BRIEFING - In credit? - Assessing where Universal Credit’s long roll-out has left the benefit system and the country

The proportion of expenditure on Universal Credit and working-age legacy benefits that goes to London and the South East increased from 28 per cent in 2017-18 to 31 per cent in 2022-23, with a corresponding fall across the rest of the country, but especially in regions including the North East, North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber, which also have some of the highest concentrations of ill-heal. [...] Resolution Foundation In credit? | Assessing where Universal Credit’s long roll-out has left the benefit system 9 and the country The next government will need to use Universal Credit to deal with the challenges of the late 2020s, not the late 2000s Whoever wins the upcoming election will oversee the final rollout of what has been Britain’s biggest benefit reform in generations. [...] Universal Credit changes who are the poorest in the UK If we undertake a theoretical simulation that compares the income distribution under a fully-rolled-out Universal Credit to one under the current system of legacy benefits, then there is a marked shift in the income distribution that is significant enough to change the make-up of who are the poorest in the UK. [...] Resolution Foundation In credit? | Assessing where Universal Credit’s long roll-out has left the benefit system 34 and the country the inconclusive evidence of the efficacy of conditionality and the threat of sanctions in helping claimants into work and ultimately out of benefit receipt, and the fre. [...] The decision to pay Universal Credit monthly in arrears – which is what leads to the ‘five week wait’ – was taken in part to prevent the overpayments that frequently occurred in the Tax Credit system, in which payments were based either on the previous year’s earnings or an estimate of the current year’s, and then re-calculated after the end of the tax year.