Universal credit claimants more likely to get jobs, government research finds

Research finds 71% of UC claimants move into work in first nine months of their claim compared with 63% of jobseeker's allowance claimants

Claimants on the government's new merged benefit system, universal credit (UC), are significantly more likely to move into work than those on the existing unemployment benefit, jobseeker's allowance (JSA), according to government research.

But critics claim this incentive effect will be undermined by cuts introduced in the summer budget, and reaffirmed in the autumn statement, by the chancellor, George Osborne.