Local Authority Led Pilots: A summary of early learning from the pilots
This report is the first published output from the evaluation of Local Authority Led Pilots in 13 areas in Great Britain set up to inform Universal Credit (UC) design and roll-out and to support Local Authorities (LAs) in their planning for UC delivery. This report was written in May 2013, approximately 9 months after the project areas were announced but only 4-5 months after the projects went live.
The report highlights problems faced by local authorities relevant to the introduction of UC and suggests possible actions to solve them. Problems include:
- Poor IT literacy amongst social housing tenants (52% in Lewisham)
- Reluctance to use online services
- High levels of debt amongst social housing tenants who are unable to budget but reluctant to attend group financial management sessions
- Low take up of council work support services (which are incompatible with Government work programmes.
You can download the report at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-led-pilots-a-summary-of-early-learning-from-the-pilots