In-work progression in Universal Credit
This new Work and Pensions Committee report examines the potential for in-work progression in supporting earners claiming UC who work less than 35 hours a week.
“To support low-paid claimants to become ultimately independent of the welfare state, the DWP intends to establish a service to promote in-work progression.
This will offer support to low-paid claimants to increase their earnings to at least the equivalent of 35 hours per week at the National Living Wage (the earnings threshold). A full in-work service would apply to around one million working people.
Such claimants might be encouraged to earn more through increased hours or a pay rise in their current job, taking on additional jobs or finding a completely new job. The DWP is currently trialling an in-work service led by Jobcentre Plus (JCP) and will report findings in 2018.”
The Committee welcomes the In-work progression initiative, saying it has the potential to be “the most significant welfare reform since 1948, but realising this potential means a steep on-the-job learning curve.” So steep in fact that the report’s conclusions state:
“There is no comprehensive evidence on which to determine how to deliver an effective in-work service. The DWP will therefore be learning on the job.”
“If the policy is to be successful, and achieve its great potential, we recommend the DWP direct the best of its welfare reform talent at developing the service.”
“For in-work progression to succeed, Jobcentre Plus (JCP) Work Coaches will need to be a new kind of public servant, possessing new skills and operating on a new agenda.”
These would appear to be significant hurdles for the DWP to jump, especially as the in-work service will require claimants to take mandatory actions with a view to getting extra work or gaining higher wages.
The Work and Pensions Committee acknowledges that this may be difficult for some groups, such as disabled people and considers a strict sanctions regime ill suited to motivating people who are already in work.
“We would expect the use of financial sanctions for in-work claimants to be low in comparison to out-of-work claimants. It is a very different kind of welfare. We welcome both the Department’s commitment to follow the evidence on the efficacy of sanctions for in-work claimants and its intention to publish sanctions data. We recommend the Department publish the number and rate of in-work sanctions, by claimant characteristics and JCP district, on a quarterly basis from autumn 2016. (Paragraph 58)
We recommend the DWP publish more comprehensive guidance for Work Coaches on applying in-work conditionality. This guidance should incorporate how to account for individual circumstances relating to skills, confidence, health, caring responsibilities, access to both care and transport, and the availability of additional local work, in setting in-work conditions. We further recommend the guidance sets out circumstances when it would be appropriate and constructive to take into account input from an employer in establishing the reasonable conditions of a Claimant Commitment. (Paragraph 59)”
It remains to be seen how the DWP will actually implement a policy of sanctions for claimants who are already working.