Non-take-up of benefits at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

The benefits system has played a major role in Britain’s COVID-19 response. Yet the situation of those who did not claim UC has been given little attention – particularly those who were eligible for UC but did not claim it. In this report, we present the findings of exploratory research into this group, funded by the Health Foundation. We estimate there are around half a million people – our best estimate is 430,000–560,000 people – who were eligible for UC during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but did not claim it. This includes a quarter of a million (220,000) people who thought they were eligible for UC (mostly correctly) but didn’t want to claim it. One-third of those who didn’t want to claim said that this was because they did not need benefits. But more commonly, people hadn’t applied for UC because of the perceived hassle of applying (59%), including the challenge of figuring out if they were eligible, the claims process itself, or the threat of sanctions. (Indeed, an outright majority said that conditionality would put them off applying in future). A further sizeable minority (27%) didn’t claim UC because of benefits stigma.We have also estimated survey respondents’ eligibility for UC — something that has never previously been done. Estimating eligibility for UC is complex and there are a number of caveats to the figure. Bearing this in mind, we estimate that 280,000–390,000 people wrongly thought they were ineligible for UC. Some people had actively considered applying for benefits and decided they weren’t eligible, but mostly people just had a ‘sense’ that they were not eligible for anything.In conclusion, we recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes its own ‘benefit take-up strategy’ for the UK. This could include at least four components: publish take-up estimates for UC and new style JSA; ensure that people claim the right benefits as quickly as possible; correct misperceptions about the benefits system; attempt to address benefits stigma.