§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security which pilot projects undertaken by his Department since 1997 have involved random assignment elements; and what assessment he has made of their effectiveness in promoting more effective policy making. [130311]
§ Mr. RookerThe Pensioner Income Support Pilots (poorest pensioners) used the random assignment approach.
The pilot ran for a year from May 1998. Four different approaches to encourage entitled non-recipient pensioners to claim Income Support were tested in nine areas. Pensioners identified as possible eligible non-recipients were randomly allocated to one of the four approaches. The pilot was fully evaluated and findings were published in December 1999 in the DSS Research Series (report no. 105).
Findings from the evaluation informed the current Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) take-up campaign.