Policy paper

Government response to SSAC report on the effectiveness of the Claimant Commitment in Universal Credit — September 2021

Published 9 September 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

1. The government thanks the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) for its study into the effectiveness of the Universal Credit (UC) Claimant Commitment and producing the Occasional Paper No.21. We note the recommendations of SSAC which we have carefully considered and set out our intended approach on this below.

2. The Claimant Commitment is a condition of entitlement to UC setting out the requirements that claimants are expected to meet in return for their benefits and to increase the likelihood of the claimant finding or increasing employment. The objectives and principles underpinning the Claimant Commitment, including how it can be tailored to claimants’ circumstances and the support provide by work coaches, have been published on the GOV.UK website. The key principle behind the Claimant Commitment is that these requirements are agreed in discussion with the claimant and are tailored to their personal circumstances, capacity and capability. Empowering work coaches to provide this individual tailoring is therefore the best way of delivering this objective.

3. Assessing the effectiveness of Claimant Commitments and comparing this between individual claimants would be prohibitively complex because of the need to account for numerous variables such as claimants’ individual circumstances, claimant motivation, local labour market conditions and training opportunities, etc. Effectiveness assessment is therefore best achieved through qualitative interpretation and compliance checking. Therefore, we have no plans to implement or publish a strategy for evaluating the performance of the claimant commitment on a department-wide basis against its core principles and objectives.

4. The Department accepts the value of making improvements to the design and development of the Claimant Commitment and the importance of stakeholder involvement in that process, but disagrees with the methodology and approach described in the recommendation. The UC service is designed using agile methodology. This means that the whole service is developed in phases with regular improvements made to the service at regular intervals. All of these developments are made with user centred design meaning that claimant and staff users are integral to the development process, ensuring we prioritise the most important changes. Areas for improvement and development are continuously monitored through issue management, user (staff and claimants) feedback and design reviews. There is, therefore, no timetable for future modifications available.

5. We go to great lengths to ensure that discretion is applied fairly and systematically: staff have extensive learning and guidance products which are regularly reviewed in line with any approach or design changes. We have launched a national Discretion Framework to further support Work Coaches, which alongside more personalised support within teams, is currently being tested and strengthened. The Department has also hosted internal roadshows with staff to improve the quality and appropriateness of Claimant Commitments, ensuring that these take full account of the claimant’s circumstances and are focussed on effective work related activity.

6. Similarly, quality and compliance checks are in place to ensure a quality, expert service from our work coaches is maintained and improvements made where necessary. Work Coach Team Leaders invest significant time developing their staff. This includes applying the Assessing Customer Experience (ACE) Framework to regularly observe interventions and provide feedback, in order to build each work coach’s skill levels and to provide a consistent approach to tailoring work related requirements.

7. It is our policy for Claimant Commitments to be reviewed at each work focused interview with the claimant and varied as needed to ensure they reflect any changes in circumstances and remain focussed maximising the claimant’s chances of employment.

8. We have undertaken user research to improve the quality of commitments for both Work Coach Team Leaders and claimants. We are also developing a series of further internal consultations into the barriers to regularly updating and reviewing the Claimant Commitment, and exploring ways to test the timing of the First Commitment Meeting within the claimant journey and the length of the appointment to further enhance quality and engagement.

9. The Department recognises the importance of data collection and analysis on how discretion and easements are applied, and is already exploring ways to make it easier to identify easements and for Work Coaches to apply them to Claimant Commitments. This would enable us to better understand what impact easements have on the claimant journey and labour market outcomes.