Digital Universal Credit system denying claimants support, research shows

Digital elements of the Universal Credit (UC) benefit system routinely lead to wrong amounts being awarded to claimants and breaches of rule-of-law principles, according to research by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

The three-year study found that while the digital nature of the benefit has some advantages for UC claimants, the way the digital systems have been designed also leads to people being left without money they are entitled to and information they need in order to challenge DWP decisions.

In the worst cases, claimants are forced into acute hardship because the programming and operation of this digital-by-design benefit does not align with social security legislation. The charity’s report catalogues numerous injustices and breaches of rule-of-law principles in the operation of digital UC systems and reveals the extent to which its workings are opaque for claimants and researchers.

Problems uncovered by CPAG’s research include people missing out on additional support they are entitled to because the online claims process does not identify their need, families going without their entitlements for all children because verification paperwork is pending for one child, and care leavers unable to submit a digital claim in advance of their 18th birthday even though DWP guidance enables this.

The research found that in the year ending February 2023, approximately one third of the 2.9m registrations for UC did not result in a claim being submitted at all, but there appears to be no DWP information in the public domain on why the drop-out rate is so high. CPAG’s research suggests that aspects of the digital claim form that make it difficult for some claimants to complete the form and establish their entitlement may explain at least some of these abandoned claims.

One problem identified by CPAG is that all the children in a family are deprived of support if one child can’t be verified. The UC digital system is unable to accept the verification of individual children independently of other children in a household. This has resulted in families missing out on their legal entitlement to the child element of UC for all of their children if there is a problem with providing evidence to verify just one child in a family – in effect the computer system clashes with social security regulations which entitle the children to support.

Child Poverty Action Group’s head of policy and research, Sophie Howes, said: ‘At its best, digitised Universal Credit makes it easier to claim. But at worst, it rides roughshod over rule-of-law principles and leaves claimants without enough money to live on.

‘Try telling a mother of three that the computer says No to support for all of her children just because there’s a bureaucratic delay in the paperwork for one child. The DWP must take the wraps off UC so that its workings are transparent. There are low-cost changes the department can make to ensure digitalisation improves UC so that it’s fair, in line with regulations and capable of getting correct payments to all claimants.

‘Almost half of children will be in households claiming UC when it’s fully rolled out, so getting it right is imperative.

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