Benefit sanctions in the UK: employment and mental health effects

Summary

This paper examines the impact of the employment benefit sanctions in the UK on employment and mental health outcomes. We estimate dynamic panel models utilising the Understanding Society dataset matched to DWP data on sanctions at job centre level. We exploit sharp changes in the prevalence of sanctions over time and regional heterogeneity to examine the impact of policy changes in the implementation of benefit sanctions. Our results contribute to the debate on job activation policies as well as the broader debate on the response to the Global Financial Crisis.