Automating Social Security in the UK: A Study on Incorporating Claimant Voices in the Design of Universal Credit
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Science Technology & Innovation Studies
Abstract
Governments around the world are adopting algorithmic systems to deliver fundamental social services, from policing to fraud detection to child welfare. While a growing set of research investigates the designs of these systems - their underlying policy goals and effectiveness - there is a gap in the literature on how automation impacts users and how user perspectives could democratically inform these system's technical, legal and administrative design.
This project sets out to achieve a wider understanding of the emergence of automated social services and their effects on claimants through a study of the UK's Universal Credit scheme. The proposed project will examine the automation of social security benefits in the U.K. through two sets of research questions.
(1) What political values and policies drive the technical systems that comprise Universal Credit? By interviewing DWP staff and through document analysis, the project will illuminate Universal Credit's wider political context and be among the first academic studies to map the system's technical dimensions.
(2) How do claimants interact with automated components of Universal Credit and does automation in social security harm certain populations? Through interviews with NGOs that work with claimants and workshops with claimants themselves, I will examine whether and how automated features of Universal Credit may embed certain biases or harms that impact people differentially. The user workshops will explore accountability processes that encourage claimants to offer feedback on the design of the system itself; these events will provide templates for evidence-based consultations with users to shape algorithmic social services.
The research will involve mixed methods, including document analysis, fieldwork, interviews, and user design workshops:
(a) Document analysis will reveal Universal Credit's wider political context and history of development. The project will draw on public documents such as legislation and decrees, departmental reports, websites, guidelines, parliamentary committee reports, and audits, as well as public records requests to gain access to technical specifications of the system, such as vendor contracts and designs of specific automated functions. (b) Interviews will further illuminate the design of UC and its differential impacts on claimants, including approximately 15 interviews with DWP staff, reaching out to project partners on the DWP's UC User Research team, as well as the Universal Credit digital services team and the DWP's Benefits and Pensions Digital Technology Services; and 25 interviews with staff at Scottish NGOs that work with or on behalf of claimants. c) Through placement in a Citizen Advice Bureau local to the Edinburgh region, I will conduct fieldwork one day a week for 12 months to observe how often problems with Universal Credit relate to automated features of the system. d) Finally, I will hold six design workshops, focusing on a sample of digitally excluded claimants in the Scottish context, a group that the DWP's UC User Research team has found particularly difficult to reach for user testing, as well as a comparison group of claimants who are confident in their digital skills.
Automation in UC is a complex topic that spans several knowledge domains and therefore demands an integrated approach, combining multiple perspectives on the politics, designs, and oversight of automated social security. The study particularly addresses a lack of literature on the experiences of claimants as they interact with automated systems. Through public reports, public events and media dissemination, the project will spark discussion on the problems claimants face while using these systems and explore how claimant voices can feed into their future modifications.
This project sets out to achieve a wider understanding of the emergence of automated social services and their effects on claimants through a study of the UK's Universal Credit scheme. The proposed project will examine the automation of social security benefits in the U.K. through two sets of research questions.
(1) What political values and policies drive the technical systems that comprise Universal Credit? By interviewing DWP staff and through document analysis, the project will illuminate Universal Credit's wider political context and be among the first academic studies to map the system's technical dimensions.
(2) How do claimants interact with automated components of Universal Credit and does automation in social security harm certain populations? Through interviews with NGOs that work with claimants and workshops with claimants themselves, I will examine whether and how automated features of Universal Credit may embed certain biases or harms that impact people differentially. The user workshops will explore accountability processes that encourage claimants to offer feedback on the design of the system itself; these events will provide templates for evidence-based consultations with users to shape algorithmic social services.
The research will involve mixed methods, including document analysis, fieldwork, interviews, and user design workshops:
(a) Document analysis will reveal Universal Credit's wider political context and history of development. The project will draw on public documents such as legislation and decrees, departmental reports, websites, guidelines, parliamentary committee reports, and audits, as well as public records requests to gain access to technical specifications of the system, such as vendor contracts and designs of specific automated functions. (b) Interviews will further illuminate the design of UC and its differential impacts on claimants, including approximately 15 interviews with DWP staff, reaching out to project partners on the DWP's UC User Research team, as well as the Universal Credit digital services team and the DWP's Benefits and Pensions Digital Technology Services; and 25 interviews with staff at Scottish NGOs that work with or on behalf of claimants. c) Through placement in a Citizen Advice Bureau local to the Edinburgh region, I will conduct fieldwork one day a week for 12 months to observe how often problems with Universal Credit relate to automated features of the system. d) Finally, I will hold six design workshops, focusing on a sample of digitally excluded claimants in the Scottish context, a group that the DWP's UC User Research team has found particularly difficult to reach for user testing, as well as a comparison group of claimants who are confident in their digital skills.
Automation in UC is a complex topic that spans several knowledge domains and therefore demands an integrated approach, combining multiple perspectives on the politics, designs, and oversight of automated social security. The study particularly addresses a lack of literature on the experiences of claimants as they interact with automated systems. Through public reports, public events and media dissemination, the project will spark discussion on the problems claimants face while using these systems and explore how claimant voices can feed into their future modifications.
Publications
Bennet H
(2023)
Automating Universal Credit Roundtable Report
Bennett H
(2024)
Universal Credit: administrative burdens of automated welfare
in Journal of Social Policy
Bennett H
(2022)
Scottish Choices: Research Report
Currie M
(2025)
Design Problems of Universal Credit & Working Single Mothers
Currie M
(2023)
Studying Lived Experience and Automated Systems: The Case of Universal Credit
in Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Currie M
(2022)
Childcare and Universal Credit
Currie M
(2022)
Design Prompts for User Feedback on Universal Credit
| Description | Our research studies the automated and digital aspects of Universal Credit (UC), a social security benefit in the UK. Recipients mainly interact with UC staff through an online account, and their monthly entitlement is calculated by an automated, means-testing system that factors their personal circumstances and monthly income if they work. In addition to interviews with staff at charities (18) and one-off interviews with claimants (27), we used qualitative longitudinal research (QLLR) to understand the experiences of 25 Universal Credit recipients interacting with the automated and digital aspects of this benefit for six months to a year. The novel methodology - entry and exit interviews (47 total) combined with prompted bi-weekly text message updates from participants on their interactions with UC, including screen shots - offered an iterative, flexible approach well-suited to the dynamism of an automated decision-making system. This method allowed us to understand how UC claimants experience UC in near real-time, including the systems' unexpected behaviours and errors. Our study has achieved two main high level findings. First, we found that Universal Credit creates temporal mandates by applying a fixed, monthly assessment period of earnings for working claimants. These assessments determine the amount of entitlement the recipient gets, resulting in a dynamic pay that can change the Universal Credit award every month. This monthly period creates problems for certain claimants - we developed the concept of temporal punitiveness to describe this phenomenon. For example, claimants who are paid their wages on a weekly/bi-weekly see a misalignment between their wage-payment cycles and UC assessment cycles; due to the rules of calculation within the system, this misalignment may lead to the loss of entitlement. Likewise, parents have a very narrow timeframe to submit their childcare costs for claiming them back due to the strict rules of Universal Credit, real-world obligations to pay childcare providers at certain times and the parents' need to be out of pocket as briefly as possible; if parents do not submit within certain parameters, they may not be reimbursed. Second, we present a more nuanced discussion of administrative burdens in welfare than social policy scholars have attempted to date and demonstrate how they may originate at the layer of technology that citizens interact with to receive a service. We specifically identify how the mechanism for reporting earnings data to UC creates administrative burdens for working UC claimants: we found that several claimants' earnings data reported to UC for the automatic calculation was wrong and thus, claimants needed to start a dispute process with the DWP. A FOI request we submitted to the DWP revealed that this happens to 5-6% of claimants each year (this finding received coverage from The Guardian). UC's automated tools function at times as gatekeepers to social security entitlements, raising concerns about the suitability of UC as a form of social security. |
| Exploitation Route | 1. The research method we used can assist in further understanding of the impact of dynamic automated decision-making systems on the lives of users and data subjects. 2. The concept of temporal punitiveness can help with understanding and conceptualising the consequences of mandatory temporal frameworks; it can also be applied outside of the study of automated social services. 3. The findings of a large number of earnings disputes provides evidence contrary to DWP's own claims that the UC monthly calculations are highly accurate - this finding should be of use to policy makers evaluating the system. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Government Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://automatinguc.co.uk |
| Description | Three of our reports have been developed and sent to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) upon their request. They have been uploaded to the DWP's directory of relevant external research, which is available for everyone on the Universal Credit programme and is used for desk research. The report "Childcare & Universal Credit" contributed to an ongoing internal DWP project about understanding the barriers to work that UC claimants face. The report "Design Prompts for User Feedback on Universal Credit" was reviewed during the iteration of a user research invitation banner that is used within the UC Service. Findings from the report "Confused about Universal Credit?" were documented as further evidence to known problem statements with how caseloads and claims are managed in relation to Universal Credit. We presented major project findings to the DWP's Universal Credit Analysis Division L & D Seminar on 16 January 2024. Afterwards MP Sir Stephen Timms spoke to us in February 2024 about our Freedom of Information request into the frequency of Real-Time Information earnings disputes over 2022 (these are complaints about errors in earnings related to welfare top-ups). He is building on our findings by submitting his own request to the Department for Works and Pension for RTI dispute data for 2023 in an ongoing investigation into the accuracy of UC payments. Our project has twice been referenced in The Guardian to call attention to public concerns around DWP's use of automation. One article (22 May 2023) features our FOI findings on the RTI errors and disputes. Another (4 March 2024) references our project in an article on DWP's continued use of automated surveillance of millions of bank accounts to catch welfare fraud. Findings from our project have also been referenced in two articles for The Big Issue. One (11 December 2023) brings public awareness to payment errors UC claimants sometimes experience and lack of in-person support to redress these errors. The second (10 July 2024) publishes on our findings from a FOI request that the largest group of working claimants are single mothers, who will therefore be disproportionately impacted by issues with the automated payment calculation. After The Guardian coverage we were contacted by a representative of the Scottish Government Steering Group on Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) to discuss a research project on automated data sharing for increased benefit enrolment. In 2024 we carried out a research project for the Scottish Government on this topic, resulting in a report given to the MIG Steering Group about how people on social security benefits feel about having their personal data shared across government agencies. Results of this project, including the report, can be found at https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/research/research-project/data-benefits. In 2024 we collaborated with the charity One Parent Family Scotland on a report about the impacts of Universal Credit's design on single mothers, based on our original research. This report is now available on OPFS's website. Currently the charity is strategising a campaign around the findings in the report. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Report based on our response to the Work and Pensions Committee on Benefits levels in the UK |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://automatinguc.co.uk/sites/automatinguc/files/assets/Answers%20to%20Benefit%20levels%20inquiry... |
| Description | Scottish Government's Social Justice and Social Security Committee Inquiry on Addressing child poverty through parental employment |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://yourviews.parliament.scot/sjssc/child-poverty-parental-employment/consultation/view_responde... |
| Description | UK Child Poverty Task Force |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy |
| Description | Design Problems of Universal Credit & Working Single Mothers |
| Organisation | One Parent Families Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | With One Parent Family Scotland, we co-authored the report 'Design Problems of Universal Credit & Working Single Mothers'. The report is based on our research and describes three aspects of the technical design of Universal Credit's automated payment that negatively affects workers. Because single mothers make up the largest percentage of workers on Universal Credit, we argue that these design features will negatively impact this demographic disproportionately at the group level. To illustrate these impacts, OPFS supplied three real-life case studies for each of the three problem areas highlighted. These cases typify the experiences of many of the single mothers who come to OPFS for advice on problems with UC. We propose adjustments to the UC system that would address these problematic design features that working claimants face. |
| Collaborator Contribution | One Parent Family Scotland co-authored the report, providing case studies to bolster the claims, and published the report on their website. |
| Impact | The main output at this stage is the report. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Research partnership with DWP's User Research team |
| Organisation | Department for Work and Pensions |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | During our study the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)'s User Research team made requests for us to report on specific research findings. We delivered reports on what our participants said about childcare issues, their responses to website designs, and their confusion over roles among DWP staff. Our DWP contacts uploaded the documents to the DWP's directory of relevant external research, which is available for everyone on the Universal Credit programme and is used for desk research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The DWP User Research team wrote a letter of support for this research at the application stage of the project. Upon receiving the award, our DWP contacts also fed into the research design. In this regard they played a key role, as they suggested we conduct a longitudinal study following UC claimants over several months, rather than one-off workshops, as proposed at the application stage. This approach was more suited to studying a complex, dynamic system that spans digital and in-person spaces (in the case of people visiting job centres) and that often exhibits unexpected behaviours. Initially the plan was for us to carry out interviews with the User Research team, but we never received permission for interviews with DWP staff. The User Research team would speak to us periodically to describe internal reviews and solicit our feedback on specific topics. The User Research team also took part in a roundtable we organised at the University of Edinburgh on November 3rd, 2023. A representative of the User Research team presented on the different research teams and portfolios in the user research division of DWP; she also provided insights into how they operationalise user research within the DWP and their interaction with colleagues and internal decision making in order to change and improve different aspects of the UC interface and operational processes. |
| Impact | Reports submitted to DWP include "Childcare & Universal Credit," which contributed to an ongoing internal DWP project about understanding the barriers to work that UC claimants face; "Design Prompts for User Feedback on Universal Credit" that was reviewed during the iteration of a user research invitation banner that is used within the UC Service; and "Confused about Universal Credit?", which documented evidence to known problem statements with how caseloads and claims are managed in relation to Universal Credit. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | 'Critical Codes Roundtable' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Morgan Currie and Dr Lena Podoletz attended the 'Critical Codes Roundtable' event on the 18th November 2022. The event was organised by the University of Edinburgh and focussed on Ethical Codes of Conduct and their role in the governance of emerging technologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/just-ai/ |
| Description | 'Just AI' workshop titled 'Beyond Critique to Repair' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lena Podoletz attended the 'Just AI' workshop titled 'Beyond Critique to Repair' on the 14-15th July 2022. The workshop was organised by the London School of Economics and Political Science and focussed on strengthening research connections around the topic 'Deep Sustainability and AI ethics' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/just-ai/ |
| Description | 'Just Digitalisation' book workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Morgan Currie attended the 'Just Digitalisation' book workshop as an invited contributor on the 29th June 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | To achieve positive change, we need to consider what processes are effective in developing new ways of working with information, appreciate the challenges of translating excellent research into excellent practice and policy, and understand how to evaluate the difference we have made to the lives of others. As the premier international conference in the field, the ASIS&T Annual Meeting is a forum to assist in addressing these issues as we continue to push forward the positive contributions of information and technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.asist.org/meetings-events/am/am23/ |
| Description | ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency 2023 (FAccT'23). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We presented at the sixth annual ACM FAccT conference held in Chicago from Monday 12th through Thursday 15th of June 2023. The conference brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, and transparency in socio-technical systems. It builds on the success of the 2022 conference held in Seoul, South Korea. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://facctconference.org/2023/index.html |
| Description | Algorithms for Her 2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Morgan Currie presented at Algorithms for Her, a conference prioritising the study of intersectional forms of injustice that algorithms (and the systems in which they are embedded) often propagate and sustain. Given the significance of such processes in our daily lives, and how they disproportionately affect those marginalised across intersections of gender, sexuality, class and race, this event will create a dedicated space for the discussion of algorithmic oppression and inequality. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://algorithmsforher.wordpress.com |
| Description | Automating Universal Credit Roundtable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | On Friday 3rd November 2023, the University of Edinburgh hosted a roundtable in Edinburgh for researchers examining Universal Credit (UC). The aim of the event was to share research insights from numerous researchers across the UK working in civil society, various academic disciplines, and the DWP. The event was organised and hosted by Dr Morgan Currie (Science and Technology Studies, University of Edinburgh), and Dr Hayley Bennett, (Social Policy, University of Edinburgh). The round table had three aims: ? To create a dedicated space and time for researchers from different sectors to share findings and research interests relating to UC ? To improve awareness and discussion across researchers working in different organisations, using different approaches to research, and with different organisational or academic objectives ? To gain a shared understanding of potential future research interests and possibilities The hybrid roundtable combined presentations with discussions and questions for presenters and attendees. It was funded by the ESRC, via the Automating Universal Credit project. Automating Universal Credit at the University of Edinburgh is an ongoing research project begun in January 2022 and supported by the ESRC. The project explores the lived experiences of working claimants on Universal Credit who regularly interact with its dynamic payment calculation and advocates for designs that are beneficial and socially just. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://automatinguc.co.uk/sites/automatinguc/files/assets/Automating%20Universal%20Credit%20summary... |
| Description | DWP Universal Credit Analysis Division L & D Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Morgan Currie was invited to present the study to the Universal Credit Analysis Division Learning & Development Seminar. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Data Justice Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This two-day conference explored impacts, lived experiences and forms of resistance in relation to datafication. Moving beyond individual impacts and responses, it investigated the collective dimension of datafication and community approaches to organising life in datafied societies. Hosted by the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), it brought together international scholars, practitioners, activists, and community groups to discuss the meaning and practice of social justice and collective experiences in a datafied society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://datajusticelab.org/data-justice-2023/ |
| Description | ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) Pre-Conference 'Datafied Welfare States' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Morgan Currie and Dr Lena Podoletz gave an online talk titled 'Automating Universal Credit: A case of temporal punitiveness' at the ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) Pre-Conference 'Datafied Welfare States' on the 18th of October 2022. The presentation focussed on how timeframes and deadlines may create a punitive effect for some claimants of Universal Credit. the impact of this activity was knowledge exchange with academics from European and UK universities, such as University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Tampere University (Finland), Stockholm University (Sweden), Marie Curie Sklodowska University (Poland) and King's College London (UK). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ecrea.eu/event-4684390 |
| Description | Interview with The Big Issue |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Quoted in reporter Isabella McRae's article, DWP using AI to assess benefit and universal credit claims poses 'significant risk', experts warn. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-benefits-universal-credit-assessments-ai/ |
| Description | Interview with The Guardian |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interviewed by Guardian reporter Robert Booth in the article Automated UK welfare system needs more human contact, ministers warned, about our FOI request, which found a high number of Real Time Information disputes by UC claimants made each week to the DWP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/22/automated-uk-welfare-system-needs-more-human-contact... |
| Description | Interview with the Huck Magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Dr Morgan Currie was interviewed by the Huck Magazine in relation to disability benefits and fraud investigations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/disabled-benefits-claimant-are-being-unfairly-investigated/ |
| Description | Project website and blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Automating Universal Credit website shares information on the project outputs, press coverage, and people involved. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://automatinguc.co.uk |
| Description | Quoted in The Big Issue |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview by Adele Walton for the article "DWP's 'automation' of universal credit discriminates against single mums, researchers say." The Big Issue. 10 July 2024. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-universal-credit-claims-automation-single-mothers/ |