Number of jobseekers and breach three sanctions issued from October 2013 (FOI)

​Request

Regarding the Income Support Regulations made in P.101/2013 which came into force in October 2013, please could you provide me with the following information dating from October 2013 to the present day, and broken down by yearly quarter where possible:

A.

The total number of jobs seekers.

B.

The total number of financial sanctions imposed on job seekers for failure to actively seek remunerative work (including after the first, second, third or subsequent breach of a warning).

C.

The number of sanctions imposed on job seekers after a third or subsequent breach of a warning, resulting in the withdrawal of all household income support.

D.

Of these ‘breach three or subsequent’ sanctions, the number that were applied to houses with dependents, broken down into the number of households with children, and the number of households with disabled people.

E.

The number of children living, or who have lived, in households which have received sanctions after a third or subsequent breach of a warning.

Response

In answer to part (A), the Social Security Department can confirm the number of jobseekers, broken down yearly quarterly as requested, from when P.101/2013 came into force on the 15 October 2013 is as follows:

• 15 October 2013 to 31 December 2013 2649 jobseekers
  
• 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2014 2812 jobseekers
  
• 1 April 2014 to 30 June 2014 2628 jobseekers
  
• 1 July 2014 to 30 September 2014 2477 jobseekers
  
• 1 October 2014 to 31 December 2014 2353 jobseekers
  
• 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2015 2539 jobseekers
  
• 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 2413 jobseekers
  
• 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2015 2584 jobseekers
  
• 1 October 2015 to 31 October 2015 1893 jobseekers
  

In answer to part (B), the Social Security Department can confirm the total number of sanctions imposed on jobseekers for failure to actively seek remunerative work, including after the first, second, third or subsequent breach of a warning, broken down yearly quarterly as requested, from when P.101/2013 came into force on the 15 October 2013 is as follows:

• 15 October 2013 to 31 December 2013 110 sanctions
  
• 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2014 217 sanctions
  
• 1 April 2014 to 30 June 2014 196 sanctions
  
• 1 July 2014 to 30 September 2014 183 sanctions
  
• 1 October 2014 to 31 December 2014 113 sanctions
  
• 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2015 128 sanctions
  
• 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 96 sanctions
  
• 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2015 93 sanctions
  
• 1 October 2015 to 31 October 2015 34 sanctions
  

The above is an upper limit as a single jobseeker may receive multiple sanctions and the total above does not reflect the total number of jobseekers sanctioned. In a number of cases the number of sanctions applied in a quarter may later reduce due to a change of decision based on new information and/or a redetermination. The above figures are the total number of sanctions applied not taking into account later reductions.

In answer to part (C), the Social Security Department can confirm the number of sanctions imposed on jobseekers after a third or subsequent breach of a warning resulting in the withdrawal of all household income support, broken down yearly quarterly as requested, from when P.101/2013 came into force on the 15 October 2013 is as follows:

• 15 October 2013 to 31 December 2013 5 sanctions
  
• 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2014 25 sanctions
  
• 1 April 2014 to 30 June 2014 33 sanctions
  
• 1 July 2014 to 30 September 2014 37 sanctions
  
• 1 October 2014 to 31 December 2014 22 sanctions
  
• 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2015 29 sanctions
  
• 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 26 sanctions
  
• 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2015 20 sanctions
  
• 1 October 2015 to 31 October 2015 9 sanctions 
  

Before any breach three is applied to a household resulting in all Income Support ceasing, a safeguarding procedure is followed to ensure any children and / or vulnerable adults are not put at risk.

The above is an upper limit as a single jobseeker may receive multiple sanctions and the total above does not reflect the total number of jobseekers sanctioned. In a number of cases the number of sanctions applied in a quarter may later reduce due to a change of decision based on new information and/or a redetermination. The above figures are the total number of sanctions applied not taking into account later reductions.

You may want to refer to a previous FOI request on this subject. You'll find the link here:

Income support breach 3 regulations (FOI)

The information needed to answer parts (D) and (E) is held in separate database tables within the Social Security database that holds information relating to Income Support claims. To relate specific component payment details to specific household claim details would require specialist third party support, the cost of which would be in excess of the £500.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Your request, therefore, will not be processed further.