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<p>The number of people on Universal Credit with a sanction deduction in February
2018 was 31,720 against a total number of 774,600 people on Universal Credit at that
time.</p><p> </p><p>Under Universal Credit dependants in a household cannot be sanctioned.</p><p><strong>
</strong></p><p>As a sanction is only applied when a claimant fails to meet their
conditionality requirements without good reason, the Department does not have expectations
on the numbers of sanctions that will be applied.</p><p> </p><p>However, we take a
number of steps to ensure claimants are supported to meet their conditionality requirements.
Work coaches tailor claimants’ conditionality requirements, and the support they require
to meet them, to their individual circumstances and capabilities. They work with claimants
to agree their conditionality requirements, explaining what could happen should they
fail to meet them. Claimants are given every opportunity to explain why they failed
to meet their agreed conditionality requirements before a sanction decision is made.
When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all
the claimant’s individual circumstances and any evidence of good reason provided,
into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.</p><p> </p><p>We review
processes and learning materials continuously and have a strong quality assurance
framework in place.</p>
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