Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Paragraph: 49
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions broadens the scope of its ‘Helping...
Recommendation
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions broadens the scope of its ‘Helping workless families indicators’ to measure the quantity and quality of work in families and communities, and the quality of family support so that they better address the challenge of in-work poverty and the additional stresses often endured by families in income poverty.
Paragraph Reference:
49
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
DWP should write to us by June 2022 updating us on its progress (a) in working with the Office for National Statistics, Administrative Data UK and other government departments to develop new data matching and analysis programmes to understand better the causes and consequences of child income poverty; and (b) in addressing local authority concerns about the sharing of Universal Credit administrative data. As we wrote to you earlier in the year we intend to conduct more detailed research into the possibility of making improvements to existing data shares, including taking into account the costs and benefits of doing so, and attempting to balance this against other resource demands. This work includes investigating the local authority reasons for additional data shares, and whether legal gateways exist, enabling us to conduct these data shares. We are continuing to engage local authorities in this work and have established a Working Group of 40 representative local authorities to ensure all requests are considered.