Recommendation 17

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.