Recommendation 8

The Department has some evidence to indicate that UC is having a positive impact on the labour market based on its evaluations of the short-term impact. Its first four evaluations covered single claimants without children – the most recent of these, based on data from 2018, found new UC claimants were two percentage points more likely to have been in employment at any point in the six months after starting their claim than new Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants. In February 2024, the Department completed a fifth 7 C&AG’s Report, paras 9, 1.6, 1.7 8 Qq 1, 33; C&AG’s Report, para 1.17 9 Committee of Public Accounts, Universal Credit, Sixty-Fourth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 1183, 26 October 2018 10 C&AG’s Report, Figure 1 11 Qq 1–2, 4; C&AG’s Report, para 1.14 and Figure 6 12 Qq 1, 5 13 Qq 1–3; C&AG’s Report, para 1.29, Figure 7 Progress in implementing Universal Credit 11 evaluation, also based on data from 2018, which found single parents were five percentage points more likely to have been in work within six months of making a new UC claim compared with being on legacy benefits.14