Under Universal Credit, claimants accept a "claimant commitment" of agreed activities. If the DWP records that a claimant did not meet a requirement without good reason, it can apply a sanction that reduces their standard allowance — in the most severe cases to zero, for a set period. The data below shows how many sanctions are applied and the official recorded reason categories.

The reasons the DWP records, in its own categories, include failing to attend or participate in a mandatory interview, not undertaking agreed work-search activity, and not taking up employment. The Government's stated rationale is that conditionality encourages job-seeking; critics, including some select committees and charities, question its effectiveness and impact — both positions are part of the public debate.