Benefit Sanctions - December 2019 quarter

During the COVID-19 pandemic response, we are releasing a reduced amount of supporting material  for the Benefit Fact Sheets and this page has not been updated with information from the latest quarter.

A sanction is issued on a benefit when a client has not fulfilled their work-related obligations (i.e. to look for or find work).

Sanctions can affect benefit recipients in a number of ways depending on their circumstances and the number of times they have had a sanction issued over the last 12 months. There are three types of sanctions: graduated (i.e. percentage reduction in benefit amount), suspended and cancelled. Not everyone who does not meet their commitments get sanctioned. A sanction can be withdrawn when a client re-complies or provides additional information.

Sanctions data is reported in two different ways to show different aspects of the data: flow data and point-in-time data.

Flow data is the sum of all sanction events that occur in the quarter (e.g. during the December quarter, it is the total of all sanction events in October, November and December). This data contains graduated, suspended and cancelled sanctions.

Point-in-time data is the number of sanctions issued at a point in time (e.g. for December, it is the number of sanctions as at end of December. Only graduated sanctions can be reported using point-in-time data.

Five-year trend for all sanctions (flow data)

There were 11,854 benefit sanctions issued during the December 2019 quarter. This was 5,327 fewer (down 31.0 percent) than the December 2014 quarter, but 38.9 percent higher than the December 2018 quarter.

Figure 1 shows the total number of sanctions issued during the last December quarters since 2014, and Figure 2 presents the numbers by reason for the issuance of the benefit sanction.

During the December 2019 quarter, there were 8,211 benefit sanctions issued due to missed work appointments. This was 28.6 percent lower when compared with same period in 2014, and 53.5 percent higher than the December 2018 quarter.

There were 2,361 benefit sanctions issued due to unmet work preparation requirements. This was 38.4 percent lower when compared with the same period in 2014, and 14.6 percent higher than the December 2018 quarter.

There were 1,200 benefit sanctions issued for lack of work participation during the December 2019 quarter. This was 31.7 percent lower when compared with the same period 2014, and 16.2 percent higher than the December 2018 quarter.

Annual comparison – all sanctions (flow data)

Annual comparison – graduated sanctions (point-in-time data)

Note: A small number of non-work tested benefit recipients may be included in point-in-time data because they had a sanction on a previous benefit but have since transferred to a benefit which is not work-tested.