Future Strategy for 2023 - 2024 Providing support for people to claim Universal Credit

DWP is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy.

As the UK's biggest public service department, it administers a range of working age, pension age, disability and ill-health benefits to over 20 million claimants and customers.

DWP priorities include: • Running an effective welfare system that enables people to achieve financial independence by providing assistance aimed at supporting them into employment; • Creating a fair and affordable welfare system which improves the life chances of citizens; • Delivering outstanding services to our customers and claimants; and • Delivering efficiently: transforming the way we deliver our services to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

DWP currently provides grant funding to organisations to support people to make and maintain their Universal Credit ('UC') claim up until their first correct UC payment.

For example, support to: • Set up an email address; • Work through claimant to-do's; • Access the UC phone service to make a claim; • Access DWP home visiting support; • Help verify identity; • Help provide additional evidence; • Help access adaptations such as direct payments to landlords and conditionality easements; • Apply for advances and help to access other financial support; • Help prepare for first monthly payment; • Signpost out to other provision and support.

This event is aimed at how best to fulfil these requirements in the future by considering our strategy and the capability of the marketplace.

The requirements have not yet been finalised, and DWP is hosting an Industry pre-market engagement event to give potential delivery partners the opportunity to better understand DWP's objectives and challenges, and for DWP to gain insight from the market about potential ways forward.

We want to engage with all potential delivery partners (commercial and / or not for profit) to establish interest and further understand how the support could be delivered.

Some of the key considerations for delivery may include the following: • The delivery model e.g. single national delivery, lot-based regional delivery, lot-based channel delivery • The channels for support e.g. telephony, digital, face-to-face • A grant vs commercial contract • A two-year delivery agreement At this stage it is not confirmed if DWP require a single or multiple delivery partner(s) to deliver the different channels for support, however we would welcome and encourage feedback from potential delivery partners regarding partnership working / consortiums and building relationships with other organisations to provide wrap around support where necessary.

The event will be hosted virtually by Tech UK on Thursday 19th May at 10am and will last no longer than 90 minutes.

There will be an introduction from the Universal Credit Programme, providing a high-level overview of the requirement.

Following the introduction, there will be an opportunity for suppliers to ask any questions.