Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Progress in implementing Universal Credit

Status: Closed Opened: 10 Jan 2024 Closed: 28 May 2024 2 recommendations 34 conclusions 1 report

There are currently around six million people receiving Universal Credit (UC) benefit payments, launched in 2010 to replace six-means-tested benefits for working-age households. At the end of 2022, some 2.5m households remained on legacy benefits, with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) starting to scale up moving people onto UC through its ‘managed migration’ …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Twenty-Ninth Report - Progress in implementing Universal Cr… HC 458 26 Apr 2024 36 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 item
10 Conclusion Twenty-Ninth Report - Progress in imple… Deferred

DWP asserts UC outperforms Jobseeker’s Allowance despite inability to measure direct economic benefits

The Department told us that it could not measure the economic benefits of extra people being in work as it could not create two versions of the economy – one with UC and one without. However, it said that its comparative evaluations had consistently shown that UC outperformed Jobseeker’s Allowance, …

Government response. The government acknowledges the difficulty of evaluation, reaffirms existing evidence, and states that a post-project review will take place six months after the Universal Credit transformation program closes to assess benefits realised.
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
11 Mar 2024 Helga Swidenbank · Department for Work and Pensions, Neil Couling CB CBE · DWP Services and Fraud, Peter Schofield CB · Department for Work and Pensions View ↗

Correspondence

3 letters
DateDirectionTitle
8 May 2024 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Wor…
26 Apr 2024 Correspondence dated 26 April 2024 from the Chair to Peter Schofield CB Perman…
15 Apr 2024 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Wor…