Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Acknowledged
Publicly consult on claimant commitment changes, replacing blanket requirements with personalised action plans.
Conclusion
Instead of an internal review, DWP should publicly consult on changes to the claimant commitment. DWP should consider removing blanket requirements, such as the 35-hour job search requirement, and replacing them with a personalised action plan that is co-developed between the claimant and work coach, and relevant to the claimant’s skills and experience. (Recommendation, Paragraph 23)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states that the new Jobs and Careers Service will provide personalised employment support and will set out what support and advice customers can expect once the service is developed. It is considering a statement of service and will provide more detail on this in a report on delivering the Jobs and Careers Service in spring 2026.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
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.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗