Welfare Making the most of UC: Final report of the Resolution Foundation review of Universal Credit 8 June 2015 David Finch The improvements necessary to enable UC to, at a minimum, make work pay and smooth the transition into work must be made before millions of families are moved onto the new system. The start of the new parliament provides a natural opportunity to review the potential impact of UC and set out plans for its near- and medium-term development. Our proposals span two phases: The first phase – covering the period when UC is fully rolled out, largely over this parliament – seeks to focus incentives to work on the groups most likely to respond, in order to maximise its potential impact. Our recommendations in this phase are cost-neutral, recognising a backdrop of ongoing fiscal constraint. The second phase – in the next parliament, following UC’s full roll-out – incorporates ambitious proposals designed to ensure UC is fit for purpose over the next decade and maximises its impact on employment. Our recommendations here are no longer bound by our short-term cost-neutral constraint but continue to fit within official projections of the expected long-term level of spending on working-age benefits.
