Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
High Universal Credit non-claim rate causes significant income loss for vulnerable households.
Conclusion
Organisations who work with benefit claimants submitted written evidence raising concerns about the non-claim rate and the implications if people did not move to UC. Citizens Advice, for example, said that the non-claim rate was alarmingly high and the resulting loss of income was likely to have a significant impact on the households involved.39 Similarly, the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers referred to their members’ concerns about the number of Tax Credit claimants who were failing to migrate and highlighted that the average loss of income was around £300 per month.40 The Department told us that the median value of the Tax Credits received by people who had not claimed UC was £3,200 per year.41 The Department’s in-house support for claimants