Qualitative Research with Move to Universal Credit Tax Credit Couples: Executive Summary
Published 17 December 2024
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The Migration Notice arrives in a challenging environment. Participant couples’ perceptions of Universal Credit (UC) were shaped by word of mouth, social media and other media sources. Participant couples were unlikely to conduct further research into UC. This highlights the importance of communications and PR in helping to address the negative discourse around UC.
Participant couples reported challenges and benefits to claiming UC. The belief that participant couples would be worse off financially led them to delay their claim; providing regular fit notes was seen as frustrating for those with a long-term condition and attending Jobcentre Plus offices at fixed hours around work was challenging. Participant couples, particularly those with fluctuating incomes, found the uncertainty of only finding out how much UC they would receive a few days in advance stressful.
Participant couples saw UC in comparison to tax credits. There were both negative and positive perceptions of elements of UC. Whilst it was seen as being more work to manage their claim, participant couples perceived that this meant there was no risk of overpayment and that it made the system more resistant to fraud.
Participant couples’ experiences of claiming were determined by their circumstances. Participant couples with a self-employed partner were more likely than those where one / both partners were working for an employer to report that the experience of making and managing their claim was complex and time-consuming. This was because their income fluctuated monthly which made inputting these details challenging. DWP could benefit from considering the process for making and managing a claim from the self-employed perspective, to ensure that the requirements are manageable for claimants.
Non-claimants were more likely to be less financially reliant on tax credits and encounter challenges with claiming. In our sample, they had intended to claim but the barriers they experienced in doing so put them off and they decided not to. Technical difficulties with the application and the time taken to resolve these were considerable. There were also practical barriers relating to digital confidence, health conditions and uploading self-employment income information.
The requirements of the capital disregard contrasted negatively with tax credits. Participant couples who exceeded or were close to the capital limit had this money for a specific purpose or for a particular reason (such as a life insurance payment from a child who had died or saving for medical equipment for a health condition). They felt that the UC capital limits did not consider their specific circumstances and that UC did not encourage saving.