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Report on effectiveness of benefit sanctions blocked by DWP
Very interesting/alarming report from Patrick Butler in the Guardian about DWP supressing report on benefit sanctions.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned its own internal research on the effectiveness of sanctions in 2019 and explicitly promised to make the findings public, in part to settle an ongoing political row over whether sanctions were effective – as ministers insisted they were – in persuading people into work.
Nearly three years later, as the DWP prepares to enforce a fresh wave of sanctions, it has emerged that the department buried the report and refused requests for it to be released, insisting that the study included “details of a sensitive nature” and it was in the “public interest” to keep the findings under wraps.
By “public interest” they mean their own interest obviously…...
Maybe there is a deterrent effect against releasing evidence that sanctions don’t work
Certainly seems to be a lot of jumpiness in government at the moment about releasing any reports…..
Anyone remember at the PLP North conference a few years back a sobering presentation (from Michael Adler?) summarising, in part, research on sanctions across the globe?
Brief (and easy to remember) summary was that no research in any country has ever produced research which shows that sanctions work. No doubt we can add this one to the bonfire too.
What was that phrase? Ah, yes. “Following the science”.
On Twitter, Patrick Butler has also linked to this interview he did with David Webster in 2017:
David Webster: ‘Benefit sanctions should be a thing of the past’
The economist and Glasgow research fellow on why stopping benefit payments is counterproductive and must not be rolled out more widely
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/01/benefit-sanctions-thing-of-past-david-webster
What an absolute gem of a report:
“In summary, a sanction leads the average claimant to exit less quickly into PAYE
earnings and to earn less upon exiting. In a narrow sense, this constitutes a negative
impact of a sanction on claimant finances. However, this excludes the wider role of a
sanction, which acts to incentivise compliance with a conditionality regime that
encourages work search and earnings increases.”
Decoded: sanctions pour encourager les autres.
Anyone remember at the PLP North conference a few years back a sobering presentation (from Michael Adler?) summarising, in part, research on sanctions across the globe?
Brief (and easy to remember) summary was that no research in any country has ever produced research which shows that sanctions work. No doubt we can add this one to the bonfire too.
What was that phrase? Ah, yes. “Following the science”.
May as well quote myself earlier in the thread then.
Another to add to the bonfire of their vanities.
Just once it would be nice to see evidence based policy making.