yes: You must have reduced your non-essential costs, looked into other ways to get support and be able to prove that you need the support
• ✓Yes: If you are in a couple, both of you must agree to getting a hardship payment
• ✓Yes: You must have been sanctioned at 100% (or 50% or more for a couple) of your standard allowance for any amount of time
• ✓Yes: You and your partner must also have completed your work-related requirements in the 7 days before applying, and any activities you were given to end your sanction
• ✓Yes: You can only apply once you have had a lower or missed Universal Credit payment because of a sanction or penalty, and you need to reapply each time you get a lower or missed payment
• ✓Yes: The claimant whose award has been reduced must be aged 18 or over

Regulation 118 sets the amount of a hardship payment for each day by a formula that starts at 60% of the reduction in the award for the assessment period before the one in which you apply.

To apply, you can ask your Universal Credit contact at your local jobcentre or your work coach, update your journal in your Universal Credit account, or call the Universal Credit helpline. If your application is accepted, hardship payments are usually paid directly into your bank account on the same day. You will need to pay back a hardship payment once your sanction has ended. Your Universal Credit payment will be automatically reduced by up to 15% of your standard allowance until you repay it. Our grants and hardship funds guide covers other help if a sanction has left you short.

If you get a sanction, your next Universal Credit payment, or series of payments, will be reduced, and you will get a journal message in your Universal Credit account or a letter telling you how much your payment is reduced by, how long the sanction may be for or what you need to do to end it, and what you failed to do.

The steps in a challenge:

• If you disagree with a sanction decision, or have more evidence, you can ask for a review, known as a mandatory reconsideration
• You can do this by putting a note in your journal in your Universal Credit account, over the phone, face to face or in writing
• You usually need to ask within one month of the date of the decision, but you can ask after one month if you have a good reason, for example if you have been in hospital or had a bereavement
• Someone will look at your whole benefit claim again, and your benefit may stop, stay the same, increase or decrease
• You usually need to appeal within one month of the date of your mandatory reconsideration notice, and you cannot appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal until you get that notice

Our mandatory reconsideration guide and benefits appeals guide cover those steps in more detail.