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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Conditionality and sanctions  →  Thread

CPAG Conditionality Data Gathering

Lynsey
forum member

Lawyer, CPAG

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Total Posts: 10

Joined: 29 October 2019

As you are all aware, the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, and the supporting DWP guidance, allow a work coach to tailor a claimant commitment to suit a claimant’s circumstances, or to apply easements to adjust a claimant’s conditionaility to take account of short term issues.

CPAG are concerned that the adjustments and easements are not being applied consistently and that work coaches are not always asking for the correct information to assess whether any adjustments or easements should apply. In many cases, an unsuitable claimant commitment will only come to light once the claimant has been sanctioned and seeks advice on this, while some claimants will simply accept the sanctions without seeking help, or struggle to meet a claimant commitment that should have been tailored, at the expense of their health or caring responsibilities.

We have heard a lot of stories from advisers about situations like this but, without any hard evidence, it will be difficult to take any action on this issue.

We are asking advice workers to complete a questionnaire with any client that is a parent, a carer, or who has a physical or mental disability, who has signed a claimant commitment. The questionnaires are available on the CPAG website:
https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/conditionality-data-gathering.
Or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for Word versions.

Please click on the appropriate link and complete the survey with the client, regardless of whether the client has reported an issue with the claimant commitment.