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Qualitative research exploring the Pathways to Work sanctions regime - DWP Research Report No. 475 The Pathways to Work pilots were introduced in 2003 to help Incapacity Benefit (IB) recipients move towards and into paid work.
Under the reforms, IB customers are liable to have a percentage of their benefit entitlement sanctioned if they fail to attend a Work Focused Interview (WFI) and are unable to account for this by showing good cause. This study sought to explore the role that sanctioning played in decisions about attendance at WFIs and subsequent engagement with the programme.
• Customers do not always understand the reasons for sanctioning and the specific financial implications of being sanctioned.
• Being sanctioned did improve attendance of customers at WFIs but did not necessarily mean that they engaged with the Pathways programme and Choices provision as a result.
• Where sanctioning had limited or no impact on attendance this related to deep-seated beliefs about the relevance and timeliness of the intervention in relation to customers’ health and personal circumstances and/or to the perception of customers about their employability.
• There was limited evidence of a negative impact of sanctions on the relationship between customers and their personal assistants (IBPAs). The establishment of good quality relationships with IBPAs over time was a key way in which contact with the programme was sustained.
• There was evidence that sanctions hit the more socially deprived or isolated, or longer-term benefit recipients, harder than other claimants.
• The impact of sanctioning on health varied depending on the financial severity of the sanction and the extent to which customers felt a greater degree of stress and anxiety arising from the process. Where customers experienced stress or anxiety this could exacerbate existing conditions.
This report is based on qualitative research conducted by the National Centre for Social Research, the Social Policy Research Unit at York University at the Policy Studies Institute in 2007. It is primarily based on 34 in-depth interviews with new and existing customers who had experience of the sanctioning process. The study also drew on secondary analysis of previous qualitative research conducted with Incapacity Benefit Personal Advisers (IBPAs) and IB customers as part of the wider evaluation of the Pathways to Work programme.
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