Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Paragraph: 93
The Department will, however, be limited by longstanding deficiencies in the collection and storage of...
Conclusion
The Department will, however, be limited by longstanding deficiencies in the collection and storage of data about Universal Credit claimants. The Department has told us that it does not have the mechanisms within the Universal Credit system to collect real time demographic data about participants in the Kickstart and Restart schemes. This means that the Department will not know the outcomes and experiences of different groups of people, including disabled people and people from BAME communities, on Kickstart and Restart until an evaluation is published once the schemes have closed. The same will be true of any employment support schemes linked to Universal Credit.
Paragraph Reference:
93
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
DWP understands why the committee thinks this would be helpful but does not have any plans to introduce markers on the Universal Credit (UC) system. Instead we are exploring ways how claimants tell us about circumstances that might affect their claim to UC. This information will then be held on their UC account so that our staff are aware of the characteristics to tailor support accordingly. DWP has introduced a mechanism for claimants to tell us about any experience of serving in the armed forces and are in the process of designing and building a process for claimants who have experience of being in care. Following this we will evaluate the impact of introducing these questions on our claimant and agent experience before deciding how we progress with other claimant characteristics. Both Kickstart and Restart programmes also have their own evaluation processes to understand how they are working for different groups.2