Updated 30 November 2012
Rates of people moving from key out of work benefits technical description
| Short title | Rates of people moving from out of work benefits |
|---|---|
| Technical definition | The indicator reports the cohorts of people moving on to Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) each month to measure how long it takes people to flow off benefit. The percentage of each cohort that have flowed off after 52 weeks (for those in receipt for JSA) and 65 weeks (for those in receipt of ESA) is then calculated. For example 88.2% of those starting to receive JSA in August 2011 had stopped receiving the benefit 52 weeks later. This will be produced for the out of work benefits JSA and ESA and will be expressed publicly as "x% of customers left benefit within y weeks." Time lag for 52 weeks JSA will be up to 14 months and 17 months lag for 65 weeks ESA due to the elapsed time inherent in the indicator and the time needed to process the data. |
| Rationale | Jobcentre Plus adds value by reducing the time it takes for a customer to move off benefit. The measure directly impacts on the claimant count and will provide useful information to inform whether the department's spending review settlement is being implemented. Strategic Reform Priority (SRP) 2 – Get Britain working. |
| Formula | Indicator results calculated as follows: "x% of customers left benefit by y weeks. Therefore "90% of customers left benefit by 52 weeks." Where: 90 ÷ 100 = 90% |
| Start date | ESA data available from January 2011, JSA data from April 2010 |
| Good performance | Generally an increase in the indicator would demonstrate whether an improvement has been achieved. However, the indicator level will be affected by benefit conditionality and operational changes, seasonal variation and to the economic cycle. For example, in a recession, even if Jobcentre Plus is performing well, the off-flow rate is likely to fall. Also, as Incapacity Benefit claims are re-assessed for Employment and Support Allowance the off-flow rate is likely to fall. Data are not seasonally adjusted. |
| Behavioural impact | No significant perverse incentives created |
| Comparability | It is unlikely the indicator can be used as a recognised standard due to difficulties comparing benefit systems between countries, and we are unaware of other countries having a similar measure |
| Collection frequency | Monthly |
| Time lag | The indicator's base data is available approximately 2 months after the event due to allowing a settling period for late reported off flows. The publication is by definition delayed by the duration applied, for example the 52 week off flow rate for the January 2010 on-flow cohort was not available for publication until March 2011. |
| Data source (which data collection it comes from) | Data collected from the ESA and JSA payment system by DWP |
| Type of data (Whether it is an official statistic, national statistic, survey, MI ) | Management Information for performance measurement. |
| Robustness and data limitations | DWP internal benefit data is known to be very accurate. There are some well documented minor issues regarding clerical claims, but these are small. The Management Information solution went through industry standard, independent testing and user acceptance testing prior to implementation. |
| Collecting organisation | DWP |
| Return format | Unit and format of measurement is: Percentage |
| Geographical coverage | GB coverage |
| How indicator can be broken down | Age bands |
| Further guidance | This indicator excludes Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Income Support (lone parents) and Income Support (others) which are normally defined as "out of work benefits." Users should be aware that some claimants move from ESA to JSA. These will be shown as an ESA off flow. The reverse is also true. |
