Non-take-up of benefits at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

The benefits system has played a major role in Britain’s COVID-19 response. Yet the situation of those who did not claim UC has been given little attention – particularly those who were eligible for UC but did not claim it. In this report, we present the findings of exploratory research into this group, funded by the Health Foundation. We estimate there are around half a million people – our best estimate is 430,000–560,000 people – who were eligible for UC during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but did not claim it. This includes a quarter of a million (220,000) people who thought they were eligible for UC (mostly correctly) but didn’t want to claim it. One-third of those who didn’t want to claim said that…