Recommendation 14

The Social Metrics Commission has proposed a new approach to measuring poverty which has widespread support. It was therefore welcome that the Government announced in 2019 that it would develop supplementary experimental statistics building on the Commission’s methodology. But that work seems to have ground to a halt. This was understandable during the first months of the pandemic, when DWP faced an unprecedented volume of claims for Universal Credit. We are, however, concerned that the Secretary of State has no clear plans to resume this work and is yet to decide the strategy the Department will adopt.

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