Sanctions fail to encourage people to engage with the social security system in a meaningful way, leading to negative effects. That’s a key point from a new video by our lead researcher on offenders, Professor Del Roy Fletcher from the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University.

Professor Fletcher outlines the way many offenders end up claiming the wrong benefit, and so experiencing high levels of sanctioning. He points to the crucial difference getting support to deal with problems makes in helping bring about sustained behaviour change among this group of welfare service users. Read our findings in full.