DWP request for insight: Understanding Universal Credit Claimant Experience of Reporting a Change in Living Situation

Chris Colgan of the DWP Operational Stakeholder Engagement Forum at DWP, invites you to take part in research to help improve the experience for Universal Credit claimants who have a change in living situation where they move from a single to a joint claim, or vice versa.

Understanding Universal Credit Claimant Experience of Reporting a Change in Living Situation

We have been contacted by a team in Universal Credit who is looking to speak to professionals who support Universal Credit claimants. This research will help improve the experience for Universal Credit claimants who have a change in living situation, regarding whether they are living with a romantic partner or not, and move from a single to joint claim or vice versa.

They have provided the information below, please reach out to them by emailing michelle.parfitt@dwp.gov.uk if you’re interested in taking part in the research.

What is the research about?

Understanding the claimant experience in reporting a change in circumstance when they have had a change in living situation regarding whether they are ‘living together as a married couple’ or not, that they need to report to UC.

We know that it can be difficult for claimants to know when to report a change in living situation and that moving from a single to joint claim (and vice versa) can cause difficulties, which sometimes lead to the claimant going into debt. We want to better understand these experiences of reporting a change in living situations and (possibly) moving to a joint/single claim by talking to experts who support these claimants.

Example areas we’d want to explore include: key problems that people come across when declaring a change in circumstance for living situations and e.g. moving from a single to joint claim, how claimants understand when a single or joint claim are needed and in which situations you’ve come across this becomes less clear, any information or terms they find difficult to understand, and the impact of overpayments on claimants.

Why is this research important?

The insights from the research will help us identify how to improve Universal Credit to ensure it’s easier to report changes in living situations and reduce the number of claimants unnecessarily going into debt because UC has overpaid them.

Are you right for this research?

We are specifically looking for professionals who have supported claimants who have needed to report a change in living situation regarding whether they are ‘living together as a married couple’ or not.

Details about the research session

Type of research: 1-2-1 interviews with a researcher. If there are a couple of you from the same organisation and you want to do an interview together, that’s also possible.

Where: Remote via Microsoft Teams

How long: Sessions should take approximately 45 minutes (or 60 minutes if done along with colleagues)

When: Timings and dates are flexible – ideally we would conduct the research interview between 7-24 September

Professionals taking part in a research session will be asked to complete a consent form. Data will be handled in accordance with GDPR and participation is completely voluntary.

Who to contact

If you’re interested in taking part and supporting this work, please contact: michelle.parfitt@dwp.gov.uk

Thanks for your time, it is always appreciated.