Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Rejected
Regularly track and publish Universal Credit claimant outcomes including employment, earnings, and hours.
Conclusion
The Department’s evaluations show that Universal Credit is having a positive impact on the labour market, but these have assessed only the short-term impact on claimants. The Department’s studies have evaluated the short-term impact for individuals who made a claim for Universal Credit in 2018 or earlier. The findings include that single people are two percentage points more likely to have been in employment at any point in the six months after starting their Universal Credit claim than new Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants; and single parents are five percentage points more likely to have been in work within six months of making a new Universal Credit claim compared with being on legacy benefits. The Department says that any diminishing impact for individuals beyond the six-month period is offset by more people being in work in subsequent cohorts of claimants, and it is therefore confident that Universal Credit is having a sustained and long-term impact on the labour market. We note, however, the Department does not know whether individual claimants remained in employment beyond the period covered by the evaluations and does not know anything about the nature of the jobs they took. 6 Progress in implementing Universal Credit Recommendation 2: The Department should regularly track the outcomes of Universal Credit claimants, which could involve a longitudinal study, including what kinds of employment they take up and for how long, as well as their earnings and hours, and publish the results at regular intervals of at least once every twelve months.
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating that tracking specific employment outcomes and duration for Universal Credit claimants was not an objective and would not provide the necessary insight into the program's impact.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Tracking the types of employment Universal Credit claimants take up, and the duration of the claim, were not objectives of the Universal Credit Programme. The department remains committed to understanding the labour market effects of Universal Credit and regularly monitors the labour market outcomes of Universal Credit customers using internal management information, as well as through a range of monthly and quarterly official statistics: the Office for National Statistics (ONS) claimant count, the department’s own Universal Credit official statistics, His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs-ONS payroll employment statistics and ONS statistics on employment, unemployment, inactivity, and workforce jobs. The department is continuously developing Universal Credit statistics and has a wide- ranging research and evaluation programme on a range of departmental activity including five published impact evaluations, all showing the positive impact Universal Credit has had on employment. The department does not agree that tracking a subset of claimants and publishing information on their employment, including a longitudinal study, would create the insight for which the Committee is hoping. This is because it could not show what would have happened in the absence of Universal Credit, and therefore would not help to prove the business case benefits. It would monitor outcomes but not isolate the impact of Universal Credit. The department, therefore, does not agree that this recommendation would be of significant value in the context of the Universal Credit business case impacts.