UK stats authority on recent DWP stats

Letter from the UK stats authority to Jonathan Portes, Director National Institute of Economic and Social Research -

- Re sanctions stats: “I am particularly concerned that these sanction statistics are unclear, that the method is not publically explained and has weaknesses that can and should be addressed.”

- Re Work Programme stats: “The Deputy Head of Profession for DWP has confirmed that [the] Press Statement was cleared with relevant officials responsible for the monitoring and management of DWP’s contracted employment programmes. He agrees that the statement in the Press Notice is potentially misleading .. and has apologised for any confusion which this statement might have caused.”

http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports—-correspondence/correspondence/letter-from-ed-humpherson-to-jonathan-portes-060715.pdf

government’s response to being told to publish how they make their sanction stats up - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jsa-and-esa-sanction-rates-explanation-of-methodology

“Sanctions are only used as a last resort in a small percentage of cases”

Try telling that to one of our foodbank clients who had more than 20 sanctions applied consecutively for alleged failures related to their Work Programme provider…...