Universal Credit Facing Challenge of Long-Term Sickness, Think Tank Says

Universal Credit will need to change because its design did not anticipate the “steep rise” in the number of people with ill health or disabilities, a think tank has said. The Resolution Foundation said in a report on Monday that since the benefits system was reformed, unemployment had fallen from 8.5 percent in 2011 to 3.8 percent in 2023. But 2.3 million claimants are now out of work because of ill health, almost double the figure when Universal Credit was introduced in 2013. “Policy makers must figure out how to adapt Universal Credit to address the labour market challenges of the 2020s, recognising that the system is operating in a different country from the one that was foreseen when Universal Credit was announced: one that is older and sicker, and where the stereotype of younger people making choices not to work is no longer pertinent,” the foundation’s “In Credit?” report said....