Jobcentre Plus boosted exits by asking jobseekers to plan ahead

Jobcentre Plus's standard fortnightly jobseeker sign-on asked claimants a backward-looking question: had they completed at least three job-search activities in the past two weeks? The question was easy to answer vaguely, easy to forget the details of, and gave the advisor conducting the check-in nothing to do except verify a box had technically been ticked — no mechanism existed to actually shape what the jobseeker would do differently before the next appointment.

The Behavioural Insights Team piloted an alternative at Loughton Jobcentre in Essex: rather than continue reviewing the past fortnight, advisors would have claimants set out specific job-search activities for the coming fortnight, verbalize the plan out loud, and tie it concretely to their actual daily routine, with claimants still struggling after eight weeks additionally supported through expressive-writing and strengths-identification exercises aimed at building psychological resilience.

Replaced the backward-looking compliance question with a forward-looking written commitment device: claimants stated exactly what they would do over the next two weeks.

Specific plans tied to routine are more actionable than vague intentions.

Verbalizing plans aloud increases commitment and follow-through.

Advisors gain a concrete lever to adjust plans and address struggles.

Each appointment builds a personalized routine, compounding effects.

Replace backward-looking audits with forward-looking commitments to change behavior.

In the initial trial, jobseekers who received the new commitment-device approach were 15-20% more likely to be off benefits within 13 weeks of signing on; a subsequent stepped-wedge controlled trial scaled the intervention to 88,033 participants across 12 Jobcentres (following a 2,383-person pilot at a single site) and confirmed a significant increase in the rate at which claimants exited benefits.