Over the past year, we’ve been working with the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and several other housing associations on a piece of research looking at the implementation of Universal Credit (UC).

The research explores the move onto UC from the customer’s perspective, and we’re using the results to review and develop our current services, processes and communications to ensure the support that we’re providing our customers through the claim process is effective.

Some of the key findings from the report include:

• 49% of customers had no or limited understanding of living on Universal Credit
• 76% of customers are unprepared or completely unprepared financially while waiting for their first Universal Credit payment
• 39% of customers are only slightly confident or not at all confident in managing a monthly budget

Read the full 'sharing the credit' report (PDF 971kb).

We’ve been busy analysing the results and staff from across the organisation are reviewing and developing our service in light of the findings in the report.

Alex Nagle, Head of Operations, said: “We have a dedicated support team that can provide help to our customers throughout the UC claim process, advising on every step in the journey and providing tailored support where needed.

“This piece of research has been really useful in allowing us to explore ways to improve this service using the findings from the report, so we can more effectively support our customers with their claim for Universal Credit.”