Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Accepted
Claimant commitments remain too generic and counter-productive, requiring more substantial reform from DWP.
Conclusion
Claimant commitments should be a cornerstone of the relationship between claimants and work coaches. But too often, commitments set work search requirements that are too generic and sometimes counter-productive (such as completing a set number of applications or spending 35-hours job searching per week). We heard that complying with these blanket conditions can be stressful and can leave people feeling disempowered and unsupported. We welcome the Government’s undertaking to review the claimant commitment, including trialling changes to the commitment. However, we would have liked to have heard from DWP about more substantial plans to reform this crucial part of the benefits process to make it a meaningful part of people’s journey to work. We are concerned that the only change DWP told us about was splitting the claimant commitment meeting into two meetings, which does not fill us with confidence about DWP’s ambitions. (Conclusion, Paragraph 22)
Government Response Summary
The government has completed an internal review of the Claimant Commitment and is currently testing a new policy model through the Jobs and Careers Service ‘Pathfinder’ to shift focus from compliance to individual employment support. They will review the policy further based on initial Pathfinder findings, but do not agree a public consultation is necessary at this stage as testing is already underway.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The department has completed an internal review of the Claimant Commitment and from this we have developed a draft policy framework that aims to move the focus from compliance checking to genuine individual employment support. We are currently testing this new model through the Jobs and Careers Service ‘Pathfinder’. These tests are exploring how to balance conditionality requirements with customer-centred action planning. We aim to give claimants more choice and empowerment on their journey into work. Work coaches will do this by working collaboratively with the customer to update their Work Plan. The Work Plan was introduced on 5 October 2022 as a Universal Credit service improvement. Once a Claimant Commitment has been agreed between the work coach and the claimant, the work coach may use the work plan to agree and update job goals and work-related activities. The work plan must only be updated as part of a conversation between the work coach and the claimant. Instead of a rigid focus on the requirement to undertake 35 hours of work-related activity, through these Pathfinder tests work coaches will be encouraging claimants to take all reasonable steps to search for and prepare for work, considering their circumstances and capability. Once we have the initial findings from the Pathfinder testing, we will review the policy and consider whether further testing is needed. Qualitative findings from work coaches are being used to develop delivery processes in the Pathfinder. We will continue to gather this insight over the coming months before a decision is made on next steps. We partially accept this recommendation as we have now concluded the review of the Claimant Commitment and do not agree that a public consultation is necessary at this stage as we are already testing these changes. We agree with the intention behind the recommendations regarding 35 hours work search requirements and action planning and are using a test and learn approach to gather both claimant and work coach feedback before reviewing the policy further.