Dataset: People on Universal Credit
Description
Conditionality means work-related activities a claimant will have to do in order to get full entitlement to Universal Credit. Each person will be assigned one of six conditionality regimes based on their assessed capability and circumstances.
The six conditionality groups under Universal Credit are shown below. Different members of a household can be subject to the same or different requirements. As circumstances change claimants will also transition between conditionality regimes.
A claimant can be working and be placed in the 'Searching for work' conditionality regime if they are earning very low amounts. This includes:
single claimants with earnings below the individual Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET)
claimants with earnings below the AET and in a household with earnings below the couple AET
lead carers, who are either not working or earning below the AET and whose youngest child or children are aged 3 or over
claimants who are gainfully self-employed and in a start-up period (claimants who are gainfully self-employed and the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) does not apply), regardless of earnings
Classification
Conditionality regime for claimants can take the following values:
| Conditionality Regime | Description |
|---|---|
| Searching for work | Not working, or with very low earnings. Claimant is required to take action to secure work - or more / better paid work. The Work Coach supports them to plan their work search and preparation activity. |
| Working - with requirements | In work but could earn more, or not working but has a partner with low earnings |
| No work requirements | Not expected to work at present. Health or caring responsibility prevents claimant from working or preparing for work. |
| Working - no requirements | Individual or household earnings over the level at which conditionality applies. Required to inform DWP of changes of circumstances, particularly if at risk of decreasing earnings or losing job. |
| Planning for work | Expected to work in the future. Lone parent / lead carer of child aged 1(a). Claimant required to attend periodic interviews to plan for their return to work. |
| Preparing for work | Expected to start preparing for future even with limited capability for work at the present time or a child aged 2(b), the claimant is expected to take reasonable steps to prepare for work including Work Focused Interview. |
(a) Aged 1 - 2, prior to April 2017.
(b) Aged 3 - 4, prior to April 2017.
Information on conditionality regime is not available prior to April 2015. From April 2015, there are also a small number of claims each month where conditionality regime is missing or unknown on the source system and therefore cannot be included in one of the other categories.
Total number of categories: 8
Quality Statement
A claimant's employment status and conditionality regime may not always match due to differences in how the data is recorded. Therefore, care should be taken when interpreting any tables created by cross-tabulating these two variables.
Conditionality Regime is based on an individual's circumstances on the count date.
Employment Indicator shows whether earnings were recorded within an individual's completed Universal Credit assessment period closest to the count date.
It is possible for an individual to be 'In Work' using one measure and 'Not in Work' using the other as shown in the example below.
