An upcoming change confirmed to a benefit payment by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will see thousands of claimants put under increased pressure to find a job.
Around 114,000 people currently claiming Universal Credit and either not working or earning below a certain amount each month will face need to do more to find a job or increase their earnings.
Universal Credit is a working age benefit for people on a low income or out of work.
It includes support for the cost of housing, children and childcare, and financial support for people with disabilities, carers and people too ill to work. and can see claimants under 25 pick up £265.31 each month.
The DWP has confirmed that from September, the Administration Earnings Threshold (AET) will be raised from £355 to £494 a month for a single claimant, or from £567 to £782 a month for a couple.
Since its introduction in 2013, the AET has not kept pace with the increases in the National Living Wage, with the result that the number of hours needed to work to earn the AET has fallen over time. The upcoming adjustment will bring the AET back to its original ‘parity’ with the National Living Wage.
Those with no earnings or that are below the AET will be put into an Intensive Work Search regime which will see them required to attend mandatory, face-to-face work search reviews at the local job centre.
Those earning the AET or above are placed in the Light Touch regime and have no work-related requirement placed on them. The DWP have also confirmed that from September there will be changes in the Light Touch regime.
Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the government’s new afulfil pproach will “help claimants get quickly back into the world of work while helping ensure employers get the people they and the economy needs.”
