Universal Credit receipt among working-age patients who are accessing specialist mental health services: results from a novel data linkage study

In 2013, Universal Credit (UC) was introduced by the UK Government. Understanding of how UC provision is allocated among people with mental disorders, and its intersection with protected characteristics is limited. This study aimed to explore (1) how UC receipt, including UC conditionality regime, varied among users of specialist mental health services between 2013 and 2019 and (2) associations between sociodemographic and diagnostic patient characteristics and UC receipt.