Page 16 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

1.2 These issues exist against the backdrop of the sweeping reforms made to
working age benefits by the Welfare Reform Act 2012. Amongst other
4
significant changes, the Welfare Reform Act introduced Universal Credit
(‘UC’), a single working age benefit for those out of work or on a low
income, which replaces six ‘legacy benefits’ and tax credits. The aim of UC
5
6
was to simplify the system and improve work incentives. It is also the first
major government service to be ‘digital by default’. This means that the
application is made online and the interaction with the Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP)/Department for Communities (DfC) (in Northern
Ireland) is largely through a digital account, with claimants “nudged back” to
7
the web channel. However, a significant cohort of benefits claimants are
‘digitally excluded’, due to an inability to access the internet or digital
devices, a lack of digital skills or a lack of confidence in using the internet and
8
digital devices. Simultaneously, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service
(HMCTS), is in the middle of a programme of court and tribunal reform
which is expanding the use of digital technology in the justice system,
including the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (FTT
(SSCS)), where benefits appeals are heard.

Education Foundation and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2018), p. 51-52. See also forthcoming
research by the Pro Bono Economics Unit and the AJC on the economic costs of wrongly made first
instance decisions, due to be published September 2021.
4 For example, capping the total amount of benefit that can be claimed by a household – the ‘benefit
cap’; cuts in Housing Benefit entitlement to social housing tenants whose accommodation is deemed
larger than they need – the ‘bedroom tax. The Welfare Reform Act also introduced mandatory
reconsideration which is discussed in Chapter 3 below.
5 Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance; income-related Employment and Support Allowance; Income
Support; Child Tax Credits; Working Tax Credits; and Housing benefit.
6 DWP, 21st Century Welfare (Cm 7913, 2010), p. 7; DWP, ‘2010 to 2015 government policy: welfare
reform’ (2015).
7 G. Hitchcock, ‘Universal credit to be first service ‘digital by default’’ (The Guardian, 3 February
2012).
8 According to the 2018 Universal Credit Full-Service Survey only 54 per cent of all claimants were
able to register their claim online unassisted and 25 per cent were not able to submit their claim online
at all. Government Social Research and the DWP, Universal Credit Full Service Survey (2018), para
1.3.1.

7