DWP sanctions at a record high

The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) latest figures show that Universal Credit (UC) sanctions have hit record highs under Labour.

DWP UC sanctions highest ever under labour

The DWP recently released the figures for benefit sanctions up to October 2025. And they do not paint a pretty picture for Labour.

Before Labour came into power, the highest monthly number of sanctions happened in January 2024, when it it reached 57,276.

But since Labour were elected, it’s shot up – reaching over 60,000 three times. In October 2024 61,601 claimants were sanctioned. This rose even higher in January 2025 to 64,886. Then finally in October 2025, it hit 63,025. As these are the latest figures we have, it could’ve gone up even further in the last five months.

The most shocking thing about the staggering almost 65,000 in January 2025 is that it had dropped significantly the month before. In December 2024 the amount of sanctions was just around 24,000. So for it to go up by almost three times in just a month is horrific. The January 2025 figure is the highest rate of Universal Credit sanctions ever.

Universal Credit claimants punished

Sanctions happen when a claimant fails to meet arbitrary rules set out by the DWP. These can involve missing or being late for appointments at the Jobcentre or not accepting a job offer. But they can even punish you if they don’t like your reason for not leaving your last job.

In the period from November 2024 to October 2025, 566,490 people were sanctioned for “Failure to Attend or Participate in a Mandatory Interview”. To be clear this can also include if you’re running late. so if the bus was late you can lose your benefits. This equated to 90% of all sanctions.

A further 31,210 were sanctioned for “availability to work”, or to translate, they refused to accept the first crappy low-paying job the DWP offered them. And 9,530 were punished for “reason for leaving previous employment”.

This seems like an absurd and cruel category to include when everyone has different reasons for leaving a job and DWP rules are often strict and don’t allow for nuance. This is something anyone who’s ever applied for PIP knows all too well.

As the Canary previously reported, Universal Credit sanctions are so cruel that claimants are treated worse than criminals. The Sanctionable Failures report from Public Law Project found that sanctions are almost double the average court fine, and they’re effectively fined at 9 times the amount someone convicted of a crime is.

Racism in the DWP

As with most things, race also plays a big part here. Whilst 70% of sanctioned claimants were white, the amount from each group sanctioned stays about the same or higher. White claimants had a sanction rate of 6% while Black/African/Caribbean/Black British claimants had a sanction rate of 6.2%. People of mixed/ multiple ethnicities had a sanction rate of 7.4%. Asian/Asian British claimants had a slightly lower rate at 4.6%.

The DWP uses the relative likelihoods method to determine racial disparities in datasets. Using this they can estimate that black/African/Caribbean/Black British people were 3% more likely than White claimants to be sanctioned in November 2025. According to the DWP, Asian/Asian British people were 23% less likely to be sanctioned than white claimants.

The group most likely to be sanctioned compared to white claimants was people of mixed or multiple ethnicities. They were 24% more likely to be sanctioned than white people.

However, previously released data paints an even bleaker picture. The Canary’s Hannah Sharland found in September 2024 that:

Black universal credit claimants were 58% more likely to be sanctioned than white claimants, mixed ethnic groups were 72% more likely and Asians 5% more likely

So not only is it a racist hellhole, but they’re also using underhanded methods to fluff the numbers.

DWP even worse under Labour

The Labour-run DWP has faced much criticism lately, but all they’ve really proven is how they’re even worse for poor and disabled people then the Tories ever were.

At a time when the DWP is pushing more people into work that ever, we must up the scrutiny over how many people they are unfairly punishing. Benefit claimants are already up against it with the constant benefits hate in the press, without all the hoops they have to jump through just to survive.

Featured image via the Canary