The impact of coronavirus

It is not clear how the Claimant Commitments system will operate for either employees or the self-employed in the new circumstances of the coronavirus outbreak. Face-to-face appointments were suspended for at least three months on 19 March 2020 and the chance of finding a new job is much less due to the coronavirus outbreak. The average number of vacancies fell from 726,000 in the three months to February 2020 to 566,000 in the three months to April 2020, even though only around half of this period was covered by the lock-down. At the same time, the Claimant Count data from the Office for National Statistics, which cover claims for Jobseeker’s Allowance and those claimants on Universal Credit “searching for work”, show that there was a 69.1% increase in the number of claims between March and April, taking the level to over two million.

The government has already said that, during the coronavirus outbreak, claimants will not get a sanction if they cannot keep to their Claimant Commitment.