Implementing Universal Credit: will the reforms improve the service for users?

Will Universal Credit (UC) improve the service user’s experience of the social security system by addressing complexity and will benefit reform be supported by quality employment support?
The coalition government has committed itself to a sweeping programme of welfare reform. Central to this is UC, which will replace the current system of means-tested benefits and tax credits with a single benefit and entirely new delivery systems. Building on the findings of Inclusion’s earlier report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which identified ways in which problems in the design and administration of the benefits and tax credits system affected
service users, this research combined a rapid review of recent reports and research findings relevant to UC implementation and interviews with key stakeholders.
The report explores:
 The extent to which UC will address complexity and create a simpler social security system for service users and how the localisation of benefits may affect this.
 The impact of UC on work incentives and the quality of employment programme support.
 The conditionality regime, balance of personal responsibility and the ‘user voice’ in the new system.