{"id":86166,"date":"2017-11-09T10:30:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T10:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=1ddcb2bd6ca65e208c409c83073222fe"},"modified":"2017-11-09T10:30:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T10:30:11","slug":"press-release-in-work-progression-and-universal-credit-ssac-report-published","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=86166","title":{"rendered":"Press release: In-work progression and Universal Credit: SSAC report published"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The Social Security Advisory Committee (<abbr title=\"Social Security Advisory Committee\">SSAC<\/abbr>) report published today (9\u00a0November 2017) presents the findings of its research which involved speaking with work coaches, policy experts, employers and a small number of working recipients of Universal Credit.<\/p>\n<p>The Department for Work and Pensions (<abbr title=\"Department for Work and Pensions\">DWP<\/abbr>) has embarked on an ambitious programme of in-work support through Universal Credit which is without precedent internationally. This extends conditions and support to people in low paid work only applying to unemployed claimants previously, with the goal of increased earnings and reduced benefit payments. The current \u2018test and learn\u2019 approach takes the form of a randomised control trial (<abbr title=\"randomised control trial\">RCT<\/abbr>) testing the impact of different frequencies of work coach intervention.<\/p>\n<p>The committee believes that <abbr title=\"Department for Work and Pensions\">DWP<\/abbr> is right to be cautious given the very large number of households in scope. Of the 590,000 people receiving Universal Credit, 39% (230,000) are working. While it is not known how many people in work will get Universal Credit when it replaces tax credits, in 2015-16, 3\u00a0million families received in-work tax credit payments totalling \u00a320.5 billion. While it is too soon to draw firm conclusions on how the current in-work approach is faring, <abbr title=\"Social Security Advisory Committee\">SSAC<\/abbr> concludes that <abbr title=\"Department for Work and Pensions\">DWP<\/abbr> should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Test a much broader range of interventions, including those identified by work coaches in local jobcentres, taking account of personal and local circumstances.<\/li>\n<li>Establish a clear evaluation framework to enable local testing, while drawing on the central analytical capacity to ensure rigorous evaluation.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid constraining work coaches with tightly-prescribed targets. However, policy and guidance needs to clarify the variety of reasons people have for working part time (for example, having young children, having a disability or long-term condition, early phase self-employment, studying or re-training) if work coaches are to use discretion appropriately.<\/li>\n<li>Develop a richer understanding of working claimants and employers in key sectors. It is particularly important for <abbr title=\"Department for Work and Pensions\">DWP<\/abbr> to understand routes into low paid work and the diverse circumstances of low paid households before any large scale migration of tax credit recipients onto Universal Credit.<\/li>\n<li>Take a data-driven approach to segmenting people\u2019s circumstances, drawing on skills, work experience and attitudinal data.<\/li>\n<li>Fix the delays and complexity reported by Universal Credit claimants which may hinder in-work progression. The rules for couples are particularly complicated.  Universal Credit needs to provide predictable support if it is to really help people increase their earnings. A better \u2018it pays to progress\u2019 calculator is needed for both recipients and work coaches to have greater confidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Paul Gray, Committee Chairman said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">As tax credits migrate into Universal Credit, <abbr title=\"Department for Work and Pensions\">DWP<\/abbr> is making a major shift from its traditional role of helping the unemployed into work towards supporting those already in low paid work to increase their earnings.  This is a major challenge no other country has attempted on this scale.  Our report highlights ways in which this focus on in-work support can best be tailored and improved.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Chris Goulden, Chair of the committee\u2019s Independent Work Programme sub-committee said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The department is currently examining the effectiveness of different techniques of work coach contact, but this trial is quite narrowly focused. Our research highlights the breadth and complexity of in-work progression, as well as the wide range of affected groups \u2013 which includes both employers and working claimants.  The committee would encourage the department to set out its broader aims on in-work progression as well as take up our recommendation to enable a broader and more innovative set of practices to be tested.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Read the <abbr title=\"Social Security Advisory Committee\">SSAC<\/abbr> report \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/ssac-occasional-paper-19-in-work-progression-and-universal-credit\">In-work progression and Universal Credit<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"contact-the-committee\">Contact the committee<\/h2>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_1935\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Social Security Advisory Committee<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">5th Floor Caxton House<br \/>\n<br \/>\nTothill Street<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"locality\">London<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"postal-code\">SW1H 9NA<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:ssac@ssac.gsi.gov.uk\">ssac@ssac.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Denise Whitehead, Committee Secretary<\/span><br \/>\n               020 7829 3354\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) calls for a better understanding of how low-paid workers can progress to better-paid jobs or extra hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}