36,277 people had their benefits docked in April at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK - despite the Government announcing a ban on sanctions.
The Government said benefits sanctions would be frozen to make sure those most in need didn't suffer during the coronavirus crisis.
But in April 36,277 people on Universal Credit had their benefits sanctioned - which is roughly the same number as in January, February and March.
The sanctions bam began on March 30 - but because the average sanction lasts 29 days, people who were sanctioned before the cut-off date were still having benefits docked afterwards.
Another 25,460 lost money to a sanction in May, reports The Mirror.
Sanctions reduce or completely stop benefit payments to people who fail to meet "conditions" - like searching for work or attending an interview.
New sanctions almost entirely stopped for three months from March 30, because people could not search for work during lockdown.
Only 17 Universal Credit claimants were hit with a new sanction in April, compared with almost 11,000 the month before.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said some of the 17 were decisions made about a breach the previous month.
Others were for the small range of sanctions that were allowed to continue - such as leaving a job voluntarily without good reason, or misconduct.
Sanctions began again in July.
A DWP spokesman said: “We acted swiftly in response to the pandemic, changing conditionality rules so they reflected the reality of people’s lives during lockdown. No Universal Credit sanctions were applied relating to claimant actions in this period.
“The figures for April and May relate to claimant commitments breached before the country went into lockdown and represent a small proportion of the millions of people being supported by Universal Credit."
