Commentary on Sections Part 1: Universal credit Section 27: Other sanctions
103.Section 27 provides for a reduction in the amount of a claimant’s award where they have failed without good reason to meet a work-related requirement or a requirement under section 23, such as participating in an interview with an adviser. Any failure which is sanctionable under section 26 cannot also be sanctioned under section 27.
104.The amount by which an award of universal credit may be reduced, and the duration of any reduction will be set out in regulations under subsection (4).
105.Subsection (5) provides that regulations under subsection (4) may allow for a reduction to continue until a claimant meets specified compliance conditions, or to last for a fixed period of up to 26 weeks (in relation to any single failure), or a combination of the two (for example, an open-ended period until the claimant meets the compliance conditions followed by a particular fixed period).
106.Subsection (6) defines a compliance condition to mean a condition to comply with the original requirement or a condition relating to future compliance with a requirement (for example, to comply with a new requirement or to take an action that should lead to the claimant meeting a requirement). The Secretary of State may specify that the claimant must meet more than one requirement and take more than one action to have met the compliance condition.
107.Subsection (7) allows a compliance condition to be varied or revoked, and enables the Secretary of State to notify a claimant of a condition in such manner as he determines.
108.Subsection (8) enables the duration of a fixed period sanction to be decided with reference to any previous failures and the period between the failures. For example, as with higher-level sanctions, the second and third failures after a first may result in a longer-lasting reduction if they occur within a particular period after the previous one.
109.Subsection (9) has the same effect as subsection (8) of section 26.
110.The first regulations made under this section will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure.