Listen and Learn: Improving the way that Universal Credit Works

April 2026 will mark a true milestone for the UK benefits system: the end of the thirteen-year rollout of Universal Credit (UC) that has brought together all means-tested working-age benefits. From this point, an estimated 8.5 million working-age adults and 6.5 million children will be living in households in receipt of UC, equivalent to a quarter of all people below pension age (26 per cent), and two-in-five children (42 per cent) in Britain today.

Given this, it is more important than ever to ‘get UC right’. This report considers an often-overlooked aspect of the benefit: how the nuts and bolts of the UC system could be improved. Here, we set out a programme of reform that is grounded in claimants’ own experiences; realistic about the system as is; and fully costed when it comes to both the investment and ongoing spend our recommendations would entail.

Download or read more here: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/listen-and-learn/