Abigail McKnight and Margaret Kayitale

Published 30 October 2026

This review assesses the existing evidence on long-term benefit receipt, with a particular focus on working-age means-tested benefits. These benefits provide a critical safety net supporting people who are out of work or living in low earnings households. Universal Credit has blurred the boundary between in-work and out-of-work support as it is available to eligible low-income households irrespective of work status. This has expanded the focus from interventions designed to help the unemployed find work, to those which seek to help families achieve financial independence. The review identified a number of key knowledge gaps. Little is known about the prevalence of long-term benefit receipt, on trends over time and on the characteristics of long-term benefit recipients. Drawing on a wider literature on income, poverty and low-pay dynamics, the review highlights how the dynamics of economic disadvantage and structural barriers faced by certain groups are likely to lead to elevated risks of requiring means-tested support over long periods of time. Activation programmes have had limited success in achieving good long-term employment outcomes for participants. In-work progression interventions are still very much under development, and the associated evidence base is weak. However, it has become increasingly clear that the rungs at the bottom of the jobs ladder can?t be reached by some and tend to be very weak, leading to exclusion and churn. Aspects of benefit design, labour supply constraints, low education and skill levels and limited access to good jobs need to be overcome to achieve a big enough step up the ladder to reach better quality, more secure jobs with sufficient earnings not to require means-tested support. For some, such an outcome is not viable and means-tested benefits will need to continue to provide critical support in the short-term and the long-term.