Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Deferred
Previous social care reform attempts have failed, eroding the upper threshold and increasing costs.
Conclusion
There have been multiple failed attempts to advance a version of Dilnot’s reforms, during which time more and more people are faced with unknowable social care costs, and inflation has eroded the value of the upper threshold, meaning fewer people benefit from it. We note the establishment of the Casey Commission and hope it succeeds where previous reforms failed. (Conclusion, Paragraph 28)
Government Response Summary
The government's response did not address the recommendation regarding social care costs or the Casey Commission. Instead, it discussed DWP's use of PAYE data and SIC codes for Universal Credit customers, and its lack of SOC codes.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
DWP uses Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data to identify employment spells, and this data includes Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes which are used to identify the industry in which the employment spell took place. DWP is then able to link this data to internal Universal Credit (UC) data which enables the department to track which industries UC customers are in, and which industry they move into. DWP does not hold data on customers’ Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes which are used to identify the occupation an individual is working in. This means the data can give an overall indication of those claiming UC within the adult social care sector but is unable to identify the job roles in which UC customers are working within the sector. The UC system is a digital system where processing is highly automated, and therefore capturing new data on SOC codes would create an additional burden on resources and would require additional training of Jobcentre Plus staff to be able to classify occupations according to SOC codes. Without a digital solution, such as occupation data captured via HMRC’s Real Time Information (RTI) data, it will be difficult to achieve consistent role classifications.