Consultation outcome

Consultation on future developments to Universal Credit statistics

Updated 11 January 2018

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Summary

The purpose of this consultation is to set out our plans to expand the range of regular statistics on Universal Credit, and seek views from users.

We would like you to tell us what additional Universal Credit statistics you would like us to develop in the future and what you would use this additional information for.

This will help us to identify and prioritise the future development of Universal Credit statistics, subject to the availability and quality assurance of the data.

Some developments may be more easily achieved than others, and some may be hampered by the current availability of data or its quality. As a result, the time-frame within which these changes could be made is likely to vary.

This consultation runs from 13 September 2017 to 24 October 2017.

Background

Since September 2013, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released regular experimental statistics about Universal Credit.

Over time, the range of statistics we release has expanded, to include a wide range of breakdowns providing information about the number of:

• people on Universal Credit
• starts to Universal Credit
• claims made for Universal Credit

More recently we have published information about households on Universal Credit, including information about:

• types of family receiving Universal Credit
• average award amounts

In May 2017 we also released information about Universal Credit sanctions for the first time.

As Universal Credit continues to rollout – and as more data becomes available – we would like to produce new breakdowns as part of our regular Universal Credit statistical output.

In addition, as the number of people on Universal Credit continues to grow we want to make sure that our other regular benefit statistical publications include information about Universal Credit.

As the Universal Credit rollout continues some of these existing statistical series will naturally come to a close.

Scope of this consultation

The current publications that we believe could fall within the scope of this consultation include:

• Universal Credit experimental statistics – published each month, including information about households on Universal Credit, twice each year

• Benefit cap statistics – published quarterly

• Outcomes of Work Capability Assessments – published quarterly

• Quarterly benefits statistical summary including benefit sanctions statistics – published quarterly

• Children in out-of-work benefit households – published annually

If you think there are gaps in our coverage, we also welcome comments about developments to other regular Universal Credit statistics which fall outside these current publications.

How to reply

The questionnaire outlines possible developments to:

• expand the range of regular Universal Credit statistics
• incorporate Universal Credit into existing regular publications

We will continue developing our regular Universal Credit statistical outputs, and over time integrate Universal Credit into our existing regular benefit publications.

Within this overall plan, we are asking users which potential developments they would find most useful, so that work on these can be prioritised.

We have included a large number of proposals, and some may be affected by the availability and completeness of the necessary data.

We will also need to make sure the data passes quality assurance checks before releasing any figures based on it.

When responding please say whether you use, or would expect to use, these statistics yourself, or as part of your role within an organisation.

If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, please tell us what sort of organisation it is. We’ve put a list of interest groups on the questionnaire for you to pick from.

Please rank each of the potential developments (from 1 to 3) based on how desirable or necessary you think they are:

• 1 – essential, and top priority
• 2 – highly desirable
• 3 – might be useful, but a lower priority

If appropriate, tell us why this additional information would be useful for you.

Please provide comments on these proposals by 24 October 2017.

Return your completed questionnaire to stephanie.sarwar@dwp.gsi.gov.uk or:

Stephanie Sarwar
Universal Credit Official Statistics team
Digital
Data & Analytics
Department for Work and Pensions
Benton Park View
Newcastle
NE98 1YX

What happens next?

Following the consultation, we will publish information about the responses on GOV.UK, alongside details about what we’re planning to do.

We will also update our Universal Credit statistics release strategy.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

Information provided in response to this statistical notice, including personal information, may be subject to publication or release to other parties or to disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes. These are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 1998.

If you want information, including personal data that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence.

It would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances.