Universal Credit sanctions statistics to August 2026 due 17 November

Release date

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said on GOV.UK that statistics on sanctions applied to people claiming Universal Credit (UC) will be published on 17 November 2026 at 9:30am. The release covers data up to August 2026. As usual, the data will be available for analysis through the Stat-Xplore tool.

Publication schedule

Sanctions statistics are published every quarter, in February, May, August and November, according to the DWP's methodology background. The most recent release so far covers May 2026. It shows that in May 2026 around 5.2% of UC claimants who were in the conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied were undergoing a sanction on the count date. That is 0.3 percentage points lower than in February 2026, and 0.1 percentage points lower over the latest 12 months.

The same release says that around 24.4% of UC claimants were in conditionality regimes in May 2026. This share has fallen from 29.0% in May 2024, while the number of claimants subject to these requirements has stayed at around 2 million for two years.

What this means for you

The announcement concerns statistical data only. Nothing in the DWP notice indicates a change to the rules for awarding Universal Credit or for applying sanctions. People claiming UC can check the requirements that apply to their situation on GOV.UK.