Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Written Statement HCWS582 made on 27 February 2023, if he will provide further details of the evidence to support the claim that a claimant’s likelihood of securing employment declines after 13 weeks.

The average monthly Into Work rates for those in the UC Intensive Work Search conditionality group with a duration of three months or less was 18.4% compared to 10.3% for those with a duration of four to six months.

Notes:

• Source: UC Management Information and HMRC Real Time Information, February 2022 to January 2023.
• The Into Work rate is the proportion of UC claimants who enter work each month out of those who in the previous month were not working and in the Intensive Work Search conditionality group.
• Claimants are measured as moving into work if they leave UC and have earnings in Real Time Information data, or if they remain in UC and have earnings in Real Time Information data or self-declare employed earnings or self-employed work to DWP.
• Only movements into work for claimants who spend a full month in the Intensive Work Search conditionality group without earnings are included in this measure
• Duration in Intensive Work Search is measured by the number of consecutive months claimants were in this conditionality group at the end of a UC assessment period.