The DWP intends to introduce a new sanctions regime for JSA from 22/10/2012 and the ESA Work Related Activity Group from 3/12/2012. There will be three levels of sanctions for JSA and one level for ESA. The length of time a claimant receives reduced benefit for will depend on the sanction level and how may times the claimant committed a sanctionable failure in a 52 week period. It’s rumoured in the guardian that 70% of their weekly ESA will be lost if they refuse to take part in work-related activities (currently clients lose only 50% of their work related activity component for the first 4 weeks and then all of it after that).
Latest statistics suggest that 85% of decision makers prefer the evidence of the Atos healthcare in the ESA assessment process.